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Hi:
I have not used my Gateway desktop in over a month. I powered-up this
morning and the BIOS screen was the first splaash screen to come up, asking
me to check the date and time (both were incorrect). I assumed I had a CMOS
battery issue. This PC was manufactured in 2002. I changed the date and time
and hit F10 and the computer failed to continue booting or reboot (not sure
what should have happened). In any event, now I get three short beeps when
the power button is pushed in, with nothing on the monitor. I swapped
monitors, and the same 3 short beeps with the PC power remaining on, but the
monitor remains black. I reseated the Memory card (256 MB SDRAM) and reseated
all cables. Same 3 short beeps. The processor is an Intel Celeron 1.2 GHz,
running Win XP Home SP3. I removed the 3V CMOS battery and it read 0 V. I
replaced with a new 3V battery but the 3 short beeps remain. I would
appreciate any further assistance.Thank you.
Adam
If you know or can work out what version of bios the system has then this site:
http://bioscentral.com/will help you work out what the beeps mean
Goin' Fishin' (Some day)
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http://support.gateway.com/s/Server...
"If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction
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64 KB base memory error and 3 beeps seem to come up whenever I GOOGLE search the issue: does this refer to the RAM card itself? Does it make sense to swap memory cards, or use the suspect RAM card in another machine and see if the memory is faulty?
Aadm
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If you suspect faulty RAM run Memtest86 on the affected machine. Download the ISO and burn it to cd then boot from it.
I would let it run over night but if the RAM is particularly bad it will pick up the faults reasonably early.
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How can I run a Memtest utility if the video (monitor) does not pass bootup? I cannot see the results of the test. Again, 3 beeps and no video.
Adam
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RAM doesn't just go bad. Remove it, clean the contact edge, then place it back it the memory slot...snap it in & out a few times to try to clean the contacts in the slot itself, then try to boot up.
"If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction
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Agreed, RAM does not "just" go bad, but we all know that **IT happens. Assuming the beep error refers to "Base 64K RAM failure. A memory failure occurred within the first 64kb of memory", does this refer to the RAM module itself (in my case, the 256 MB SDRAM card?) Or, does the first 64K memory reside somewhere else? I cleaned the RAM card contacts and re-seated a few times, but same issue.
Adam
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I had the same issue with my 6 month old reconditioned Gateway desktop. I pulled and reseated the two memory daughter boards on the mother board and it now works. I had the symptom of no POST, three beeps, fast fan on power up. Keeping my fingers crossed.
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RESOLVED:
Yes, kids, RAM "just" goes bad. Went to the office this morning where I have the luxury of having 13 Gateway computers to mess with. I swapped a 256 MB SDRAM card and all is good! I just had to reset the time and date as the CMOS battery was replaced. Why the card went bad, who knows? But, the 3 beeps exactly coincided with the Intel (Kitty Hawk) error code: faulty memory in first 64 KB.
Thank you for brainstorming with me.
Adam
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