My *even older* PC wont boot - single long beep on powerup

Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
37,171
Location
In acme's chair.
Hi guys, so my Athlon 6000+ PC still isn't sorted, so I figured I would put another old rig together again in the mean time. (has been in bits in a box for yonks)

When I turn it on I get a single long beep, and no display output.
Any ideas what could be causing this?

I have tried with each stick of RAM individually, and two different graphics cards.

Specs are as follows: (she's a beast :D, her name is Tails ;))

Pentium 4 Northwood 2.8GHz
Coolermaster Aquagate Viva watercooling w' custom mounting
AOpen AX4PER-GN (skt478)
2GB DDR (1x 1GB Zeppelin DDR400 & 1x 1GB Kingston DDR333 - both used to run happily at 400MHz if I recall correctly, if not, 333MHz)
Asus 6800GT 512MB (AGP) - [spare I used to test was a known working ATI 9550 256MB]
250GB WD2500 (IDE)
400W EZ COOL

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. If I recall correctly, I had this problem before - a long time ago - but I can't remember what I did to remedy it.

Cheers all :D

*Update* see post #4
 
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OK there has been a strange progression. I tried to power on the system without anything plugged in (not even the VGA cable) and it posted. I then plugged in the VGA cable and the keyboard after posting and everything came up on the display as normal. It now seems to post etcetera normally having configured the BIOS settings.

However the system detection (particularly the IDE detection and the time between the IDE detection completing and the boot continuing) are far far longer than they should be, it feels like the system is struggling to do *anything*. Could the large (by 2003 standards) 250GB HDD be causing the slower process? I am used to using the system with an 80GB WD800.

I just tried to boot from disk with a windows 8 instalation DVD, it got as far as showing the windows 8 logo, hung for a minute or so, and then displayed the message "Your PC needs to restart, please hold down the power button. Error code 0x0000005D" and 4 or 5 parameters.

After restarting by holding down the power button and pressing it again, the above process loops.

*edit* just discovered that Windows 8 isn't compatible with this CPU because it doesn't support 'NX bit'. Huh... Well thats odd. Will try Windows 7.
*edit again* epic failiure, my Windows 7 disk is 64bit only :D Thats no good...
 
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OK so it seems that I can't install Windows on the 250GB for whatever reason (and it was also the reason for the slow boot), so I am going to set it as the slave drive, and I have my trusty WD800 80GB as the primary master & boot drive.

The 6800GT is dead... Which is a shame because with a 9550 in it, this PC is basically useless for anything except browsing and desktop publishing.

I could play modern games on it as it was in 1280x1024 :D
 
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Lazder said:
I would just throw "tails" out to skip-yard... because what is it worth?? 10 pounds? Only issue is that how you going to access data on IDE driver.
Click to expand...

Easy now, Tails isn't going anywhere :D

Thats my first proper PC this side of a GUI. She's been with me a long time haha. With the 6800GT and an OC on the CPU you can still play modern games in 1280x1024 if you drop the settings right down. :rolleyes:

Unfortunately the 6800GT is now dead, which partially invalidates my argument, but never mind that.

IMAG0592_zpse5b8488e.jpg


Lazder said:
You are mad trying to install windows 8 on a 2003 system -.-
Click to expand...

Last time I had it up and running it had Windows 7 x86 on it, and it ran absolutely fine ;)

616775_441922392497710_1595571988_o_zpscf49bbdb.jpg
 
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I've been tempted to rebuild an old PC ever since I found my old 3DFX card, I can't even remember exactly what it is, I'm fairly sure it was 12mb, there's no clues on the board either, just the 3DFX logo and the serial number IIRC, and it's AGP I think!
 
Rob Turbo said:
I've been tempted to rebuild an old PC ever since I found my old 3DFX card, I can't even remember exactly what it is, I'm fairly sure it was 12mb, there's no clues on the board either, just the 3DFX logo and the serial number IIRC, and it's AGP I think!
Click to expand...

That's a fair bit older than this system hehe :p
 
Just a bit! I think I've got even older than that in the loft, and I'm fairly sure there's an old Sanyo up there as well, silver thing with green text monitor!
 
Rob Turbo said:
Just a bit! I think I've got even older than that in the loft, and I'm fairly sure there's an old Sanyo up there as well, silver thing with green text monitor!
Click to expand...

Oldest computer I remember had a 12.5MHz 80286. I remember playing a game in which you had to fire a cannon ball and catch it in another cannon. I used to play it with Dad.

Neither of us knew how to use that PC properly, we had a piece of paper with a list of commands on it :D

I think it went to the charity shop when it was around that age when computers are completely worthless. (12 years old or so) Wish we had kept it now :(
 
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IDE hard drives o no i hate them
The jumper and hard drive configuration for primary slave and cable select
O my god
I felt the pain a weak ago with an atlon 600Mhz
Good luck guys
 
tres_kun said:
IDE hard drives o no i hate them
The jumper and hard drive configuration for primary slave and cable select
O my god
I felt the pain a weak ago with an atlon 600Mhz
Good luck guys
Click to expand...

I need to find my jumpers first. Do you think a woolen one will do?
 
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