This tutorial will teach you the principles of hardware troubleshooting.
Rules:
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NEVER trust a computer! Always BACKUP.
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Before you touch ANYTHING inside the case, Shut down the computer and disconnect the power cord (Believe me! I'm the one who got 220V electric shock twice!)
Beep Cheating Chart:
Most of the time, when a computer doesn't work, they will signal with some beeping code. I put the beep cheating chart that you can refer to and find what the problem is.
NOTE: Most of the computers uses the first chart. If the beep you're looking for does not exists, look at the second that third chart.
What's next after I found the problem?
You have to remember that if you see any of these "Bad" signals, it does not mean the particular part is dead! It might have been moved slightly.
So for example if you get 1 short beep and nothing happens next, the first thing you should think of is to take your video card out and put it back in (it might have been moved) and so on.
For some of the problems, you need equipments. For example if you get no beeps at all the first thing you should do is to check the power cord. Is it in? Next check if the power supply's fan is working. If not, that means your power supply might be dead. Now you have to test your power supply and to do that you need another power supply to install on your computer. If the computer worked, that means your old power supply is dead...
IBM BIOS Beep Cheating Chart (General):
| 1 Short |
Completely normal, no errors detected. |
| 1 Short Beep and nothing happens after (You don't see anything on the monitor either) |
Disk Drive or Video Related Problems |
| 2 Short |
Initialization Error, DMA, ROM, Floppy, Serial or Parallel |
| 3 Short |
Bad memory |
| 1 Long, 1 Short |
Motherboard malfunction |
| 1 Long, 2 Short |
Video card malfunction or problem with video RAM |
| 1 Long, 3 Short |
Video card malfunction |
| No Beeping |
Bad power supply or system board (or no PC speaker hooked up) |
| Continuous Beeping |
Bad power supply, processor, or system board |
| Constant Short Beeps |
Bad power supply, processor, or system board |
American Megatrends (AMI) Beep Cheating Chart:
| 1 Beep |
Memory timing error |
| 2 Beeps |
Mismatched memory parity |
| 3 Beeps |
Memory malfunction |
| 4 Beeps |
Motherboard malfunction |
| 5 Beeps |
Bad CPU |
| 6 Beeps |
Keyboard controller error |
| 7 Beeps |
General exception error |
| 8 Beeps |
Video memory error |
| 9 Beeps |
Bad ROM checksum |
| 10 Beeps |
CMOS error |
| 11 Beeps |
Bad cache RAM |
IBM BIOS Beep Cheating Chart (General):
| 1 Long |
Memory malfunction |
| 1 Long, 2 Short |
Video malfunction |
| 1 Long, 3 Short |
Video/motherboard malfunction |
| Continuous Beeping |
Memory or video malfunction |
| Other Beeps |
Bad system RAM |