Well, I was just trying to take care of an "I o U" for a buddy who I owed money by trying to diagnose and fix his computer. As for the " You still dont have the skills or tools to fix the error"(which I could have done without and it didn't help any), I am currently in the process of studying for my CompTIA certification and certainly trying to learn the skills and get the tools for the job but I just want to get my foot in the door to begin with. I also figured that this would help me develop the skills that are needed. I like to work on computers in my spare time and I bought the POST card to add to my diagnostic tool collection in hopes that it would help narrow the problems down. As for the part about replacing the motherboard if all other troubleshooting failed, what else do I look for? I can't test the processor and RAM because I don't have another board that uses the same processor nor RAM. Is there anybody else that could tell me what the code is referring to exactly? Has anyone else run into this problem before? When you turn the computer on, the screen loads and the only thing that is displayed is the Compaq name in the center of a red background and in the lower left corner is listed "ver 3.12. My guess is that is the bios version. After the screen loads I get a constant steady beep with no pause between and continues until I turn it off. I unplugged everything in the end and nothing changed.