I can't boot up the PC. I have two HDDs, one (20 GB) is Primary Master, the other (15 GB) is Secondary Master. The PM is the system one, and the one I have problem with in that I can't boot it up. I booted from a Windows 95 Boot diskette, launched fdisk utility, deleted all partitions, re-created them, made them active, then re-booted again from the diskette and launched format c: /u. On 14%, the computer suddenly makes three short high-tone bips (bip-bip-bip) and everything goes blank. The monitor goes to Sleep, the keyboard won't respond, and I basically have no other option but to reboot, only to repeat everything once again and get the same problem. What could this be? Is it a bad HDD (but it allowed me to fdisk everything) or something else? I need to figure out the problem rather quickly because it is my working computer. If anyone has any clue, please respond--your help is greatly appreciated!

Three beeps may be bad ram (or badly seated ram), try removing a module/different slots: http://www.techadvice.com/tech/B/BeepCode.htm Beep code depends on the BIOS EPROM you are using. Best

jubalsams thanks a lot for your help. however, why does it allow me to boot, do everything I described, and only then it bips three times and goes blank? I will try your advice re RAM but I am really not sure if the problem is with RAM

Download a diagnostic from the hard drive manufacturer's web site.

If the HDD Diagnostics turn out OK, get a Windows 98 bootdisk from bootdisk.com, and use that one instead. I've heard that the 98 disk is better than the 95 one. If God has to teach someone a lesson more than once to get them to learn it, it just goes to show how stubborn they are.

the "beeps" may be coming from the drive, although drives don't beep. All fdisk does is write the partition tables, much less work for the drive than formatting it. Have you used this drive before - had issues with it before - use diagnostic program from the manufacturer. Rule #1: Good Computers don't go down. Rule #2: There is no such thing as a good computer.

never had this problem before. Changed the HDD - the problem remains. though it could have been RAM modules - changed them around, to no avail. basically, I have no idea now what this problem could be. One thing for sure - it is not related to my HDD. With the brand new HDD (80G Barracuda) I continue to experience the same problem. Now this is how it looks: 1. I boot from a diskette - RAM check, BIOS, all OK. 2. The A:\ prompt - OK. 3. fdisk - create partition, make it active - OK 4. Reboot (again, from the diskette). 5. format c: /u - begins formatting, then, at some point (not necessarily same all the time), three short beeps (beep-beep-beep) and everything goes blank - the monitor goes to Sleep, the keyboard does not responde, I only have only blinking cursor on the screen. 6. Reset (or power off/power on) 7. Boot from a Partition Magic boot disk - OK 8. The mouse-enable menu goes on - OK 9. When the program loads, I can see the graphic image of the disk 10. Again, delete the disk, re-create the disk, format it. 11. Formatting (from within Partition Magic) begins, after a while (could be at 10%, could be at 15%, no correlation here) three short beeps and everything goes blank (see above). Tried booting from: Win95 boot disk Win98 boot disk Partition Magic 8 boot disk Norton Ghost boot disk ... Norton Ghost boot disk boots ok, I have the graphic environment, then I choose to restore the Ghost image from my second drive, the process starts ok, then after awhile - three short beeps and everything goes blank. So, as you can see it is NOT software related problem, and it is NOT HDD-related. RAM modules - I doubt they're faulty because I changed them around (I have two by 512 MB and I never had any problem with them), inserted one by one, changed the slots - the problem still remains. Now I think, could this be motherboard related, or CPU related? Any ideas?