RAM failure, computer gives out no video

petemyster · 23 Oct 2011 at 12:36

I woke up this morning and all of a sudden my computer won't output any video. Whenever I go to turn on the computer I get 1 long beep followed by 3 short beeps, which apparently means there is a RAM failure. The computer continues to boot normally and I can hear the windows login sound.

I have 2 sticks of RAM and I have tried switching them to the other's slot and reboot, but I still get the failure. I don't understand why its not outputting any video though? Or why it continues to boot into windows normally?

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do, or should I accept fate and buy new RAM sticks? The computer is coming up 4 years old by the way.

I have an Asus P56 motherboard and 2 sticks of Dominator 2GB ram

GTO656 · 23 Oct 2011 at 13:01

Try put either one of the RAMs in and see what happens? are you using HDMI? try VGA and see if there any video signals.

petemyster · 23 Oct 2011 at 13:28

GTO656 said:
Try put either one of the RAMs in and see what happens? are you using HDMI? try VGA and see if there any video signals.

Thanks for the tip. I have 2 sticks of ram and 4 slots, and I have tried putting each stick of ram in the computer on its own, in each of the 4 slots, still get the beep code at the start.

I am using HDMI at the minute so to try the VGA idea I'm going to have to go hunting for my cable! I have 2 monitors and I have tried using both monitors individually and both don' display anything, so its not a monitor issue either

Thanks

spleenharvester · 23 Oct 2011 at 13:40

1+3 beeps is VGA failure, I usually encounter it in reflow-killed cards. Plug into the onboard GFX I bet it outputs there.

petemyster · 23 Oct 2011 at 13:47

spleenharvester said:
1+3 beeps is VGA failure, I usually encounter it in reflow-killed cards. Plug into the onboard GFX I bet it outputs there.

Are you sure? This site suggests 1+3 is Memory Failure http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

I don't think my motherboard has an onboard graphics card either :O

EDIT: Just found a site that also says 1+3 is "No video card or bad video RAM". What should I do?

Surveyor · 23 Oct 2011 at 14:31

petemyster said:
EDIT: Just found a site that also says 1+3 is "No video card or bad video RAM". What should I do?

Try the video card in another PC to check if it's faulty.

petemyster · 23 Oct 2011 at 14:33

Surveyor said:
Try the video card in another PC to check if it's faulty.

Unfortunately I am in a family full of laptops, will have to get my hands on a friends PC tomorrow then. Thanks for the help everyone, looks like its going to be a long day of reddit for me on my laptop!

Thanks again.