3 long beeps when booting

[GanglyLamb]

ive got myself a comp (well someone gave it to me he said that it worked fine but...)
anyway when i boot the comp with the cable that transfers data to the screen in it the comp gives me 3 long beeps then waits a moment and then he does it again it keeps doing that until i pull out the data cable from the screen....

also when i plug the cable to transfer data to the screen in the comp, the green light of the screen itself(power supply light) goes crazy it lit up then out,on,out,on,out and he keeps doing that ....

i alrdy figured out that theres noting wrong with the screen.
now im thinking its the video card

any suggestions are welcome....
thx in advance

[RoD]

Try reseating the video card, may have come loose during transfer from them to you. Also ensure the ram is seated, by 3 beeps is surely a video error.

[Travis Dane]

Originally posted by RoD
Try reseating the video card, may have come loose during transfer from them to you. Also ensure the ram is seated, by 3 beeps is surely a video error.

No, videocard error is, LONG SHORT SHORT SHORT.
I suspect it's either your CPU or you memory

[GanglyLamb]

K i already know that it is a video error anyway i pulled the video card out i cleaned all the contacts and inserted it on the motherboard ....
it still wont work ... as i said this is a comp given to me and that also explains wy the video card is plugged onto the motherboard with a ISA connection.... (very old) but anyhow does anyone know if these cards are still available..???
Or if anyone has a manual about this card
ET4000/W32 i (or I i cant read it anylonger:eek: )
its made by Tseng Labs
ive alrdy searched for a manual in hope there would be some info about some jumpers on this card ....

[GanglyLamb]

No, videocard error is, LONG SHORT SHORT SHORT.
I suspect it's either your CPU or you memory


hmm no its not the cpu or memory because ive managed to get a display on the screen. But that only happen 1 out of the 100 boots so...
And when i got some display he was counting the ram on the motherboard and everything went normal i even got into the bios and altered some setting because i just removed the floppy drive ....
so it has to be something with the video card but the only place i can think of where i still can find these cards is on the junkyard:p

[Travis Dane]

If you can see something that means that the videocard is
working as well:)
Maybe its the dust? Clean it

[RoD]

just becaus eit works occasionally doens't mean its not broken and not the problem, have u checked to ensure that it doens't also have onboard video?

[no-one]

check your ram chips, and look for a "beep code" chart for your MoBo.

[GanglyLamb]

Ive cleaned the card for 4 times by now and it wont work ....
If i had an extra video card i would plug that in ....
on a normal comp this shouldnt be too much of a problem...butonthis compthe motherboard is soold (we r talkingreal old here) that the only way to plugin a video card is with an ISA slot.... (try to find that one in a shop).... so what im going to do this week is go a shop where ppl can drop useless comps like 4.86 and 3.86 and i'll grab myself a "old-new" video card and see if that works:cool:

check your ram chips

i alrdy did that because the first time i booted this comp it gave 2 short beeps (high frequency) and then 3 short beeps (low frequency) then i unplugged the ram and after inserting every ram chip i booted the comp ... the ram chips probably went out of their "seats" while transporting. and now it doesnt give that kind of beep

And im pretty sure it has somethingtodowith the video card because of the fact that there r no beeps untill i plug the screen-cable in (NOT the power supply for screen)

If you can see something that means that the videocard is
working as well

i guess that period is over i have about 0.5%chance that i get some display on the screen ....(although the screen works perfect -alrdy tested that one on other comp)

Anyway ill keep looking after some ISA video cards :o :(
Thx y'all

[RoD]

i think i may have an ISA slot vid card or two from one of my old towers, but i can't even imagine the shipping cost from us to belgium....

[GanglyLamb]

Indeed RoD but ill will find a video card somewhere.... and righto the shipping cost would be a lil too high. Soon ill get the shipping bill of a book that had to come from the US (pointers on c by kenneth Reek) ...

[RoD]

Let me know what the cose was and i'll see what i got, but i wouldn't rely on it too much as it seems a little pointless to pay a high ship charge thats worth more than the card :P

The easiest way i have found to get old comp parts is to find some of the so called "nerds" at your school and see what they have to make a deal with, if they are anything like me, if it works they keep it lol.

[GanglyLamb]

The problem is im also one of these "nerds" i guess... though never heard of a rasta-nerd anyway uhm yeah i'd alrdy checked the geeks at school but they're into much newer stuff....
mayb that one of the comps of school (those old ones) have a ISA-slot video card :p

Well thanx evryone for all the thoughts.... and suggestions

[RoD]

No prob, and good luck.

[frenchfry164]

oh yeah, you're going to get some killer gaming on that system:p

[GanglyLamb]

gaming aint importantits rather a test comp because if imess around with an expensive comp that would be foolish messing around with a ****ty comp is fun
(it even crossed mymind this day to throw the compof my balconysince it was a free comp:p)
ijustneed a videocard so that the frequency of display is high enough else my eyes will hurt after a while :(

[Travis Dane]

Originally posted by GanglyLamb
ijustneed a videocard so that the frequency of display is high enough else my eyes will hurt after a while :(

Wow, you must seriously have an old videocard if you're having
refresh rate problems:)

[GanglyLamb]

indeed check for ET4000/W32I From Tseng Labs :p

[RoD]

And i quote!


Tseng Labs, Inc.

ET4000 well-established non-accelerated chipset. W32 series accelerated.
ET4000/W32i and W32p support smart 32-bit interleaved memory interface
with 2Mb DRAM installed, yielding 85% of the video memory bandwidth of a
64-bit interface.

ET4000AX Old ISA chipset, VLB OK (16-bit host interface,
good response).

W32 series

ET4000/W32 Accelerated, 32-bit host interface. 32-bit memory
interface. Fair performance, comparable to
Cirrus 5426.
ET4000/W32i Improved acceleration, supports interleaved memory
with 2Mb. Very fast blits.
ET4000/W32p Improved acceleration, better host bus interface
support (incl. PCI). Special video support.

Verdict

Performance: W32: Mediocre, comparable to Cirrus 5426.
W32i/p with 1Mb: Fair.
W32i/p with 2Mb: Good, very fast blits.
DOS perf: Very good, but depends on card design.
Max. resolutions depend on RAMDAC.
Max. res 8bpp: 1280x1024 @ 72 Hz
Max. res 16bpp: 1024x768 @ 72 Hz (W32p)
Max. res 24bpp: 800x600 @ 72 Hz (24-bit pixels).
Unknown (32-bit pixels).
BIOS: VESA BIOS support built-in, not all. Unknown.
Picture: Unknown.

Pricing

Generic ET4000/W32p $100, with 2Mb $150.
Brand-name: Diamond Stealth 32 2Mb $170.

Notes

ET4000/W32i and W32p take big advantage of second Mb of memory.
Reputation for good DOS performance, but varies a bit between
card designs.

[GanglyLamb]

Guess what im going to have a NEW ISA video card (wich one i dont know ) BUT its still in the original packing:paccompanied with the driverz :-) and all that for just 2 dollars.....

[Travis Dane]

Originally posted by RoD
And i quote!

Hehe, it has alot of 'good,well,smart,accelerated,big,advantage'