beep.beep.beep....comp dead, plz help!

[DaveGOD]

arghh my 4yr old comp has died on me, when i turn it on i hear the psu+cpu fans get going, HDD starts to spin, CD-Rom LED blinks, floppy led blinks... so far so normal, but then it just starts beeping, about once a second, and doesnt boot, nothing on screen at all. any ideas guys??

it did actually crash last time i was using, but that was IE so nothing unusual there. i have a sneaky suspicion its the BIOS.

im just waiting for my VISA bill before i build a new one anyway, though i wont see some of the bits for several weeks and this machine would have been fine for my parents.

no laughs plz : P200mx; 48mb EDO Ram; Pine PT-7511 (i430TX) mobo; Am. Megatrends BIOS

is there anyway to reset the BIOS to factory default using jumpers or whatever, i considered removing the battery for a little while and changing jumpers to "discharge CMOS" but i dont know about this stuff, and the manual seems to be translated into english from japanese - by someone who speaks neither.

Yossarian lives<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DaveGOD on 10/24/01 06:27 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[DaveGOD]

thanks guys, i knew you could do it ;p hehe

right, out comes that battery.

Yossarian lives

 

[pr497]

i think im responding a little late but anyways....check your video card, it may be defective or it could have been "magically" dislodged from the agp slot (assuming you have an agp vid card). just remove your vid card and put it back in and boot your system. hopefully it works. if that doesnt work, then "borrow" someone's vid card and test it on your comp, if it works, then you should get a new vid card, if it still doesnt work, then i have no idea what's wrong with your comp.

I don't claim to know anything about everything, I just tell people what I know.
-PSB

 

[pr497]

btw...thats a pretty old computer you got there. but i have an older system (that i obviously dont use it anymore, i let my dad play solitare on it).
its a 486 sx 25 mhz
16mb edo ram
1.3 gb hd (upgraded from 100! mb)
and suprisingly, a 1x cd rom
as of next year, it will be 10 years old...which is older than the cars most people drive

I don't claim to know anything about everything, I just tell people what I know.
-PSB

 

[Crashman]

Hmmm, I've never owned a car that was less than 10 years old. Even a ten year old car cost in the thousands of dollars!

Back to you Tom...

 

[lhgpoobaa]

heh.
im 25... and my car is 31

Religious wars are 2 groups of people fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.

 

[buckman666]

usually, the [-peep-] beep beep beep without stop say that a scsi problem is here, but i see you dont have scsi on that... thing.i'll guess a video card problem or a memory trouble.

 

[pr497]

looks like somebodies gotta stop buying computer stuff and spend some of that money on a new (or newer) car


I don't claim to know anything about everything, I just tell people what I know.
-PSB

 

[DaveGOD]

pulling battery out and changing jumpers to discharge CMOS didnt do anything . i notice that if i pull out the floppy connector or put a floppy disk in, it changes beeps to er, double beep. wouldnt it be great if theyd just go one step further and use morse code?

thanx for the vid card tip ill try it, though i already tried pushing all my cards/cables in to make sure none were loose... worth a try. shame i cant try another card cos its PCI and everyones got AGP.

Yossarian lives

 

[DaveGOD]

damn no success... im beginning to be suspicious about the floppy drive though, the beeping changes when its disconnected or has a disc in it, even if i put the floppy disc in when its already beeping, it changes beep.

unfortunately i cant borrow a flpooy drive, my flatmates (er, "roomies" or something), well one has a LS120 thing and the other has a laptop lol. i'll see what my computery shop says and see if theyll let me 'borrow' one.

Yossarian lives

 

[DaveGOD]

still no luck on this, can a duff floppy drive possibly cause this problem?? ive never heard of a floppy drive doing anything other than not reading a floppy or simply not being recognised, but the crash happens like 1/2 a second after it tries to read the drive, and the floppy led stays on...

Yossarian lives

 

[louie2001]

DId you say the screen stays blank?
Count the beeps and listen for a pause before they
start again.Then go here.
<A HREF="http://www.ami.com/support/doc/beep_codes.pdf" target="_new">http://www.ami.com/support/doc/beep_codes.pdf</A>
Sounds like the BIOS has died!Possably the video!

Rock out with your AMD out <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by louie2001 on 10/27/01 07:31 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[DaveGOD]

nice one m8, will give it a try

Yossarian lives

 

[DaveGOD]

i gave up counting after 60, they only list up to 11 (hmm) ill try my memory again but i think im computerless

thanx anyway m8

Yossarian lives

 

[louie2001]

I kind of thought it was the BIOS.
I had a PCCHIPS BIOS flash go wrong,
and all it did was beep at me like
you are describing.The change in beeps
when you have a disk in the floppy,may be due
to the BIOS looking for a flash file on the disk.
The first 32k(not sure if # is right)is
suppose to be protected in case of a bad flash,
in order to recover your BIOS.
Just a thought.

Rock out with your AMD out

 

[DaveGOD]

oooooooo, so if i can get a flash file onto a floppy, i might be able to get it working???? i did actually look at the AMI site (the PINE support site is a joke) though i couldnt figure what BIOS ver i have, seeing as the bleedin mobo manual doesnt say .....sh_it, i just thought, maybe it says on the chip... ill see how this lead pans out

with no small amount of irony, can i point out the friends' comp im currently using has a floppy drive that doesnt work... lmao.

Yossarian lives

 

[buckman666]

if you have a lot of time, try each things in a different computer. or unplug all your device, except hdd + video card.

get a pci (or even isa, if you find one) video card to test it. got a isa with an old 386 for 5 bucks

 

[DaveGOD]

some nice guy at Pine sent me the flash files, i stuck them on floppy - didnt do anything. I put them on boot floppy, same problem. He states theres no way to flash the BIOS if it wont boot

i already tried disconnecting everything that aint vital, and since i have 4 ram chips i tried diff combos of them too. i used jumpers to clear CMOS (all that happens when you turn on like that is, well nothing at all). checked every component in its place and so on. nowt worked. im almost 100% sure its the mobo/bios thats the problem... looks like since i cant boot up, i cant flash, so mobo is unfixable
much thanks anyway guys

Yossarian lives

 

[buckman666]

yeah, it seems a bios problem. the fact is, on very old Mobo (and new one too) the chip is easy to replace. it cost much more than the value of the old comp. try find another old mobo or another chip but... good luck anyway.

p.s. you must know when to throw it to garbage, nothing is eternal

 

[Guest]

"some nice guy at Pine sent me the flash files, i stuck them on floppy - didnt do anything. I put them on boot floppy, same problem. He states theres no way to flash the BIOS if it wont boot "

Well, that techie is full of ...., try reading here, beyond the point where another say the same.

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1</A>

 

[DaveGOD]

superb mate, ill give the ctrl+home thing a go, that is once i figure out what ive done to the infernal machine now lol

[edit: i set jumpers to reset cmos and removed the battery and power cable, then ran off to play soccer for a couple of hours. now only the fans come on...sh!t... ill fiddle with it a bit, post what happens sometime later ]

Yossarian lives<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DaveGOD on 10/31/01 03:25 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[DaveGOD]

i solved what id done that time, battery in wrong way round (doh).

i tried this "blindfold" method, copied the rom file and renamed it newbios.rom (so theres both the original name and the newbios.rom file on teh floppy). held <ctrl>+<home>, powered on, released the keys soon as floppy led came on.... no difference, same problem - it didnt work

btw, the boot disk i used was made by 'ERU' which is on the W95 CD. should i download one from bootdisk.com? im a bit worried about messing about with boot and bios files on my friends $2000 laptop... i could make a boot disk on this machine, though itd be w98, and copy straight over my autoexec.bat, command.com etc...

Yossarian lives

 

[DaveGOD]

at that other thread theres also another link, in the FAQ it points to, part of it says:

-= 1.4 RECOVER BIOS =-

If for whatever reason you ended up with misflashed BIOS, check to see if the floppy drive light goes on when you power up. If it does, it's your lucky day, there'a a 95% chance you'll recover it. Follow this instructions:

1. Format a floppy disk
2. Copy the .rom file to the floppy
3. Rename the file AMIBOOT.ROM
4. Put the floppy in and turn on
5. Wait while the floppy is being read
6. Wait until you hear 4 beeps (usually <1 min, 5 min at most)
7. Turn off and on again

IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. Format the floppy the slow way, no quick format.
2. Don't copy any extra files, just the .rom file.
etc

im going to try this method also, i hope im not that other 5%



Yossarian lives

 

[DaveGOD]

this is being written on a comp that 20 mins ago i thought was heading towards the bin.
the other method i posted last time (above) works

the full link to the faq (btw, as was pointed out this is for a specific mobo but theres a lot of info that is quite general) is:

http://forum.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=000697

link was provided by harley in the other post

this method is for AMI bios's, i guess the other method is for a different BIOS maker...

much much thanks everybody, i have a comp again

Yossarian lives

 

[Guest]

Yes remove battery and clear cmos with jumpers, but don't put same battery back into that thing. Get yourself a new battery son, it's probably gone dead on you. Your guess of a bios problem was correct, but it's the bios battery not the bios itself. It could also be the CPU has gone bad also, but I would start with the battery first as it is cheap to replace. Good luck with the diagnosis.