Solved Takes 2-4 times power on / off before booting (2 beeps) Mystery

[Mike14]

Hi Guys.

I have a Dell Desktop that works well. However, I often press the power button and get no signal to the monitors. I hear 2 short beeps.

Then I press the power button again briefly, and the fan immediately turns off. I press the power again (not hold) and it starts to boot, but again, 2 short beeps and no signal to monitor.

After 2-5 times doing this, it all loads, and everything is great, and won't mess up if I leave the p.c. on.

Anyone have any ideas? Could it be a graphics card going? ram problem? battery on the mother board?

What could be causing this mystery?

M14

 

[Dude]

How old is the motherboard? It could be the battery. I would run memtest.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

Also please fill in the specs of the dell computer.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

Edit for additional info, how are your temps? try this to see and post results.

Speccy

Also have a read here

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

 

[OvenMaster]

I have had at least three systems with that very same problem or similar - it needs multiple attempts to start.
The solution that always worked for me was a new power supply.

 

[Mike14]

Hey Guys, thanks so much for the good tips.

Dude, I will try and fill out specs tom. (plus mem test). I did change the Cmos battery with another PC and reseat ram..

Unfortunately, now my PC is going into recovery mode OverMaster I wish I had read your advice before I turned it on and off 20 times.. I think I've probably done more damage than I even would have.

I think you're probably right about the P suppy.. Anyway of testing that with a multi meter?

 

[Dude]

Have a look at this thread

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/308998-possible-psu-failure.html#post2570999

And this

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/301799-psu-test-dc-output-voltage.html

 

[OvenMaster]

A power supply that's failing can damage other parts!
I've lost keyboards, mice, DVD burners, hard drives, and on one system, the motherboard because of damaged BIOS and IDE controller chips, all because I wanted to try to start a computer with a flaky PSU "one more time".

 

[Mike14]

Dude, thanks for the good tips, and Oh Man OvenMaster, that sounds scary.

I've located a Precision 490 power supply (used at a local shop), but am thinking it may be something else actually. I find that when I manage to get the computer going, it goes into recovery mode. Eventually when I click finish, it goes to restart and won't.. Just goes black.

However, when I unplug the hard drives, I can get it to boot every time, and get into the bios etc without any trouble. Do you guys think this suggests it's just a bad system drive, and that I may be buying this power supply in vain? Or is it maybe just booting to bios easily without the hard drive attached because it doesn't need the power load to spin the disc?

If you guys can think of anything to try tonight (like maybe booting to a Linux live image and see if I can access the disks from there, and if so, it's maybe it's just the system drive that's bad?) I'd love to hear about em.

Any other tips on what to do when recovery doesn't work would be awesome too.

Sorry this thread is crashing out of control, and thanks for your patience,

M14

 

[OvenMaster]

Dude, thanks for the good tips, and Oh Man OvenMaster, that sounds scary.

I've located a Precision 490 power supply (used at a local shop), but am thinking it may be something else actually. I find that when I manage to get the computer going, it goes into recovery mode. Eventually when I click finish, it goes to restart and won't.. Just goes black.

However, when I unplug the hard drives, I can get it to boot every time, and get into the bios etc without any trouble. Do you guys think this suggests it's just a bad system drive, and that I may be buying this power supply in vain? Or is it maybe just booting to bios easily without the hard drive attached because it doesn't need the power load to spin the disc?

If you guys can think of anything to try tonight (like maybe booting to a Linux live image and see if I can access the disks from there, and if so, it's maybe it's just the system drive that's bad?) I'd love to hear about em.

Any other tips on what to do when recovery doesn't work would be awesome too.

Sorry this thread is crashing out of control, and thanks for your patience,

M14

This.
Removing hard drives takes some of the load off the PSU because spinning up platters takes a fair amount of juice. When I start my PC, all four hard drives spin up when I hit the power switch.
I'd still put my money on the PSU. I'd try it if I were in your shoes.

 

[Mike14]

OvenMaster (and Dude), thanks very much for the support and guidance.

I'll be picking up that power supply today. Fingers crossed!

M14

 

[Mike14]

Hi Guys,

So, located the new power supply today, installed it annnnnnd, No love :shock:

Well, maybe it was the power supply, that damaged the operating system, and now the operating system is taking me to a black screen? In any case, moving forward. After I power up / down 4 or 5 times, I can get to the system restore option, but it says system restore is offline. Also, when I insert a new W7 disc, it says it's not compatible.

Does it make sense to: take out system drive, and view it in a dock from another computer to discover exactly which version of W7 it was, then copy that down and try and track down an older disc?

I have a lot of important data on the disc, so don't want to reformat and loose all info.

Any suggestions?

 

[Mike14]

Do these codes help maybe?

 

[Mike14]

any ideas fellas? I'm dying here..

I can't even consistently boot to a W7 DVD / USB.. Just the two beeps and black screen.

 

[Slartybart]

Please put the original CMOS battery in the machine

then take out all memory and boot
then follow part 3 of http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

---

Dell beep codes are triplets 1-3-2 see the Dell Precison 490 User manual.

Some other BIOS report 2 beeps as either POST success or POST failure. it depends on the mfgr.

 

[Mike14]

Thanks for chiming in Slartybart.

I've checked the manual many times and am aware of the triplets. However, this system is not making any triplet beep codes.

Also, I've managed to run the windows memory test other times from advanced start up, and it's come back clean.

Do you still think it's important to do the steps you recommended above?

 

[OvenMaster]

Oh, man. Mike, I'm so sorry. I'd have bet a ton of money that it was the PSU.

I have seen in a few places that two beeps on a Dell can mean that no RAM is detected. That means either some of the RAM is defective, or something's up with the motherboard.
Like I say, this happened to me with BIOS chips and IDE controllers... killed by my dying PSU.

I strongly agree with Slartybart's suggestions!

 

[Mike14]

OvenMaster,

thanks very much for your empathy, and your response! On your suggestion (backing Slartybart's), I decided to give the ram reseat another go (I had done this yesterday with no luck). Low and behold, it booted to my W7 disc on the first go!

now, I had also commandeered a new cmos battery from my Dad's PC, but it that wasn't working on the first few boots.

I can't be exactly sure if it was the PSU, the CMOS, the RAM, or what, but in any case, there is a fresh W7 Installing as I write, and I'm VERY VERY VERY Grateful to the three of you guys for taking the time to support me during my hell week.

1000 thanks!
M14

 

[Mike14]

Oh Man.. I Jinxed it.

Problem is back with a vengeance.

And it started like 5 times in a row no problem while installing.

Doh!

 

[Slartybart]

Are you certain the battery from your dad's machine is what your dell needs? 75481 - Bios Battery (3V, 190MAH) For Dell Computers

I asked you to put the original one back in, but I don't see where you did that.
I also asked you to pull all memory and try restarting.

Then you need to put ONE memory stick in and test in each slot.
Then put the other (assuming 2) in a slot and test, then move that SAME memory to the other slot and test.

It might actually be a bad memory stick and the only way to test this is one at a time. Or it might be a bad slot - again testing ONE stick in one slot ONE at a time.

Maybe you did this, but I can't see what you see and you haven't sufficiently explained all of your efforts.
It is promising that you got that far, so hopefully it's just a bad memory stick.

 

[Mike14]

Slartybart,
thanks for the feedback.

I'm pretty sure the battery from my Dad's system is compatible, as it is the same model (Panasonic CR 2032 3V) and his PC was also a Dell. To be safe, I went and bought a brand new 2032 battery today.

I have experimented with pulling all ram (except for 2 sticks), but I will try that again systematically.

However, I have a new problem. I got it going, and installed windows 7 again, but upon reboot, it now goes to a screen that says:

[Serial ATA AHCI BIOS, etc etc et]

then
Controller Bus#00, Device#1F, Funciton#02: 01 Ports, 01 Devices

and it's stuck on this black page (with the above text). I'm able to see the screen offering me F2 or F12 when I start the PC, but it always ends up on this screen.

I will note that at some point today before this, I had reset the bios settings to factory default, and did change the date later (to a newer time, when installing the new battery).

Any tips?

 

[Mike14]

update:
So I figured out it was a ATA vs AHCI problem.. (possibly because I had reset the bios).

Got past that black screen by some steps I found online. Now it's set to ATA and I'm trying a second W7 install again.