Mitch Cronin Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Does anyone know what it means when, after the blue screen of death (win98), the reboot will go nowhere, and all that happens, no matter how many attempts, is the internal speaker makes a siren sound? (like a European police car)??? ...no, I'm not kidding... she's apparently dead! (I'm using my kids computer to post this) I figure that siren sound must be a clue... no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moeman Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 I would guess that your CPU is overheating and/or the heatsink fan isn't plugged in properly. When you turn it on, check if the heatsink fan is turning. Could be a simple fix (new fan or re-seating the heatsink) unless you've fried something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 I had it once MITCH, about 6 years ago and "they" told me it was a virus. Had to take the whole damned box to a voodoo mechanic and suffered cyber withdrawal for a week until it was fixed. Bon Chance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest yudig Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Mitch, Bad news you probably have an overheated & (probably fried ) motherboard or cpu. Better get it checked out by a competent person. Seems like your fan has died. You may have to spend some money for a new computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moeman Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 It's not necessarily dead, but it could be. Most motherboards have a fail safe that won't allow the computer to boot if the CPU fan is un/disconnected or the CPU overheats past a certain point. If that's the case here, replacing or just plugging in the fan might do the trick. Worst case, the CPU might need to be replaced but they aren't that costly unless Mitch has the newest of the newest. One thing to check Mitch. If your computer came with a motherboard manual, it might give you a list of codes/beeps that your board will give for certain problems like overheating, bad ram, etc. If not, let me know what kind of board you have and I'll do some digging for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rattler Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 And one other suggestion. Check all connections to your mother board. If the computer was moved or bumped, the ribbon connections to the motherboad could have been jostled loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Say Again, Over! Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Mitch, First try some compressed air (it's sold in cans) around your CPU fan. It's possible it just can't turn if it's clogged up with dust. Happened to me! Flix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted February 9, 2005 Author Share Posted February 9, 2005 Many thanks to all who replied... I did all the checking I could do on my own, and then brought the thing to the man I bought it from some years ago (it was only a P3-500)... The motherboard was indeed fried. (he plugged a new p3 prrocessor into it and it was still toast) So the crying's done... and now I've got some installing and setting up to do with this new (not so new, but new to me) P4-1.6ghz machine... now running XP... I added the old hard drive to keep all data files, but lots of the apps loaded on it need to be reloaded for the new OS. Cheers folks, and thanks again. Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted February 9, 2005 Author Share Posted February 9, 2005 One more thing... a lesson for me... all of you who were thinking in terms of the cpu fan were right on the money... another cost of smoking I'm afraid... that's undoubtedly what did the damage! I'll be making a point of cleaning this one a bit more often! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccairspace Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Some more info: The beep code is telling you what is wrong and what needs to be replaced because you can't load the system. If it gave the BSOD (Blue screen of Death) then it is probably a RAM issue, generally will be two short beeps then one long one. If however it IS just one long beep, then the CPU may be dead. Pop the case and check the CPU fan (you have to turn on the system with the case open to see this) If the fan does not turn then the CPU is fried (Happens a lot with older systems, as they get a lot of gunk in the fan. Guessing its an old system as it was referred to as win98) I would count the beeps first off to tell you what hardware is broken, the go from there. That from my IT guy. I'm thinking you need your IT guy to have a look. ccairspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Actually, I was going to ask if there'd been any glasses of the demon rum in close proximity to your CPU. I know, I'm preaching, but what about your own internal cooling system? Or does the Appleton's take care of that for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccairspace Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 ...another cost of smoking I'm afraid... that's undoubtedly what did the damage! I'll be making a point of cleaning this one a bit more often! Sorry Mitch. Posted the other a bit late. On the other hand, I can think of another solution to the "dusty" fan problem... ccairspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moeman Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Just a suggestion Mitch, but since you now have two hard drives in there you might want to get a nice little program like Norton's Ghost or PowerQuest's Drive Image (my favourite) and clone or make an image of your new drive onto the old one once you've got everything transferred over. It's a nice, simple way of backing everything up and if something happens to your new hard drive (like if it dies or you get a nasty virus), you can put everything back the way you had it fairly quickly without having to reinstall all your programs. I like it better than using DVD's for backing things up and do it monthly, just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azure Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 While on to topic....I'm ready for a new machine, leaning towards a mac.....especially that new mini mac.....anyone have one? What are the downfalls etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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