PC Intermittent Boot - Clicking Sound or Long Beeps

[teathersend]

I’d be very grateful for some advice with this one, as I’ve aged about 5 years in the last week trying resolving it.

This is the background to the problem;

I have a Packard Bell Imedia 1508/2 running XP. I fitted a new wireless PCI card to it last week and it completely died soon after loading Windows. The tower would then not switch on at all...nothing. I had the power supply tested which came back as ok. Figuring some kind of short circuit must have taken place, I then fitted a new motherboard (exact model replacement).

This is the problem I now have when I turn the PC on; I either get ‘long continuous beeps’ (no screen or boot), an intermittent ticking noise (no beeps, screen or boot) – or Windows loads as normal (rarely). I have done the following so far to try and rectify this;

- Fitted new RAM and checked that it’s seated correctly

- Fitted just one stick of Ram

- Re-fitted old Ram (has loaded Windows once like this)

- Re-seated/thermal pasted the heatsink

- Checked all connections

- Removed Videocard

On the rare occasion that it has loaded Windows, it has followed the ‘long continuous beeps’. After this it goes back to ticking noises if you try and restart it – until its cold again (left overnight).

Any ideas? Are there Bios settings I should consider even though it’s running the same hardware? New CPU next?

Thanks in advance...

[snow]

Hi and welcome to the forum

 

This defianately sounds like a hardware fault of some kind, and since you have ruled out the RAM, motherboard, and PSU then my next guess would be the hard disk.

 

If you open up the case when these ticking sounds are happening, try to find out where they are coming from; the hard disk?

 

If you can enter the BIOS, check to see if there is a hardware monitor or PC health section where you can see the temperature your CPU is running at. It should ideally be under 60 degrees, and definately less than 65.

[Tootech]

an intermittent ticking noise (no beeps, screen or boot)

 

Sometimes that is a power cycling fault - ie system attempts power up, dies, restarts etc etc, likely if you see no boot screen.

 

Is this your board?

 

Core - Sunshine DDR2 (GA-8I915PMD) Ver 0.1 - spec_sunshine2 - Information and Instructions - IMEDIA 1508/2 - PB34213101 - iMedia - platform_honeymoon_imedia - Desktop

 

Could do to know to check the BIOS beep code, if it is it should have an Award BIOS.

 

How was the PSU tested, as I'd put my money on memory, PSU or mainboard, but not CPU.

 

USB devices have been known to halt a system boot, seems strange but I have seen it happen.

 

Pull all USB devices out, all PCI cards you don't need to run your PC, disconnect CD/DVD drives, and hard drives.

 

That leaves your board, PSU and memory. Test it for startup - if it won't start, I recommend you try a different PSU.

 

If it will start consistently, reconnect the hard drive and see what happens.

[teathersend]

Thanks for your responses guys. Tootech you are correct that is my MB.

 

I have followed your advice and powered up with all PCI cards and drives removed/unplugged. I still get the same problem, but now the 'clicking' now leads into the 'long beeps' (rather that the either/or I was getting before)

[teathersend]

..just to add, the clicking is definately coming from the bottom of the MB somewhere around the PCI slots. Any thoughts?

 

thanks

[Plastic Nev]

Tootech may be able to answer this, but the ticking sounds like a relay not quite energising, though I don't know if there would be such a device on a modern mother board. However it does point to a PSU fault, also the beeps may be the BIOS complaining of too low a voltage. So if you can borrow a PSU to try, it would be the next thing.

Nev.

[teathersend]

an update..

 

I have replaced the PSU and this has made no difference - the long beeps continue. So in all I have changed; the mother board, the memory and the PSU... and the problem persists. I have unplugged all drives & PCi's and ruled them out also.

 

That just leaves the CPU...

 

This is the current spec;

CPU - Intel Pentium 4 model 519 - spec_6961610100 - Information and Instructions - IMEDIA 1508/2 - PB34213101 - iMedia - platform_honeymoon_imedia - Desktop

 

I'm having difficulty finding a direct replacement, how interchangeable are Intel CPU's? What current Intel could I try?

 

Any advice is much appreciated - thanks.

[teathersend]

Am I correct in thinking any Pentium 4 / Socket 775 / 533MHz / up to a 3.06 GHz clock speed?

 

Does the model number matter?