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win98se/older pc/boot problem

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9 replies

by jaypea5000

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PC: an older gateway 486dx/66mhz, 32meg ram, 1.2gig hd, pci/isa motherboard, phoenix bios 4.04, intel p'n'p extensions, 10/100 ethernet card.

problem: installed win98se from cd. everything was great till the network settings and properties wereentered. upon reboot, there is no video (won't even take monitor out of standby), the floppy drive runs incessantly, post codes beep--one long, two short; then repeated sounding of three short. won't boot at all from hd or floppy.

I'm stumped.any ideas???

9 replies

by 14me24u

1.2.3 in Phoenix BIOS indicates DMA Page Register.Direct Memory Access allows data to transfer to and from memory without monopolizing the CPU. You could have a bad module on your board but you should rule out bad memory first.

by limatik

Hi,

My hunch is bad memory modules, worse comes to worst, it could be the board or the processor - which, incidentally happened during your Win98SE installation.

Just to get started, I suggest you obtain some known good RAM, board and processor. When you have these, try to swap one by one and check which part(s) is in error. You should be able to isolate the problem easily enough.

Good luck.

by thechas

Windows may have written data to the CMOS BIOS settings memory.

Before going overboard, try resetting the CMOS memory.

If that doesn't help, then I believe that the other ansers are correct, you PC just choose that moment to die.

I have seen Pentium class PCs on the web for $10.

Chas

by tg2

From the BEEP code you indicated..

1 long, 2 short, 3 short ...

are you sure??

IF
1 long, 2 short, 1 short or long

that would indicate a VIDEO card not seen error. This would mean EITHER the card is bad OR the card's bios is not correctly seen.

Remove your Network Card ... see if the video returns.. if it does, then the two cards are trying to use the same address range, and the NIC is winning.

If taking the nic out doensn't change the beep code, try removing the video card, see if the beep code is still the same.

If still the same then you need to try another video card. IF the beep code changes when you pull the video card out, then it *is* being seen and the beep codes become very important.

Another VERY commonly used beep code... for system memory is long beeps, repeating constantly.

long beep long beep long beep (continuously)

reseat your main system memory.. then try booting and see what happens.

lastly... since the others are just as easy to do... you should check Gateway's web site to see if they have a listing of the BEEP codes for your system. if the two I've given don't sound anything like what you have.. Gateway should have the beep codes listed or available from their support line.. and they are always happy to help.

Our company bought some 2nd hand 200 MMX gateway's and even though the serial number wasn't registered to *us* they still helped us anyway.

-T

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