I'm about to go insane

[Steve325]

here's the situation. I built this computer over 3 months ago and it's been nothing but a headache. I never made a post about it because I usually just left it on all day after attempting to turn it on 15 times unsuccessfully. I can't take it anymore. I am beating the case, kicking it, doing whatever won't help it any. I need to fix it before I break it.

Problem is when I turn on the computer I receive 2 short beeps and 1 long beep with no display popping up. That's not all. Sometimes it does start up, but then it gives me a red, white, green, blue screen (the colors just rotate). It can honestly take up to 20 tries to get my computer up and going, most frustrating thing ever, especially when I am trying to install something and I'm constantly restarting. There's also numerous times where the video drivers just don't even load when in Windows or Linux

I have a
gigabyte p35 ds3 motherboard
sapphire x1950 video card
c2d e4300

win xp
ubunto 7.10

 

[Markbnj]

Don't kick it anymore. Take it apart and lay the components out on a nonconductive surface like a piece of cardboard or a wooden tabletop. Connect the motherboard, ram (one stick), power-supply, video card, hard drive, monitor, and keyboard. Power the system up and check it for reliability. If it boots everytime the problem is either in a component that isn't yet connected, or how you put it all in the case. Start connecting any other components, i.e. sound card. If you get everything connected and it boots reliably take it apart again and install it into the case, being very careful to use the right standoffs and not have anything touching where it shouldn't be.

If adding in additional components causes it to stop booting reliably then you have a part that has an intermittent problem, or a compatibility issue. Make sure you have the latest BIOS for the motherboard and try it again. 99.9% of the time a PC put together carefully from compatible stock parts, and run in a stock configuration, will boot and run reliably.

 

[MarcVenice]

2 short beeps and 1 long beep, look it up in your mobo manual. I dare say it's either the ram or the videocard ..

 

[Roguestar]

^ :thumbsup:

Originally posted by: Gigabyte P35 DS3 manual
1 long, 2 short: Monitor or graphics card error

 

[BoboKatt]

Yup that order of beeps is the Video card (if I remember) and generally it's because the card is either not seated properly... not getting the correct amount of juice... not in the correct slot or simply dead. However RAM does always have a tendancy to cause beeps that migth be related to something else but really it's the RAM.

As someone suggested, pull everything out and install ONLY the stuff you need for an inital boot. Mobo and CPU (of course), one stick of RAM, video (plug in the PCIe power if it needs it), one HD and naturally the powersupply has to be plugged into the board (20 or 24 pin) and any auxiallary power like the 4 pin or 8 pin plugs if the board has a slot for it.

YOu could also find your manual and do a CMOS reset... and try to boot.

 

[OdiN]

First course of action - reseat the video card and check the power connector to it, if it has one.