what does this mean?

You don't give much to work with. Probably bad memory.

<font color=blue><b>You get what you pay for...all advice here is free.</b></font color=blue>

bad RAM! try reseating the DIMMs or switching the slots.

<font color=red>Nothing is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

Why? Not needed to just test the MB, enter BIOS, etc.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

If all you have is a mobo/Proc, PSU, and RAM attached, those beeps indicate no drives are being found by the CMOS and/or there is no Video BIOS found. Basically, it is the mobos way of saying HTF do you expect to SEE anything, not to mention BOOT the system up to a point where you can even USE the RAM. RAM problems, if you have them, will start to show themselves almost immediately once you start to actually write to RAM (ie install an OS, etc.). Those beeps are simply telling you the system cannot find enough things to constitute a system, so you either A) Need to give me something OR B) Replace what you HAVE given me, because it sucks.

Just putting a mobo/Proc with RAM on a PSU isn't going to tell you anything about the RAM.

Well, heh, I didn't know you had a video card installed, as you didn't mention that. You shouldn't need anything else attached but PSU, mobo/Proc, RAM, and Video in order to access the BIOS setup. The beeps are specific to the BIOS used (AMI, Award, etc.). After considering your problem, I need to amend my statement. If you are getting those beeps immediately with VIDEO attached, than it might just be your RAM. I was under the impression you had just turned the system on with nothing but proc and RAM on, and therefore assumed it was a video thing. Just look up the beep codes for the mobo you are using. So yes, you CAN tell something is wrong with your RAM in that case, sorry for being unclear.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Xynok on 03/12/02 12:20 PM.</EM></FONT></P>