Memory or motherboard?

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If you haven't sorted it out yet strip the computer down to the minimum configuration. No PCI cards other than video if there is no on-board graphics, on DIMM, perhaps no hard drives either, just to see if you can reach BIOS.

If you can, either one of the removed components is suspect, or the power supply cannot support all the hardware.
 
Didn't have much time on it today, but I did clean it and took a good look inside. Caps on the MB look fine. Plan to play with moving the ram tomorrow.

It was also mentioned to be that it could be an OS issue as well. This happened shortly after a windows update (for vista) Same update done on my labtop I am on how had some odd issues a well. Even blue screened once. I set it back before that update, and it has no issues at all.

Could these updates have screwed this all up to mess up the boot up? Not sure if would still cause those beeps, but I figured I would ask.....
 
I don't see an OS issue causing the beeps and preventing you to get to the BIOS. I would say your best bet is to try pulling one of the RAM sticks like rand said and booing with just the one. Then switch the sicks and try booting with just the other.
 
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Didn't have much time on it today, but I did clean it and took a good look inside. Caps on the MB look fine. Plan to play with moving the ram tomorrow.

It was also mentioned to be that it could be an OS issue as well. This happened shortly after a windows update (for vista) Same update done on my labtop I am on how had some odd issues a well. Even blue screened once. I set it back before that update, and it has no issues at all.

Could these updates have screwed this all up to mess up the boot up? Not sure if would still cause those beeps, but I figured I would ask.....


It wouldn't hurt to look at all the caps again. The Gateway that I was referring to earlier had one bulged cap- and it was very slightly bulged. In fact I missed it the first time around and a friend was actually the one that found it.
 
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Didn't have much time on it today, but I did clean it and took a good look inside. Caps on the MB look fine. Plan to play with moving the ram tomorrow.

It was also mentioned to be that it could be an OS issue as well. This happened shortly after a windows update (for vista) Same update done on my labtop I am on how had some odd issues a well. Even blue screened once. I set it back before that update, and it has no issues at all.

Could these updates have screwed this all up to mess up the boot up? Not sure if would still cause those beeps, but I figured I would ask.....


The only "Updates" that could screw this up would be a BIOS update...and windows doesn't provide those.

You're definitely looking at something hardware related here, and RAM is the most likely culprit.
 
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I had a PC recently brought to me that was unable to boot after Windows 7 updates. Not sure what happened, but the updates made the partition unreadable. I couldn't restore anything. I'm guessing it was a bios conflict with the new windows update. Reformatted, installed all udpates, everything works fine.

I had never seen windows updates do such a thing before. I thought for sure it was a dead hard drive when I first got it.
 
6 years is good service for a computer, take the hard drive out, put it in safe keeping, then recycle the computer.

Go buy another one.

Why the headache?
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
6 years is good service for a computer, take the hard drive out, put it in safe keeping, then recycle the computer.

Go buy another one.

Why the headache?

???

Let's see, I have a 10 year old desktop that performs better than day one, a netbook that is about 9 years old, my dad has a desktop that is 8 years old and also performs better than day one...

Seriously???
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I see little need in working on an old computer. They are disposable appliances.

If that is what you want, but I will keep the $600+ I saved by not replacing mine!
 
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I see little need in working on an old computer. They are disposable appliances.

If that is what you want, but I will keep the $600+ I saved by not replacing mine!


No doubt cub scout!
 
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I see little need in working on an old computer. They are disposable appliances.

If that is what you want, but I will keep the $600+ I saved by not replacing mine!


There comes a point there isn't much you can do. Today while doing some computer work/building a computer for my grandfathers ex girlfriend, I was trying to pull data off of an old computer of hers. Afterwards, I was messing around with it. Pentium III 600Mhz, with a Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 mobo (I actually built my first computer with one of those, back in freshman year of Highschool) and a Voodoo3 PCI graphics card. I put in a newer HDD and threw windows XP on it. It was unbearably slow even just for web surfing. I couldn't even install chrome on it, because chrome requires a Pentium 4 or newer.

Maybe some people like their computers like molasses, but not me.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick R
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I see little need in working on an old computer. They are disposable appliances.

If that is what you want, but I will keep the $600+ I saved by not replacing mine!


There comes a point there isn't much you can do. Today while doing some computer work/building a computer for my grandfathers ex girlfriend, I was trying to pull data off of an old computer of hers. Afterwards, I was messing around with it. Pentium III 600Mhz, with a Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 mobo (I actually built my first computer with one of those, back in freshman year of Highschool) and a Voodoo3 PCI graphics card. I put in a newer HDD and threw windows XP on it. It was unbearably slow even just for web surfing. I couldn't even install chrome on it, because chrome requires a Pentium 4 or newer.

Maybe some people like their computers like molasses, but not me.


Nobody said anything about running like molasses. Mine runs fine- even though I did finally trade some labor for a newer box with more horsepower. My old box still screams right along- as fast or faster than my wife's newer i5/8gig ram laptop.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick R
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I see little need in working on an old computer. They are disposable appliances.

If that is what you want, but I will keep the $600+ I saved by not replacing mine!


There comes a point there isn't much you can do. Today while doing some computer work/building a computer for my grandfathers ex girlfriend, I was trying to pull data off of an old computer of hers. Afterwards, I was messing around with it. Pentium III 600Mhz, with a Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 mobo (I actually built my first computer with one of those, back in freshman year of Highschool) and a Voodoo3 PCI graphics card. I put in a newer HDD and threw windows XP on it. It was unbearably slow even just for web surfing. I couldn't even install chrome on it, because chrome requires a Pentium 4 or newer.

Maybe some people like their computers like molasses, but not me.

Like The Eric said, nobody said anything about keeping computers that run like molasses. If it ran like molasses, and there was really no cheap way to boost it to where I need it/want it, then it will get replaced. Mine happens to run pretty fast.
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: JustinH
I see little need in working on an old computer. They are disposable appliances.

If that is what you want, but I will keep the $600+ I saved by not replacing mine!


No doubt cub scout!


grin.gif



If it ends up being anything but the motherboard, there's a good chance it's going to keep right on going! Wife is a gamer, and enjoys using it. I've invested money, upgrading both the video card and the power source. And she still runs quite well...

If it's the RAM, I'm thinking of doubling the 4gigs of ram to 8gigs....that should help a bit too!

I'd give more of an update, but I forgot to take it out of my mom's van, and it's currently 3 states away....
 
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