hi all,

just got back off my hols to find my bros pc does not work. before i went away his sound card had gone started to make hissing sounds the oneday completly went off. well why i was away he dicided to reinstall windows to see if that would help but it never finished the screen went black and after a restart stayed that way.
with the help off the restore disc he managed to load windows twice but since then nothing.
he then used our parents dell to wipe windows of the hdd and reinstall it, when it's in the dell it works fine, but if he puts it back into his one nothing.
earlier today when i switched it on i got long beebs until i turned it off, all the fans come on the power lights up but that is all. i have changed the ram to one i think works. but i can get nothing to happen. we had a ram fault about six months ago so are down to just the one. since i put the other ram in we get no beeps.

we are using windows xp
gigabyte motherboard
i don't know what other info you might need to help me

thankyou for your time

Hi pulley,

Installing Windows on one PC and transferring the hard drive to another would probably not work anyway - the installation process would pick up the hardware from the Dell PC which would be different to the other system.

I have had the problem you describe (constant beeping and no action) twice in the past couple of years. First time it was a dead processor, second time the motherboard had blown.

Try removing everything from that PC except the single RAM stick and the hard drive, and keep just the monitor and keyboard connected. Check the power cable to the motherboard is seated (there may be two cables - a long one and also a short one with a square connector) and then try booting up. Does it beep the same? Is there any sign of life on the monitor?

i had to keep one off the graphic cards in because the vga port is male and all my cables are male so that was the only way to keep the monitor in

the ways i have tested is

one stick of ram, hdd, one graphic card i turned the sli little board around to normal mode.
tried both the graphic card in the same slot.
tried diff rams one stick but not sure they are working.
cleared cmos tested the monitor on another computer.
the strange thing is during the testing the pc beeps when it feels like. when we had everything out it did not beep but then sometimes when everyting is in it wont beep. i can't see any damage or leaking to the motherboard. this has been going on since friday and i can't think off a single thing. i no nothing about hardware. we do have another graphic card that we brought for an old pc but it died off heat damage before we could put the new card in.
so why i wait for a reply i will try and see if that helps.

What happens with nothing connected - no RAM, no hard drive, no keyboard, no monitor?

we removed the sound card, firewire and usb port, the 2 graphic cards, the ram the hdd and the dvd drive, the monitor keyboard.
plugged the power lead in and all the fans came on the power light lit up but nothing else no beeps.
we did notice friday that a yellow and black twisted togeather wire that connects to a little box like unit. the black wire was hanging off when we reconnected the wire that is when we first started to the beeps. but the beeps are still random, sometimes we get them sometimes we don't. i don't know if the black wire has anything to do with the beeps.
we checked the motherboard manual and the info seems to say a long beep means faulty ram, we are going to get a stick off new ram. because we are not sure if the ram from the other pc even works.

thankyou for all your help sofar if you can think off anything else that can help while we wait fir the ram, that would be great.
we have a
gigabyte k8triton nforce4 sli gak8n prosli motherboard
seasonic 600w atx 2.0 nvidia cert sli/sata 4+8+24 pin psu
amd athlon 64 4000+ 2.4ghz s939 1024kb san diego
aries 1gb pc3200 ddr 400mhz dimm memory
gf 6800 xtreme 256mb ddr3 dual dvi tv pcie x2
creative sound blaster audigy 4 oem sound card

do i need the same ram as it came with or is there other types that will work with this machine

thankyou for your time

The same memory type would be a safer bet - as this one .

Can you identify the unit where the yellow/black wires connect on this photo ?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/pulley/Gigabyte-GA-K8N-Pro-SLI-sou.jpg

this is where it is on the motherboard, and as i said it goes into a little white box on the front of the case.

thanks for the link to the ram, will get onto it now

I'll keep my fingers crossed! The error beeps for an Award BIOS can be found here . Continuous beeping indicates faulty memory, so I'm hoping a new memory stick will cure the problem.

Incidentally, if you need info or drivers for that motherboard the relevant manufacturer's page is here

Oh, and the bit where your yellow/black wires connected is apparently the speaker connection, which would explain the intermittent beeps. So that's nothing serious, but quite useful nevertheless

hey little update got the new ram today, but still nothing the beeps stay the same, but only seems to beep when the keyboard is plugged in. we have tried the ram in both blue slots as i can't remember what the 2 orange ones are for.

do i need to clear the cmos or anything else or will it just pick the ram up

Going by the photos and the manual, the RAM should be in the blue slot nearest the processor.

Couple of questions:

Have you tried a different keyboard? It may be a stuck key, but then I would expect an on-screen message.

Will it boot up without the keyboard? That should certainly generate an error message.

we have an old keyboard that we have used in the past neither of them help.

without a keyboard i still hear the beeps strange yesterday i didnot. but i hear i long beep i short beep, then it just repeats the long beeps.

i sorry to take up so much off your time, i really appreciate all the help you are giving us. the only thing i have not checked is the cpu

Hi pulley,

I'm running out of options here

I have requested the opinion of Bill_Bright, a hardware expert who frequents these forums. Swapping out either the CPU or the motherboard would be costly if it didn't cure the problem so I'm trying to find a definitive way to check which is actually at fault.

Wow, it sure seems like you guys have touched all the bases. Gigabyte uses a modified beep code error system. According to your manual on page 85, the beep codes for Award BIOS motherboards are:

1 short beep - System booting normal
2 short beeps - CMOS setting error
1 long beep and 1 short beep - DRAM or motherboard error
1 long beep and 2 short beeps - Display error (monitor or graphics accelerator)
1 long beep and 3 short beeps - Keyboard controller error
1 long beep and 9 short beeps - Motherboard Flash RAM or EPROM error (BIOS damage)
Constant beeping (long beeps) - DRAM is not properly connected or damaged
Constant beeping - The graphics accelerator is not properly connected to power/monitor
Repeated short beeps - Power supply malfunctions

_________________
Bill, AFE7Ret
Freedom is NOT Free!

hi Bill_Bright

thanks for coming on to help us out

we can not get into bios as the monitor does not recive a signal

we have tried taking everything out but for
one ram
one graphics card

we don't always get beeps but when we do they start off as
one long beep followed by one short beep then Constant long beeps
but then we can turn it off and back on again and only have the constant long beeps

their have been a few times when we have to use the power switch at the back to power down as it will not turn off by normal method

i don't know if this helps any

thanks for the time and effort you guys have put in helping me out it is much appreciated

and sorry for taking so long to reply

Well, 1 long and 1 short points to RAM, as does constant longs. Since you have tested all the RAM, that, again, points to the motherboard. So now the question is, is the motherboard bad, or is something causing the motherboard to misbehave? Besides something under the motherboard, or a stray wire or the like shorting out the motherboard, the only thing left is the PSU - which I initially discarded because it is of adequate size AND from a reputable maker. But even the best have problems, and certainly a flaky PSU can manifest into some very odd symptoms.

Assuming all power and data cable connections are securely fastened, the monitor works fine on another computer, and the motherboard was properly installed (no extra standoffs or foreign objects underneath) and had been working fine for some time, I would start looking at the PSU - if nothing else, to eliminate it from the equation.

I keep a FrozenCPU Ultimate PSU Tester in my travel tool bag. It is not as good as a qualified technician testing the power supply unit (PSU) under a "true" (realistic) load with an oscilloscope or power analyzer, but close. The advantage of this model is that it has an LCD readout of the voltage. With an actual voltage readout, you can better detect a "failing" PSU, or one barely within specified tolerances. Lesser models use LEDs to indicate the voltage is just within some "range". These are less informative, considerably cheaper, but still useful for detecting PSUs that have already "failed". Newegg has several testers to choose from. All these testers contain a "dummy load" to fool the PSU into thinking it is connected to a motherboard, and therefore allows the PSU to power on, if able, without being attached to a motherboard - great for testing fans, but again, not a true load. Alternatively, you can swap out the PSU with a known good one that meets the computer's power requirements. I do not recommend using a multimeter. To do it properly, that is, under a realistic load, the voltages on all the pins must be measured while the connector is attached to the motherboard. This then requires poking (with some considerable force) two, hard and sharp, highly conductive, meter probes into the heart of the computer. Once tiny slip can destroy the motherboard, and everything plugged into it.

Use the eXtreme PSU Calculator Lite to determine your power supply unit (PSU) requirements. Plug in all the hardware you think you might have in 2 or 3 years (extra drives, bigger or 2nd video card, more RAM, etc.). Be sure to read and heed the notes at the bottom. I recommend you set Capacitor Aging to 30%, and if you participate in distributive computing projects (e.g. BOINC or Folding@Home), I recommend setting TDP to 100%. Research your video card and pay particular attention to the power supply requirements for your card listed on your video card maker's website. Then look for power supply brands listed under the "Good" column of PC Mechanic's PSU Reference List. Ensure the supplied amperage on the +12V rails of your chosen PSU meets the requirements of your video card. Don't try to save a few dollars by getting a cheap supply. Digital electronics, including CPUs, RAM, and today's advanced graphics cards, need clean, stable power. A good, well chosen supply will provide years of service and upgrade wiggle room. I strongly recommend you pick a supply with an efficiency rating equal to, or greater than 80%. And don't forget to budget for a good UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation).

If the PSU is verified good, then, IMO, the motherboard is looking like the culprit, hoping it is not the CPU too.

_________________
Bill, AFE7Ret
Freedom is NOT Free!