Hi Badboy & Ham, I stripped my unit down to the barest, I am still getting the 8 beeps according to ami it is either the keyboard (not connected), cpu or mobo. I was looking at your nforce mobo combo, it takes a 24 pin ps connector and does not have a agp slot. I would like to use the components I have, my power supply had a 20 pin connector, I also have a radon graphic card for the agp slot. There is a pc chip mobo combo with an intel pent 2.5 cpu, with 256 ddr mem, $137. The problem, it is a micro atx board, I am not sure it will line up to my full size case. Is there anything out there with a 20 pin ps connector and agp slot that you like and would recommend, I would appreciate your input as I am bouncing from one mobo maker to another trying to go through a maze of boards. I am sure you guys can make the hunting less complicated or you have choices that would eliminate the hunting. I see some boards still accept the dimm memory, but I assume you will say to get the latest which would be the ddr. Your input would really be appreciated, frank

Where are you coming up with this beep code description? According to BiosCentral, under AMI BIOS Beep Codes, it lists: "8 short beeps | Display memory read/write error | The system video adapter is missing or defective" http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm Here's another BIOS site confirming the above: "8 beeps indicates a memory error on the video adapter. Replace the video card or the memory on the video card." http://www.wimsbios.com/HTML1/faq.html#q19 And here's another person with an ECS K7S5A board & the exact same problem: http://discuss.extremetech.com/forums/1004320083/ShowPost.aspx

Hi frank breen. jam would have better knowlege to answer you question than myself. I recently put together a computer using an ECS P4M800PRO-M/Intel Pentium D Dual-Core Processor 805 (2.66GHz) Box combo that I got from Outpost for 159.99. It has AGP and the power connector accepts either 20 or 24 pin. It accepts DDR or DDR2 RAM. It is ATX form factor. It also has onboard display. But .... it's not currently available for that price from Outpost. Another MOBO that I've used (also an Outpost special) was the ECS RS400-A. It came with a P4 630 (3.0 GHz) for $179. That MOBO has BOTH AGP and PCIe slots PLUS onboard ATI display and accepts DDR and DDR2 RAM. It will accept either a 20 or 24 pin power connector and is ATX form factor.

Outpost had been running an ECS S754 nForce3 board w/3100+ Sempron for several months for just $80. I'd been following a thread in another forum about it & it was supposed to be quite decent setup, especially for the price. I kept debating on whether I should go for it or not (I really don't need it). Unfortunately it's been gone for about a week now. But it did have AGP & a 20-pin connector. The rumor in that forum now is that another combo will be popping up soon...speculation is that it will be the same S754 CPU paired up with an ECS nForce4 board. I know that doesn't help you now, but it's something that you might wanna keep an eye out for. As for your beep code problem...do you have a PCI video card that you can pop in to see if it brings up a display?

Hello Jam, I punched in beep codes on google and showed a site with ibm codes and the beep codes. According to that site, under 8 beeps, it said cpu, mobo or keyboard. I was surprised to see this pop-up as I was surfing the net, the blue screen stated it was looking for a file-win32k.sys- and if this is the first time it happened to reboot, when I did that, up popped the black screen. I just assumed it was a software problem, but I guessed wrong. I will see if I can get a video card to see if the beeping will stop, I did remove the card and got a steady beep. I will try to borrow a card from a friend to see if the defective component is that card, I thank you for correcting the 8 beep mystery, frank

This is my third try to leave a post, hope this does not bomb out. Took a hours pause hopefully the gremlins have gone to another site On pricewatch they have combos and combos with mem. Should i stay with the 512k of dimm or should I move into the ddr? This is saying that the problem is not my video card. I am very happy with the my computer as it is and hope Jam has fingered the problem with my comp. When I get the video card I will see if that's the problem, if it is, I tip my hat to you Jam and thank you for getting the computer to function. What would be a good price for 512k of ddr memory? I saw an ad on the net by tigerdirest advertising 512k for $35, is this legit? Or is it a come on to visit the site!

The ECS K7S5A was a very popular board a few years back & was known as an excellent performer. The SiS735 is one of the best chips SiS has put out...unfortunately the timing was bad & the "performance crown" was only their's for a very short time. They haven't come close since. http://www.tomshardware.com/2001/09/24/a_lost_chance/index.html It's a decent old board though & there a dozens of sites devoted to it's overclocking & performance modifications. I'd say that's a good testament to it's popularity. http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/k7s5aguide/ If you don't need the "latest & the greatest", you should be able to ride it out for a while longer. If it turns out to be the video card, drop in a cheap AGP card & some more RAM. If you're a casual gamer (& cheap) such as myself, you might wanna consider this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102600 As for your RAM question, single stick 512MB PC3200 prices start at about $35-40. Newegg has several in that price range, with no rebate involved either.