Computer turned off, now when I try to turn it on all I get it a beeping noise.

[S Freud]

So I don't know exactly what happened since I wasn't here, the GF says she was on my computer and pulled the monitor foward, the computer then shut off. When I got home a tried to turn it on and all that happens is it starts up and then I get three loud beeps and it stays on. It won't display anything on the screen, I checked to make sure everything was connected and it was fine.

Any ideas? This happened to me once before when the power surged, but when I turned it on later that day it was fine. So I don't know what the problem could be.


Thanks in advance.

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

The beeps you hear are likely your motherboard trying to tell you there is a problem. Your motherboards documentation may have a list of it's beep codes, but I don't know what board you have. If you can't find the book/pamphlet that came with the board, try the manufacturer's website. All I've found so far on the internet is that 3 beeps indicate a "Display adapter problem (MDA, CGA)" on some boards, which doesn't say much until we know who made your board. If you bought a preconfigured PC, opening it might void it's warranty, so I wouldn't right off the bat suggest that. Rather, I'd go with a diagnostics tool such as Everest Home Edition or another similar program.

In Everest Home just open the .exe then click "Motherboard > Motherboard" and a your motherboards information should be displayed. Go back and click "BIOS" and you should be armed with all the information you need.

Hope that helps, chief.

Edit:
Right, you can't even get into BIOs. Silly me... opening it will probably be the simplest way to ensure the problem really is the display adapter, which it likely is, or if something worse happened. Like I said though, if it's prebuilt, check the warranty. I know Best Buy doesn't allow cases to be opened under warranty. And another question: Are you using onboard graphic or a card?

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

Ah, hell. I forgot to mention, although it's obvious and important: check both ends of the display cable. If that's not the issue, if it's an option, check to see if your girlfriend's pulling nudged your card out of it's slot.

/scatterbrained.

 

[bwatson283]

Originally posted by: Rhonda the Sly
Ah, hell. I forgot to mention, although it's obvious and important: check both ends of the display cable. If that's not the issue, if it's an option, check to see if your girlfriend's pulling nudged your card out of it's slot.

/scatterbrained.

seconded.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I would say the video needs to be reseated

 

[Quiksilver]

http://www.amptron.com/html/bios.beepcodes.html

 

[robisbell]

she either dislodged the video card or damaged it when she pulled the monitor forward.

I'd suggest you open it up and visually inspect everything.

"1 Long, 2 Short Video adapter failure Bad video adapter"