Hi there Attempted to build my own PC which probably wasn't the best idea in the world! Upon hitting the power switch for the first time, the inevitable happened......BIOS beeps!! As it's a completely new build, I'm at a loss as to where to start. I mean, anything could be wrong. My BIOS is Award BIOS and all I've learned from that is that there aren't many beeps and that they try to display all error messages on screen. Therefore they cannot get to my display, which may indicate a problem with the graphics card. However I've tested the graphics card on another PC and it's fine. For info I get a never ending loop of longish (2 seconds or so) beeps. All fans are spinning, but nothing comes up on the monitor. Anyone any ideas? I know the graphics card is not a dud, but that doesn't mean it's not the issue. It didn't seat into my new case as well as it did the old one when I tried it in there to test. The only other thing I can tell you is that the memory had big problems seating itself in the DIMM socket. The white clips wouldn't click up around the notches on the DIMM like they normally do. I called Crucial to ask what I should do and they said to push in quite hard and then pull the white clips into place. I did this but it was such a tight fit that the first time, when I pulled the clips round, the DIMM shot back out again. I'm really not convinced that it had seated properly However, surely if it was a memory issue, then the display would have at least some up and said that or does it need RAM to even start the POST???? Please help.....my new computer is sitting around in bits and I'm tempted to sell them all on Ebay at the moment :(

If you had a real old IBM designed board, you might get a video display with no memory. But on the boards today, you have to have some memory (first MB) working befor the AGP card can be started. If you have a real old VGA card, you might be able to see something with memory not working. Normally SIX beeps, repeated is a memory problem. Look for damaged connector pins. Are you sure you have the right type of memory for the board/socket? Did you put it in the right way. They should snap into place. There should be several "notches" on contact edge of the memory card. These notches should line up with blocking blocks built into the sockets, so that wrong type or attempts to insert them backwards is prevented (and the clips will not lock).

Hi Thanks for your reply. That's helped because now I know that it could simply be the memory. The motherboard is an ABIT KG7-RAID so it's not old at all. I'm 100% positive that I have the right type of memory and that I'm installing it correctly. I've upgraded RAM for years so I'm pretty competant at it. I have seen this problem before where the RAM simply will not click into place. Buying some from another manufacturer usually does the trick as it seems that some position the grooves in which the white clips sit, fractionally higher which results in seating problems in some DIMM sockets. If I was doing it wrong, there is no way I'd have got it in as far as I did. DIMMs are idiot proof IMO - you just can't get it in the wrong way around. Plus I bought the memory from Crucial via their product selector (find your motherboard in their list) and they guarantee compatibility or your money back, so I might just take advantage of that! If you have any more thoughts, I'd be pleased to hear them Thanks again Michael.

Hi mcat, how strange, I had that same problem this morning and what I did to get that computer up and running is, I set the jumper on the mother board to clear the BIOS, if you have a manual, locate the jumper, the jumper I used was JP1, then I rebooted and Windows started. Have you tried that? Bob

Hi, I think you use a AGP card. If you use AGP card, load your OS with a basic video card, and after install drivers for AGP card, and when the computer have good reboot, now you can install AGP card.