PC Trouble

Recently, I moved my PC over a bit to make room on my desk so I could work on my art contest challenge, and to keep a picture on screen that I could refer to, but after moving it over, for some odd reason, I find that it will no longer load, and just loudly beeps thre times and does nothing, and the moniter doesnt even turn on. Ive opened the case, and nothing seems to be disconnected (But there is a large amount of dust)

It has no access to the internet, so I doubt it could be a virus, so would anyone have any idea what could be wrong? I appreciate it

EDIT: Its working, I put in a floppy disk and turned it on, and i loaded and went to the "NON SYSTEM DISK" thing. I ejected it, and it loaded fine, I then restarted the machine, and its working...wonder what the hell went wrong with it..

Hmm... that is odd. At first it sounded almost as if a memory stick had gotten dislodged(I dunno why but that happened a lot with an old computer of mine... move it and you would have to make sure the memory was all the way in).

However, I got no clue why it would do as you discribed.

As a note, if you haven't already clean out the computer(dust wise)... they don't like dust very much.

Yeah, I also cleaned it out as much as possible (I'll have to get someone to fully clean it out, I have basically no knowledge as to the guts of a PC and how to remove parts to clean under/around them) however after cleaning it it still didnt start.

Since its now working, I can seriously start on my art challenge..

Usually a can of compressed air(or in our case we use our air compressor on a low setting) is plenty.

My sisters computer started up a dustbowl when I turned the compressor on it :P.

Anyways keep an eye on it. An apparant resolval doesn't mean it is resolved, they have a habbit of getting you when you most need it to work.

(note: I dunno if this is the case with you motherboard however, a recent one I worked on the three beeps and not loading of the monitor was a memory error. However, as long as we didn't move it about much it appeared to work fine. But, about a month or two later the memory slots died on us and we needed a new motherboard. Worst case scenario but figured I would mention it. Would be nice if your manual said what the beep codes are, so we could see what the three beeps were telling us what was wrong. I have ran into some weird beep codes before so I don't like assuming that the three beeps indicates a memory error here like it did wiht one of my others.)

Sadly, I got the PC second hand as a replacement for my ancient 100MHz Pentium, and it didnt come with a manual. I guess I better get it looked at in the near future.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it

The X beeps + no screen sounds like the video card might have been loose in it's slot, so I'd double check :p You might as check all other cards/memory/cables are secure in their appropriate slots and not slightly dislodged :p

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Originally Posted by cl_out

The X beeps + no screen sounds like the video card might have been loose in it's slot, so I'd double check :p

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*Smacks head* that could be it too, though I have never had that issue myself.

What is the pattern of the beeps? Three short, three long? That could help. My problem, was a peice of lin which stuck to my processor (under the heatsync). So rip off the processor fan, and blow the crap outta the heatsync. Remove that then take out the processor (carefully) and check it for any burnage and look for any dust in the socket or processor. When you put on the processor, make sure you put it on the right way. Before you take the processor out of the socket, grab a perminant marker, and put a dot in the upper right hand corner of the backend of the proc. whew.

Make sure you have an hour or two uninterupted so you don't walk away druing the project.

Bipper

If you're going to go as far as removing the heatsink from the processor, make sure you have some thermal paste or similar to reapply before putting them back together :p

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Originally Posted by bipper

What is the pattern of the beeps? Three short, three long? That could help.

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Unfortunately the pattern and number differs from BIOS to BIOS :p

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Originally Posted by cl_out

If you're going to go as far as removing the heatsink from the processor, make sure you have some thermal paste or similar to reapply before putting them back together :p

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Definately. Actually I probably need to get myself some thermal paste. *sigh* more I have to save up for.

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Originally Posted by cl_out

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Originally Posted by bipper

What is the pattern of the beeps? Three short, three long? That could help.

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Unfortunately the pattern and number differs from BIOS to BIOS :p

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That is true. My freind had one motherboard(I don't think I ever managed to find the manufacture of it) that had some really wacky beep codes. It burnt out before I got to play with it overly much so I dunno if it was setable in bios of if the person who gave it to my freind knew some fancy tricks. Anyways it would play the beeps in rythems. Such as loose memory played something that resembled jingle bells(come on it only gots long and short beeps to play it with. but it was pretty cool :P).

And right before it cooked(something on the motherboard smooked and blackened) it, according to my freind, played something that errily resembled a dirge. However, since I wasn't there when that happened and by the time he got it to me it wouldn't even try to start back up, it could be that my freind was pulling my leg. Namely I wonder that cause the mobo when it got to me was in bad shape(stunk like smoke when the case was opened and the power supply when tested would fry anything connected to it); so I got to wonder how it had time to play anything.

But yeah from trying to trouble shoot my freinds question of "what does it mean if your computer plays jingle bells at you?" I have learned always to ask what the individual's beep codes are before coming to any conclusion :P.

Not so sure about jingle bells, but a repeating 1 long beep and 3 short beeps seems to mean a problem with the video card in some older BIOSes :p

You know, a lot of what you guys made my head spin..Ill get a friend to look at it, as he actually knows about the guts of computers, I only know about the software..

Thnks anyway, I hope its just a loose video card and not a dying motherboard, I cant afford a new PC, not for a few years..