Crazy Noise

Hey,

I have a Sony VGC-RC110G Desktop that just starting making a loud noise; almost like an alarm. It's def. electronic in sound: high pitch. It occurs about 5 secs after turning it on. The computer never does turn on completely. It never even displays anything on screen. It simply starts making the constant "eeeeeee!" sound. The computer is about 3 years old now. Last formatted about 1 1/2 years ago. XP Media Center '05. I had been detecting a few bugs here and there lately, like trouble detecting USB's.

So what ya think?

Thanks.

 

Is it a continual noise or possibly a repeating noise-de-de-de-de-de etc?
If so this would be a POST(self test b4 booting) beep informing you of a malfunctioning or broken part-(memory,mobo,video-etc)
Depending upon the BIOS (usually seen at first boot screen near bottom)
here's a link to a page that explains them.
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

Didthathelpya
Petaluma

 

It's a constant beep with no pattern. From that link, it seems it would be a power supply/ loose card issue. Hmm... guess I'll open it up then.

 

Yup just make sure you are reading the codes for the correct bios for your pc.
Make sure to ground yourself, unplug the cards,wipe clean with soft cloth,make sure there is no dust in the slot before reinserting.

The 2 main problems I have dealt with alot are bad memory and bad video cards.

Memtest86 to test the memory
http://majorgeeks.com/Memtest86_d1247.html

hopefully you have another video card or an onboard one for testing

 

something else to check, is the fans. My vid card and cpu fan will make the computer beep like that if the fan is not spinning, either from a loose wire getting into it or just plain burnt out.

 

I'm looking at the inside of it now. It's incredibly dusty; gonna by a dust-off spray tomorrow and clean it up. I did check the RAM, discovered they're 2 512MB's. Pathetic. Guess I'll upgrade it a little while I'm at it. :cool

Oh, and by the way, I noticed a Panasonic 2032 3V battery in the mobo. I've never heard of a battery in a computer before, lol. Any info on that?!

 

There are always batteries inside a computer. They keep your computer's clock running, along with keeping the data that you set in your bios.

They're like those old nintendo cartridges that tell you not to repeatedly switch them on and off or else you're going to lose your save files.

 

EDIT: sorry for the double post

 

OK! My comp is up and running. It seems it was the RAM. I took em out, blew on them, and put em back in. Thinking back now, I do remember the comp displaying an error message that said "not enough memory" at one point. Now, I've already closed up the comp's side, I wanna upgrade the RAM to like a 2Gb stick. Now how do I know what kind of RAM I have already?

 

?

Go here and run there scan-Crucial.com-trusted site
http://www.crucial.com/

 

The second question about your RAM is, what do you do with your computer? Any hardcore gaming?

 

No gaming beside Age of Empires, lol. My laptop serves we well there. This is gonna be my parents comp. Just needs to turn on and run quickly.

 

I don't see any reason why you couldn't just use any cheapo RAM you find out there, but since this is on sale,
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=21778&vpn=PDC22G6400LLK&manufacture=Patriot,
you should take a look at that.
It's fast, it looks pretty cool, and it's also pretty cheap right now.

IMO you should just go ahead and replace what you have in that computer, cause from what I see, you have some pretty slow RAM in there, and just buying 1GB costs about 20 bucks.
See for yourself:
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?minorcatid=1300&subminorcatid=432
In the end however, it's all up to you. Keep in mind that NCIX is a Canadian site, so you're in luck if you live in Canada cause these guys are awesome.

 

So I've updated the RAM and it's slower by a hundred fold now....

I have a Sony Vaio VGC-RC210G. I looked it up on crucial and decided to get this from my local store: http://www.centon.com/pn/2gb800ddr2

It says it's compatible, but it's made it SO SLOW! idk, maybe my comp is just ready to crash?

 

you might want to go into your bios and set it to defaults. just to make sure the memory timings and everything is reset.

 

And how do I do that?

 

hit del during boot up (your vaio might have a different key to press) and there should be an option like load optimized defaults or something similar.