My desktop PC just beeps when I try turn it on. ?

Question

It goes "Beeep.......Beeep" and nothing displays on the monitor. It's been in storage for 2 years and I took the casing off of it and cd rom drive out of it. Does this mean it's ruined? Or will it not boot because the out casings are off of it?

It's not a major brand. I think it's running windows 98 and has a Pentium 2.

James

Answer 1

Double check that your cables are seated all the way in their respective connectors. A lot of times, when you remove a device, you jar loose one of the other cables, namely, the cable that attaches the hard drive to the motherboard. Check those, and then try to start the computer. If this doesn't help, try replacing the cmos battery as it could have died while sitting around. If neither work, it'll more than likely be your power supply or your motherboard. :(

Here's a short list of the error codes for bios. Bear in mind this is a bit generic, you might have a more specific list for your particular motherboard brand.

1 short beep Normal POST - system is ok

2 short beeps POST Error - error code shown on screen

No beep Power supply or system board problem

Continuous beep Power supply, system board, or keyboard problem

Repeating short beeps Power supply or system board problem

1 long, 1 short beep System board problem

1 long, 2 short beeps Display adapter problem (MDA, CGA)

1 long, 3 short beeps Enhanced  Graphics Adapter (EGA)

3 long beeps 3270 keyboard card  

Answer 2

The beep codes are posted on this site.

Answer 3

look up what type of computer you have then check this list for the beep codes that pertain to your bios: http://www.5starsupport.com/info/beep_co...

From what I can figure out, the battery on your mother board may need replacing. but thats just a guess at this point.

Check it out: http://www.5starsupport.com/info/beep_co...

Answer 4

Continuous beeps is usually a Ram fault or a graphic card fault. But in your case since the computer was stored and unused for a few years I would suggest that you replace the CMOS battery on the computer's motherboard.  

Answer 5

That's a BIOS POST (Power On Self Test) code.  The beeps (if it's not a single short beep) mean there's something wrong.  You will have to look up what that specific sequence means - Google the make/model of the motherboard (it should say on there somewhere) and get the manual - or Google the BIOS maker (usually... American Megatrends or AMI, Phoenix, Award, etc).  It has nothing to do with Windows - this stuff is before Windows even loads.  BIOS POST happens first before any OS loads - checks the hardware and makes sure it's ok.