3 long, 2 short beeps, no hard drive light, no video at start up

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silversmithy

silversmithy

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Nov 13, 2012
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Recently bought a really old AMD socket AM2 computer set-up with an Asus M2N-e motherboard. I bought it off CL really just for the case, but when I took a closer look it is a full set-up minus the HD. I cleaned it up as it was pretty dirty and put an old HD with 7 on it. The comp fires up right away and I can hear all 5 case fans going which all appear to work (has a box installed in the 3.5 bay slot with 4 knobs for fan control). At start-up the HD light never comes on, no video, and 3 beeps, one long, 2 short. I realize this may be a video card issue, (has an old pny gt 720) but also wondering if this may have more to do with not having motherboard bios/drivers installed on the HD. If so, what are the proper steps to get this done. I have done this before but was quite a while ago. Thanks for any help.
 
Solution
dork_police
Hi,

Firstly you don't need any drivers for Bios/Mobo on the HD for the pc to "post".

Obviously the computer is starting up (motherboard gets the "start" signal) but doesn't post. So we need to go through process of elimination.

What I would suggest, Strip everything out - except CPU.

So your setup should look as follows, PSU, Mobo, CPU all connected, your mobo must give beeps (this means it is looking for RAM).
Now insert the RAM and try again, if you hear 1 short beep, this means that the pc has "posted".
Continue hooking up devices 1 by 1, to identify which part is faulty, and prevents the pc from "posting"

The "post" is a motherboard feature where it does a "safety" check, to ensure everything is plugged in and working...
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dork_police

dork_police

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Hi,

Firstly you don't need any drivers for Bios/Mobo on the HD for the pc to "post".

Obviously the computer is starting up (motherboard gets the "start" signal) but doesn't post. So we need to go through process of elimination.

What I would suggest, Strip everything out - except CPU.

So your setup should look as follows, PSU, Mobo, CPU all connected, your mobo must give beeps (this means it is looking for RAM).
Now insert the RAM and try again, if you hear 1 short beep, this means that the pc has "posted".
Continue hooking up devices 1 by 1, to identify which part is faulty, and prevents the pc from "posting"

The "post" is a motherboard feature where it does a "safety" check, to ensure everything is plugged in and working (everything it needs to function as a computer).

Hope this helps.
 
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silversmithy

silversmithy

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Okay thank you. Will give that a try later today. I was not sure if the issue as the fact that the HD I put in had none of the drivers for mobo, video card, etc. Thanks for the clarification. Hopefully I can get it up and running as I intend to use mainly for old school gaming.
 
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silversmithy

silversmithy

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I'm part way there. Looks like it was incompatible memory. It boots up to a point, but issues with Windows 7 never fully loading. Gets to windows repair screen but unable to successfully repair. Going to try to do a repair install my 7 DVD and hope this corrects. I hate to lose all photos/downloads but may have to do full reinstall if other option does not work. Thanks for your help officer:)
 
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DBCooper53

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If you haven't done so already, try the RAM one at a time. By the way- POST is an acronym for Power On Self Test and probes hardware at a low level but requires no drivers.
 
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dork_police

dork_police

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Hi silversmithy,

That is great news.

The reason why windows is not booting is because your drivers are all jumbled (and probably for a different mobo etc).

What I would suggest, insert your windows DVD and do an installation (but DO NOT format/delete anything), just do a new installation, the installer will detect that there was a previous windows installation and it will create a folder under "c:\" called "windows.old".

Then you can retrieve all of your data from the "windows.old" folder.

Hope this helps :)

Kind Regards,
 
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silversmithy

silversmithy

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We'll I tried to do a custom install without deleting or formatting a partition in the hopes of keeping all of my files/photos etc. It seemed to start out okay, but then it got to the point where it states to select a drive to create a partition and the HD is not on the list. I decided to pull that drive back out and try a smaller older drive. I went into set up and all sata's were disabled. I enabled, and the changed to boot from DVD. It started out fine, but the. Got a blue screen and it stated windows had stopped to prevent damage to my computer. I realized that this hd had done this prior as it was damaged in shipping. I guess i am just a little worried, but was going to go ahead and put the good drive back in and see what happens. I don't remember having this much trouble in the past and with no way to save/back up my stuff I don't want to lose it. I did put the good he back into the older comp it came out of, and it is fine, so at least I know that it is not the issue. Would appreciate any help/advice. Thanks
 
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dork_police

dork_police

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Hi,

Well - if the Satas were disabled thats why you wouldnt be able to see the HD when doing windows install.

You will have to enable the SATAS in the BIOS, then you can just run the installer.

Dont click on custom or anything, just click on install (windows will identify that a previous windows was installed, and move everything into "windows.old" folder.

Hope this helps.
 
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