onlinesupport

Hi,
It may problem with RAM. Check your RAM.

choke_det

Fall of '99 my dad buys a Gateway Performance 600xl.

Summer of '04 dad gets a virus, buys a new computer, fixes the Gateway and gives it to me.

Winter of '04 I ordered and added 128MB of RAM from Gateway, and a Geforce FX5500OC 256MB AGP graphics card.

Fast Forward to last night...

I had been on the computer for about 2 hours and all of a sudden the monitor went bzzzt, turned black and the light on front blinked abnormally. I press the button on the front of the tower for five seconds and nothing happens. I pull the plug, wait 30 seconds and plug it back in. Normally the computer will warm up for a second and remain off, but as soon as I give it power it wants to boot. I get the 1-3-3-1 series of beeps which apparently have something to do with either extended memory right? I google this and found a list of possibilities:

a) defective memory module
b) defective motherboard
c) not well seated memory module
d) incompatible memory module installed

I ruled out d) since the modules have been installed for four years now. I start with possibility c and reseat both modules, still get the 1-3-3-1 beeps. I try a combination of positions until finally the memory stick installed by the factory is in bank 0 and my "new" stick is in bank 2. (Since I bought the new RAM, it was always seated in bank 1, with the original being in bank 0, as suggested by the manufacturer.)

Now, I no longer get any beeps, even the single beep that occurs when the systems boots properly. As expected, the computer does not boot up properly. I called the manufacturer of the graphics card to see if that might be the issue, but upon doing some different tests, the computer just isn't booting properly.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I've reseated/replugged/cleaned everything I can think of so my only guess is that my memory went bad, or the motherboard went bad. Is there any way to confirm this? Or do I have to buy new to check?

onlinesupport

Hi,
It may problem with RAM. Check your RAM.

choke_det

How do I do that?

grimx133

Download memtest86. You can either use the iso and create a bootable cd, or get the file to make a bootable floppy. Run on 1 stick at a time for a couple hours each stick, any errors mean you need to replace that stick. Don't run with both sticks in, it can give false results when that's done.
http://www.memtest86.com/

choke_det

Hi grimx133 and thank you for your help. I would like to make a boot-able cd-rom but I am unsure where to find the "create from image" option. As far as I am aware the only cd burning software on the computer I am on is wmp, other than the right click that is. Can you please help me locate this option?

grimx133

Here's the sticky for how to make a bootable cd from an iso file. The download for a cd is a zip file, but it should be an iso inside. It's fairly easy to do, just follow the guide and you'll have it made in no time.
How to Burn a Bootable ISO File

grimx133

Problem is, you need to be able to boot from the cd, sounds like you won't be able to.
Have you cleared your cmos? Unplug the computer from the wall, remove the coin cell battery from the motherboard for 45 minutes or so, put it back in and try again. If you get a display, go into the bios and load setup defaults, then save and exit. It's surprising how many problems are fixed by this.

Among the combinations, did you try with just one stick installed in slot 0?

choke_det

Ok, so I did a bit of googling and am stuck again *sigh*

I downloaded and installed MagicISO and followed their directions. Clicked the button open the bootable option dialog, loaded the bootable image from disk (loaded it with the zip file I downloaded from memtest86), the bootable status changed to bootable.

The next step says to drag or click a button to add files...do I need to add the zip file again? Or something in the zip file? Or not add anything?

I've tried dragging the zip file into the box, and also without having anything in the box. Either way, the next step says to click save or save as. I choose my cd burner drive as the path and it prompts me to enter in a filename and no matter what I call it, it says "FILENAME INVALID!" The only place I'm able to save it to is onto my desktop, so from there can I send that to the cd?

choke_det

Oh bother, just reading your reply now. Should I go try that other software suggested in the sticky?

I have tried with just one stick in slot 0, both using just the "old" stick and just the "new" stick. When I was getting the 1-3-3-1 beeps, no matter which way it was, the beeps occurred. Now that I am not getting any beeps at all, it still doesn't seem to matter which stick is where but I have tried all combinations including having both sticks in, or just one in the slot 0.

I haven't cleared the cmos...didn't think of that. Maybe I'll go do that while I read once again how to do this iso image deal...thank you again for your help :)

grimx133

You need to unzip the zip file and extract the contents. Those contents will most likely be an .iso file. It's the iso file that you use with magic iso or other burning program. I just use nero, but I've burnt many, many iso's over the years.

Riskyone101

Do you have another processor to install onto the motherboard?
Processor could be failing as this would explain the no beeps.