Old PC won't boot

[guitarman]

So, a few problems with the old PC yesterday. Got the blue screen of death more than once. Ran a virus check, Adaware, Norton check utilities with no issues.

This morning it took 6 attempts to get it to boot up then it promptly fell over. The next attempt started it in safe mode but even then it wouldn't complete the boot cycle.

Now when I power the PC up it beeps every few seconds so I can't even use the rescue disks and won't do anything else.

It's an 5 year old PIII.

Ideas?

Cheers

Dick

 

[ianf]

Beeps means there's something wrong with the HW stopping it from completing selftests.

If you are comfortable in opening it up, make sure all the components that are plugged into the motherboard are seated right (memory, video card etc.) The pattern of beeps you can google for if you know the motherboard model no.

Hoover out any dust, and reseat the memory/pci cards and it might be o.k. for a bit.

 

[cookie]

what he said.

 

[DrAlf]

Yeah, what he said too

 

[guitarman]

OK, just one problem...

What's a hoover? I've heard it's something that girlies use

Worth a punt though.

Watch this space.

Cheers

Dick

 

[trotsky]

Dick

Beep codes - http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm some of those at the bottom of the page are just silly...

Generally, if you are getting a beep as part of the power on then the video card is the problem. Almost everything else results in a dead computer.

 

[guitarman]

Dick

Beep codes - http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm some of those at the bottom of the page are just silly...

Generally, if you are getting a beep as part of the power on then the video card is the problem. Almost everything else results in a dead computer.

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately my repeating beep is only listed under IBM Bios and I think mine's award bios.

Cleaned it all up and made sure all the cards and memory were seated properly but still no joy.

Removed a good deal of guff from the fan though and when it starts up the fan seems to hesitate and then doesn't appear to spin very fast - any chance it could be that?

Thanks a lot for your input so far guys

Cheers

Dick

 

[Fanum]

Removed a good deal of guff from the fan though and when it starts up the fan seems to hesitate and then doesn't appear to spin very fast - any chance it could be that?

The fan spinning slowly in itself obviously wouldn't cause the problem Dick, but it could have caused the CPU to overheat...if that's fried, you'll probably be stuffed, unless you can find someone with an old chip.....they don't sell those anymore

The good news is you can buy a really good machine that will do anything you're likely to want for 300 quid now

 

[cookie]

modern pentiums slow down then shut down if they overheat, so do not burn out. not sure about older PIII series.

long shot: if you have 2 sticks of RAM, you could try booting with each in turn to eliminate faulty RAM being the cause.

 

[guitarman]

I've got a guy coming to look at it today. No fee no fix (but I bet if it's fixed it's big fee for all the no fee time he spends )

I'll have a go at the memory thing later before he gets here.

btw Trotsky, I swapped the video card and it made no difference.

Cheers

Dick

 

[Iain Hogg]

Sorry Dick, just drove past your house and should have dropped in to give my £0.02

However, the desire to get in and out of Brighton by car before it was "full" overwhelmed me so now I'm back home again.

Hope you get it sorted, if not give me a shout later - I've got a large pile of old PC parts next to me and I'm sure we could get it up and running again!

Iain

 

[guitarman]

Sorry Dick, just drove past your house and should have dropped in to give my £0.02

However, the desire to get in and out of Brighton by car before it was "full" overwhelmed me so now I'm back home again.

Hope you get it sorted, if not give me a shout later - I've got a large pile of old PC parts next to me and I'm sure we could get it up and running again!

Iain

Thanks Iain but just as well you didn't drop in as I've been out since 9 this morning and only just got back! I'll give you a call.

Cheers

Dick