PC wont post / beep codes - Vid Card Toasted

[StraightPipe]

I've got an old P3 450mhz box i got from gateway about 5 years back. it runs very well as a downloading machine all day and all night without any problems (other than being slow). last night when I came home, there was nothing on the monitor, and it wouldnt wake up (this is rare cuz this thing runs for months at a time without any problems) . after rebooting i've got no post, nothing on the monitor, but a series of beeps. 1 long, then 2 short. gateway supportsays beep code 1-2 is "Search for option ROMs" I'm not really sure what that means, but it doesnt really seem like a problem. after about five minutes it beeps again with 1 long 2 short, pause, 1 short. this isnt even listed on the beep code chart!?

so i'm thinking that these beeps dont mean sh!t, and i might have finally popped the old voodoo3000 vid card (explaining why theres nothing on screen). my next step is to try reseating vid card, but it just seems very far fetched that it would come loose. how is it possible? from vibration of fans?

I realize it's very possible that i'm way off base. any ideas?

 

[nanaki333]

1 long 2 short beeps is generally a video error. reseat your video card, or try a new one completely

 

[Runamile]

Originally posted by: nanaki333
1 long 2 short beeps is generally a video error. reseat your video card, or try a new one completely

agreed.

 

[LeadMagnet]

You need to find a copy of the The Winn Rosch Hardware Bible

 

[StraightPipe]

ok, I've reseated that vid card several times, with no change in status, next I'm going to try one of my other vid cards in there. I'm almost positive that the old voodoo3000 has finally kicked the bucket.

I'm going to need another card now

like i mentioned before all this box does is download all day and all night. no games. I do occasonally play a divx file to check if a file works, but I dont even have speakers hooked up, so it's not like i'm really watching movies. I've glanced at newegg, and see a couple cards here with 8-32megs of ram runnign in the $15-35 range. it's AGP1X.

does it really matter which card I get for this old rig? should I get the cheapest I can find? or should I try to get one with more ram? (i think my old card was 16MB)

I've done plenty of research on vid cards in the last couple years, but It's almost always spent on the newer high-end cards, so my knowledge of these base requirements is rather lacking.