HP Vectra VL420 MT Won't Start/beeps

Good morning all!

My HP Vectra will not power on. I was away when there was evidently a power failure (yes, the machine was left on and not connected to a surge protector). This has happened before and the machine has always powered right back on.
Now however, it gives me the dreaded beeps. There are 3 "sets" of beeps. Each set alternates a high, followed by a low tone. When the beeping begins, a tone is heard, immediately followed by the same tone, then it begins to alternate high and low for a total of 8 high/low tones (nine, if you include the first (repeated) tone). I don't know how to count this - is each set counted as 1 beep? If you look at the manual (link below), the codes this machine generates isn't there. The beep codes stop at 7.

If this IS counted as 3 beeps, according to the manual my memory is bad. I just installed another 512 plus a 133 SDRAM but the tones were still there, unchanged. Is it talking about another kind of memory?

I took the following information from the manual, which can be found here: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/lpv06569/lpv06569.pdf

HP Vectra VL420 MT
(PGA) Socket 478b
Pentium 4 Processor, Intel 845, ICH2 Chip
Audio AD 1885, Super I/O, Flash BIOS (American Megatrends)
133 MHz SDRAM
Nvidia GeForce2 MX Graphics Card

 

I guess that means that you will need to distinguish between the actual beep codes, and the troubleshooting information.

You might want to try clearing the cmos. You can do this by either uplugging the computer, removing the cmos battery located on the motherboard for about 30 minutes or using the cmos clear jumper (a little more info can be found on page 21 of your manual) . according to your manual, it's a switch? so maybe all you have to do is switch it over for a few seconds, then back to its original state.

 

TheSmokingGun-

Thank you so much for your quick response. I tried the switch, didn't work. I pulled the CMOS battery as suggested.........no dice.

Is there anything else you can think of that I can try?

 

I have recorded an audio file of the beep code, but I don't know how - or if I can - post it.....

 

you can try to make a zip file out of the audio file, and attach it to your next post.

 

Thank you again TheSmokingGun. I've attached the file. The BIOS in this machine is AMI and I checked further on the HP website and there are other codes listed. I listened very carefully to the sets of beeps again and it seems that there are a total of 10 beeps in each of 3 sets. I hope you are able to hear the file I've attached.
I then snooped a little further to see what HP said I should try before purchasing another MoBo. When attempting to turn on the machine, please note that nothing - absolutely nothing is spinning (disks, fans, etc) or giving any indication that it is starting to spin. In looking at the guts of the machine, there is one little green light above the last PCI slot on the MoBo, plus, the start button for the machine itself is also green. I cleaned all dust from the machine. When I push the start button the only thing that happens is the code. As a result, here's what I've tried:

1. Pulled the CMOS battery for 1/2 hour. Beep still occurs, unchanged.
2. Switched the No. 5 switch to on, waited several minutes, then turned back off. same result.
3. Pulled the main disk (there are two HDDs in the machine). same result
4. Pulled the graphics card. same result
5. Pulled the USB hub from the PCI slot. same result.
6. Pulled the memory stick. Nothing. Kept the old one out and put a new one in. same result. Took that one out and put another one in. same result.
7. Pulled the cables from the HDD and CD and reseated them. same result.

The beeps continue in every case with the missing component out of the machine. When I was looking around in there yesterday, I noticed that one of the pins for what I believe is the Northbridge i845 (?) is no longer attached to the Mobo. If you look at this link: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=tis09358
and scroll down to the schematic, right in the very center of the mobo you'll see a square, metal box with upright fins. It is connected to the mobo at each corner by a spring-like mechanism. Each spring hooks to the motherboard by a U-shaped piece of metal. I found that little metal connector and put it back on the mobo, reattached the spring - but it keeps popping off. Should I be scared?

 

After I posted, I didn't see that the file had attached.......I'll try again here. View attachment beep code.zip

View attachment code.zip

 

Did you get anywhere with this? My HP Vectra is making exactly the same sound on boot up and can't find out what this sound is meant to mean.

 

I listened to it, and it's definitely not like any normal post beeps. It's definitely hp's diagnostic code, and I have no way of knowing what it is.

 

hmm, i didn't notice you posted this until just now.

that's the chipset's heat sink. It helps disperse heat from the chip. your processor has on, probably with a fan attached to it, but a fan isn't really needed for the chipset. This could be the cause of your problem. a few things could be happening or could have happened.

Since that heat sink fell of somehow, you may have fried the chip. I don't think those chips have the same thermal shutdown protection as your cpu. Or, it's just overheating, and reattaching the heat sink could help it. You might need to get some thermal past and apply it between the 2 in order to help it. You might also want to look into an aftermarket cooler, since you are having a problem keeping it on. However, I don't think at this point it will help. Seeing that it's only a heat sink, and not a fan, it wouldn't overheat in such a short amount of time to just see if the thing will boot.

That heat sink could have been touching several parts of the motherboard and may have shorted something out in the process. Look for burned up resistors and the like (you can google for pictures of that if you need to)

As I said already it sounds as if the board is shot, regardless of how it happened. and I don't advise on looking for a new/used one, unless you really are not able to find something else. Most older hp models have proprietary boards, and you would probably need to look for an exact replacement, which could be hard to find, and maybe even too pricey to worry about.

 

Same thing happened to my HP Vectra VL400 Pc which I've been using for the past three/four years. All I did was unplug everything, clean/reseat all components, and it started up fine after that.

 

My problem turned out to be a duff HDD. Once removed the computer proceeded to attempt a normal bootup and the fan started spinning on boot-up again.

When placed in a different computer the computer was just dead. There must be a fault in the power connection on the HDD power connector shorting out the power! :-(

 

I just noticed the responses to this thread that have recently come in. The computer has been unplugged since my last post. I crossed my fingers and plugged it in today, but its still making those beeps. In the meantime, I purchased a new MoBo, PCU, and graphics card (just in case). I'll install them and see what happens, then let you all know. What a PIA this is!!

 

I finally installed the new MoBo, PCU and graphics card. Crossed my fingers and tried to fire it up. The good news is that the fans began spinning, the bad news is that the same exact beeping is still there. Then it powered off by itself. Nothing came up on screen either. Grrrr! I made sure that all connections were tight and that I didn't miss anything.......powered it on again and this time, the fans didn't spin up, neither did the HDDs, just the same old beeping. Any ideas???