Boot problems

[Raimag]

When I try to boot a PC my friend recently gave me, the BIOS beeps go on forever, and the monitor gives no response at all. This lead me to believe the video card was messed up. So I opened up the tower, and couldn't even find a video card. There IS a place to plug in the monitor on the tower, and there is a big empty slot in the tower with two plastic clips on the side; is this where a video card is supposed to go?

 

[Jake75]

You say there is a place to plug the monitor?
You probably have one of those "performance systems" with built in graphics.

Well, ask your friend if the computer is supposed to work in the first place.
HE should know what the problem is, assuming the computer worked before he gave it to you.

This is my old <font color=blue>Downdated</font color=blue>, <font color=green>Uneatable</font color=green> & <font color=red> rotten </font color=red> sig.

 

[Raimag]

The reason he gave it to me was to see if I could figure out WHY it didn't work.

But yeah, there is a place to hook the monitor to the tower, which goes into this little red box on the motherboard, and about an inch from that (not connected) there is this big black empty slot.

 

[Jake75]

If the video connector is located on the motherboard (besides the Midiport and PS2 ports) you most likely have the graphicscard built into the motherboard.
(from your description I asume it is)

The big black empty slot is most likely a PCI slot or in worst case a Slot 1 CPU slot...if it is empty, you don´t have a CPU and that´s not good (and probably it explains why it beeps all the time)

How old is this computer?
Any name on it?

This is my old <font color=blue>Downdated</font color=blue>, <font color=green>Uneatable</font color=green> & <font color=red> rotten </font color=red> sig.

 

[Raimag]

The big empty slot is apparently an ISA slot.

The computer is relatively new, 3 months old perhaps. The tower case says "Premier" on it.

With all of my other computers, the monitor is hooked up directly to the video card, which is near the modem on all of them; on this one, the monitor hook up is up near the mouse and keyboard hookups.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Raimag on 06/20/02 02:32 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[rubikian]

The beep could be the ram is loosen or not connected properly. Or else it could be the CPU FSB was set too high, I mean overclocked to the limit where the CPU cannot process. Try set the jumper to default, check the motherboard FSB settings. Hope your friend also gave you the motherboard manual.

 

[Raimag]

I checked the RAM; that didn't seem to be the problem.

He gave me no motherboard manual.

 

[chuck232]

What type of computer is it? PII, PIII, Athlon, Duron?

What's the deal with lampshades, I mean it's a lamp, why would you want a shade?

 

[rubikian]

Did you check the jumper? check if the bus speed is set correctly... I remember that my P3 ASUS board would give me a long non stop beep if I set the FSB way too high. It could have happen to yours as well...