what does it mean if my computer fails to start up. No display on the monitor and it made three short beeps?

Answer 1

There are quite a few good suggestions here...

To eliminate the possibilities, I remove all drives ( dissconnect the cables), take out all cards, and have only the video card and
the ram. Take these two out, and re-seat them squarely.
If the video is AGP, just re-seat. If the ram is multi slot, just use one
card. Try again in a different slot.
I have boxes of cards, so that I would take out the AGP, and try
a PCI video card - ANY, even an old cheap one is good, in fact
better, since an old PCI is usually "dumb" and reliable, without
the need to have 600 Megs of software to run it...
If you have a few ram cards, try them all, in different slots.

THEN, if it still wont go, JUMPER the CMOS CLEAR jumpers,
( with power off ) for a minute, and re-jump to RUN, and try
all this again...

If you only have one RAM card, and have moved it around to all
slots and sone all of the above, then go get a cheap, smallest
ram, slowest ram that fits into your computer... I keep an old
16MEG ( thats right, 16... they even made 8 Meg for 10 minutes
in the start of the SD series ! ) that runs in EVERY SDram computer since it was one of the first made and is compatible with everything ( unlike the new ram ). An 8 or 16 meg ram
stick is worth $5 iff you can find one, and an old PCI video
card is again, $5, and an old, slow, low ram ( 2 Meg, 4 MEG )
AGP card is about the same $5, so that this is not a big
investment.... you might even be able to borrow these at a computer repair, and hand-built computer shop ( NOT Dell,
HP, SONY, TOSHIBA, Gateway, COMPAQ etc. store ).

If this fails, I take out the motherboard, take out the battery,
jumper to CLEAR CMOS, lay the motherboard on a sheet of
aluminum foil on foam and leave sit for a few days, and then,
naked on a sheet of cardboard, with no battery, BOOT with
just the video and ram and a speaker plugged in it. If it goes
BEEP, shut down, plug in mouse, keyboard, re-boot, and
go into the BIOS, and set date and check settings. Then
re-boot after powerdown with battery. Check again.

Put in your original Video, try again
Put in your original ram, try again.
If oK, re-assemble.

If you get nothing... well, it is time to go shopping...

One other tip, -- iff the manual shows JUMPERS for onboard
sound, onboard LAN, onboard Modem etc. ( somewhat rare,
but still possible -- jumper them all OFF, before testing... )

hope this helps..

robin

Answer 2

These are BIOS related code beeps, 9 times out of 10 it's something with the memory. So,shut the power off, unplug it and remove the case cover and blow out the dust bunnies with canned air. See if the memory sticks are seated properly in the DIMMS. Make sure you are grounded BEFORE you touch the sticks! Inspect them and see if the "ears" on each side of each stick are properly engaged and "locked in". If you have just installed new memory, start with that one first. Chances are that you didn't press down hard enough to engage those "ears".If everything looks OK, then remove the new memory and try to start the computer up again. If it starts OK then make sure that you have the proper memory for your computer. Go to Crucial.com and use their tool to determine the proper memory for your computer. If it doesn't start with the old memory in it then reverse the process using the new memory and see if that does it. In other words try using each stick of memory until you eliminate one of them. The next thing you want to do is make sure the memory is in the proper DIMM sockets. These are usually color coded if you have like 4 DIMM sockets on the mobo, 2 will be let's say orange colored DIMMS and the other 2 will be green.colored DIMMS. If you have a stick in a green colored DIMM socket, then put the new stick in the next "unused" green colored DIMM socket. In other words,if you have 2 sticks of memory install them to the same colored DIMM socket. Mount the first stick of memory into the DIMM socket that is closest to the CPU (processor).That is your #1 DIMM socket. If none of this works, then you may have bad DIMM sockets on your mobo.

Answer 3

Beep codes are different with each BIOS. But considering you get no display, you computer doesn't finish the boot. I'm thinking RAM failure. Try switching out your memory before you spend the money on a technician.

Answer 4

those beeps are post codes power on self test, not sure what 3 short ones mean but that should be available on the motherboard manufacturers website, a guess would be a memory fault try resetting the memory

Answer 5

3 Beeps = Display Card Problem

It may be not fixed correctly - dust problems.

Answer 6

Hey dear, Firstly make-up your mind. Then check you Hard Disk is connected properly & also the RAM is properly fit in the slots.

Still the result is same, then.............I am sorry.

Answer 7

Check your hard drive connection and that your processor is firmly plugged in.

If all else fails, reset your CMOS.

Answer 8

Oh no...Its dying and urgent need for a technician to operate on it.

Answer 9

It's FRIED!!! Your harddrive is completely GONE!!