New build PC won't run.

A while ago my PC died & I eventually concluded that the mobo or CPU had gone.

I finally got all of the parts to rebuild but still have a problem. When I switch on, I get the BIOS screen then 3 short beeps & one sort of 2 tone beep which I have never heard anywhere before. The start gets to the windows splash screen then reboots. It will do this continuously.

I've checked all connections & reseated everything. The only thing I have noticed is that the 'clear CMOS' jumper setting on the motherboard is on pins 2 & 3. The manual says that this is the clear data setting, jumping pins 1 & 2 is the default keep data setting. If I put the jumper on 1 & 2 the PC will not power on at all. With 2 & 3 linked or with no jumper it runs as described above.

I appreciate that I have probably done something completely stupid somewhere but can anyone suggest where I should look?

The new bits are;
Motherboard, MSI G31M3-F.
CPU, Pentium dual core 2.5GHz.
RAM, Kingston 2Gb PC2 6400.
PSU, 500W.
Case.

I've reused;
DVD writer.
DVD player.
2 x SATA drives, 2500Gb with OS & 200Gb.
Floppy drive.
Sound card, oldish Sound Blaster.

Win XP Pro SP2.

 

This may sound silly but have you installed an OS ?

If you upgrade your motherboard, but keep your original hard drive (or use a utility such as
Norton Ghost to clone your original), your operating system installation may not have the
drivers necessary to function with your new hardware. If you're upgrading your motherboard,
chances are good that enough things are different that Windows won't be able to boot. You'll
need to reinstall Windows.

 

Bill, would that explain the strange beeps I'm getting?

I didn't reinstall windows, I was hoping it would boot OK with the old setup, if I do reinstall do you know if it will do this over the top of the old install or will it wipe everything? Although most of my data is on the 2nd SATA drive there are some e-mails & stuff I haven't backed up yet. If it has to be a new install I may temporarilly fit an IDE drive for this, recover the data, then clone the 1st SATA drive from the IDE.

 

You could run the install and use the repair function.
If you do a fresh install it will wipe the host disk.

 

I'll give that a try.

 

I've reinstalled windows, it did not give me the repair option so I've installed in a new folder. The PC now boots OK but still gives the same beeps on startup. I've installed all of the drivers that came with the motherboard, should I be worrying about this?