one long beep, long pause, one long beep, long pause, over and over

[skipper]

I am trying to start up a PC. All I get is one long beep (1 sec), then a longer pause (3 secs), then long beep again, long pause, and pattern continues without end. It does this both in and out of the case.

When out of the case, nothing connected but power and vid card. Of course, there is no video. Even without vid card the beeps are the same.

First time I powered it up, I noticed the cpu fan was not running. Immediately pulled the plug. Realized I had forgotten to plug in the four pin cpu power plug elsewhere on the motherboard (cpu fan was plugged in). I did have all of the 24 pin plug in.


specs are:
K8N Neo 3
AMD64 3000+
1 GB Kingston Mem
Thermaltake 430W PSU
Radeon 7500 vid


Ideas?

[Cricket]

That beep pattern sounds like either the CPU isn't recognized or supported by the motherboard or the RAM is incompatible.

Cricket

[skipper]

Thanks for the reply Cricket.
The motherboard, cpu, and memory all ran together before and have not been separated since new. They are now with a different power supply. The psu was also working well before in a different case though that motherboard did not require anything but the 20 pins of the 24 pin power connector and no other cpu power.
My son had bought a new case, motherboard, memory, and cpu. He took the powersupply and vid card from the case leaving me what I am trying to restart with a different power supply and vid card. Hence the problems described above.

Could the initial start without the 4 pin cpu power have caused a problem (damaged cpu)? Only lasted couple seconds before I noticed the fan not turning and pulled the plug. Also, wondering if the psu is bad - though not having a problem with the lesser motherboard before?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by skipper My son had bought a new case, motherboard, memory, and cpu. He took the powersupply and vid card from the case leaving me what I am trying to restart with a different power supply and vid card. Hence the problems described above.

Have you tried a different video card yet?

Originally Posted by skipper Could the initial start without the 4 pin cpu power have caused a problem (damaged cpu)?

No, that wouldn't be the cause of the problem.

Originally Posted by skipper Also, wondering if the psu is bad?

It's a possibility.

Have you tried clearing the CMOS yet?

Cricket

[skipper]

Cricket,
I did try CMOS clear by battery removal method for 15-20 mins.
I also have tried two video cards known to be good just prior to use in this box. One card is PCI. The other is AGP, though this board is picky about AGP and this card may not be on it's list of compatible cards. Learned of this previously and my son bought and used a PCI-E card.
In every case the beep pattern upon start is the same.
Thanks for the reply.
Other suggestions?

[Cricket]

Is the motherboard in or out of the case right now?

You got the same beeping with no RAM, video card or anything else connected to the motherboard except the CPU and the power supply? If so, the motherboard may have gone bad. Check the capacitors on the motherboard for leaking or bulging.

Cricket

[skipper]

Cricket, thanks for yet another reply. I now have it working. Here is what I did. (Your reply somehow reminded me I had not done a ground up test.)

You asked if everything was out of the case which it was and only the vid card, memory, and power were attached. I took out both mem sticks and got the same beep codes as before. I put back in one stick. Got same beep code. Took it out and put in the other. Meanwhile, I realized that though the data cables were not connected to the board, the psu was still connected to the drives. So I unplugged power from the drives (remember they were already disconnected to data).
It booted up! Went to the point telling me I needed to enter setup - I suppose because it detected nothing.
So, I put back in the second mem stick. Booted again to the point before. Then I connected power to the floppy and two hdd's. Booted again to the same point. Then I attached the IDE cable for the floppy and then the hdd's. Booted again but went further to the point of starting Windows only to reach a blue screen because I suspect the hd had not run with this board and cpu before. So, I connected power to the cdrom's. Booted partially into Windows again. Then connected IDE cable for the cdrom's. Booted again partially into Windows (W2K Pro). So, I grabbed the W2K CD and did a repair. Now it all works. Did all of this outside the case.
Then put all back into the case and is working normal. Go figure this one.....


Only thing I can figure might be that the PSU has a problem with one set of plugs that I might have had previously in the cdrom's. I may have changed to a different pair this last go 'round. Or the several iterations of working the memory may have cleaned up a connection previously working but disturbed when I moved the board around.

Anyway, I guess the bottom line is perseverance. Now if someone could help me with my other thread on my other computer....http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=183249

Thanks, Cricket.

[doubledragon5]

That links brings us right back here...

[skipper]

Yes, I have lost my mind.
Thanks Dragon.
Try this.........http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=183218