troubleshooting old rig

[P4Man]

got an old P3-500 with some crappy VIA chipset and TNT2 videocard crapping out on me.. wont boot anymore, only a single, long beep that keeps, well, beeping

According to the owner, it worked fine for a few weeks (after I reinstalled it for her), then it starting rebooting/freezing, then it shut down and would occasionally boot again, now nothing anymore except for that beep.

Im suspecting the videocard, as I had to reduce that "video acceleration" slider in the videocard settings to make it play overlaid video without hardlocking, but does anyone else got a hunch before I start swapping components ?



= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Huh]

What does a long beep mean?

 

[xall]

lots of p3 system here.. they have suffer from <A HREF="http://www.badcaps.net/forum" target="_new">bad caps</A> plague. most are shuttle and abit mobo. but now they are all fine thanks to my soldering skill

are you sure that the caps on the mobo still fine (not bulging or leaking)? that would be the first thing i check..




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[P4Man]

no bulging/leaking caps

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Guest]

Even though you probably checked it what about the PSU. A PC dying slowly like that and not booting look like power issues, altough this beep my say otherwise...

Even having to lower the clock of the video card might have a link to power issues?

Just throwing some ideas but I guess you'll have to get you hands dirty

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[P4Man]

>Even though you probably checked it what about the PSU.

Havent checked anything yet, havent got any spares parts around here (currently working on my laptop)..

>Even having to lower the clock of the video card might have
> a link to power issues?

I didnt lower it, I reduced hardware acceleration settings in the troubleshooting tab of display properties. When I did that a month or so ago, i was believing it to be a driver compatibility issue (really old, not quite standard TNT2 card, which wouldnt take nvidia drivers, only windows drivers).

>Just throwing some ideas but I guess you'll have to get you
> hands dirty

Afraid so.. I was hoping someone knew the "bios beep codes", but then i guess they might be model or manufacturer dependant..

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[P4Man]

Never mind.. found this:
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/beep/

looks like a DRAM problem.. Ill try tossing around some DIMMs..

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[theholylancer]

ya sure that they arn;t SIMMs? my PIII almost had to use PIII if my dad dsin;t choose the soyo board

 

[Guest]

my PIII almost had to use PIII

Hunh?

Heh and SIMMS are muuuch older than PII'S!

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[liquidpaper007]

I think the long beep is memory or video. Try reseating your memory. Sounds like the memory went crap try another stick.

 

[theholylancer]

my PIII amlsot had to use SIMM lol (big typo)

 

[Era]

My 300MHz PII Compac had a beep beep problem some years ago, so I tossed it out of the window(fifth floor), and then built a PC for myself.

I hope this info helped. Good luck.

 

[Crashman]

There were VERY FEW Slot-1 boards that used SIMMs, all were based on old Pentium Pro chipsets and only supported 66MHz bus.

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[mozzartusm]

Ive got about 10 of these rigs and probably have had another 50 or 60 in the past. The syamproms you are describing sound like the PSU was on the edge and has finally has crapped out. The other common problem would be a stick or RAM going bad.

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