hey all, got a HP that when it is powered on, has one long beep for a bout 2.5 sec and just repeats, monitor does not find a signal and both keyboard and mouse light up. i have no recovery disks and was silly to think that a PC bought off ebay might actually work. any suggestions?

It's got nothing to do with recovery discs. You have a hardware problem, not a software problem. Check your RAM. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...

I got the same thing once after a fresh install of XP. I had installed a new dvd burner along the way. After reformatting the hard drive I got the same single long beep. I had to disconnect the new burner until I had downloaded and installed the latest service pack. After that it worked fine. Like jam suggested I would start with your ram. If that doesn't solve the issue I would disconnect any cd rom or other drives even the video card if one is installed. Just leave the hard drive. Start the computer, if it boots up fully shutdown and add another drive or add in card and start again until you hit the part that is causing the problem. Likely I want to go like my grandfather did. Peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming at the top of my longs like the passangers in his car.

thanks. yea i tried reseating the memory and it was a no go. ill break it down drive by drive and see if that helps to kick it to life. thanks, mike