Problems with an old PC.

Hey guys,

Wondering if any of you could point me in the right direction with a problem with a pc handed to me.

Its an old machine, looks like its been self-built at some point.

When it gets turned on, the cpu and case fan run, the keyboard lights come on, both of the 2 dvd drives light up, and the floppy light comes on (floppy light stays on too).

Hard drive appears to spin as well.

Problem is, nothing appears on the attached screen, and after a few seconds, there is a second long beep from the mobo, silence for about 6 seconds, another second long beep, silence etc etc.

The pc's mobo is a via SV266A, running windows xp on 256MB DDR333 RAM (old i know, but the owner only uses it for checking emails and typing letters etc). The owner of the pc doesnt have the mobo manual, and i cant seem to find one anywhere.

I've tried disconnecting all of the unecessary parts to see if I could isolate the problem (even tried turning the pc on without RAM attached which gave me a different beep code, which I feel was probably telling me no RAM was attached). Have also tried attaching the RAM to different slots.

Any educated guesses as to what the problem is? I'm hoping its just a new RAM module, put have in the back of my mind that its probably a mobo or processor issue.

Cheers,

A puzzled Hammie

Welcome to Dev Shed.

As for the floppy drive having a constant light, the floppy cable is probably reversed inside the computer.

In regards to the beeps, based on what I could find, seems as though it's probably a memory problem. Do you have other memory modules you can use to test with?

Thanks for the speedy response Hiker.

Unfortunately I dont have a spare memory module, but fingers crossed I'll take it to a local repair shop on Monday and ask them to throw one in, on the off chance that its the problem.

The pc's been a pain of a strip, and I was regretting saying i'd do it.

Thanks again.

A slighty relieved Hammie