Freezures and failures

[toptec]

Hi Chaps.

I have a Dell desktop PC with Athlon processor.... bout 2 1/2 years old. Have been having problems - occasional freezures etc. Run AVG and other diagnostics but no trace of any virus's.

Today I have been unable to turn the PC on and although power comes into the PC there is a double beep repeating itself every 5 seconds coming from the rear of the Tower.

I have waited an hour and switched on again and have managed to get here. Is there an obvious reason for the beeping? All the fans etc are working although it is pretty dusty inside the case.

Appreciate any help

TT

 

[timtheenchanter]

is there any code shown on the screen?

is it an onboard video card or seperate, if seperate try removing it/re-seating it, or removing and use the onboard.

hande bios code table herehttp://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/dellbios.htm

 

[toptec]

Tim

No the system will only power up and never gets to fire up the screen or any other peripheral. Everything is integral. I am on tenderhooks waiting for it to freeze up again.
I have managed to run the Dell trouble shooter which identifies beep patterns on 100's of systems see here;

http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?k=beep+code&rf=all&cat=sup&s=gen&c=us&l=en&subcat=&evl=

but I can make no sense of this or where my system fits in. Mine is an Inspiron 531

Whadyareckon? By the way my Beep code is, I think, 1 - 1.

 

[Static]

http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

Bios beeps.. all good fun and normally means some hardware isnt sitting properly after its gets knocked loose or has fried..

If you cant identify the problem from that list in link, try reseating all cards/memory and hard drive.. but chances are its the RAM

edit: oh that list is a typical bios beep code list but if you can find the motherboard manual it will give you the exact answer

 

[toptec]

Just as an update.

Disconnected everything. Took the PC outside and de-dusted it.... it was pretty bad. Made sure everything was seated correctly.

Re-started with no problems. I have AVG which gave the PC a clean bill of health. I turned it off and downloaded and ran Avira which found 2 virus's and 4 Malwares!

PC has been running fine since.

Wierd eh. Could a virus have been the cause?

Thanks Chaps.

TT

 

[Monkeh]

Could a virus have been the cause?

No.

 

[tapir]

Sounds like an accumulation of crud inside your PC was possibly stopping a cooling fan from spinning properly, causing the motherboard to shut down when it reached a critical temperature.

 

[Monkeh]

Sounds like an accumulation of crud inside your PC was possibly stopping a cooling fan from spinning properly, causing the motherboard to shut down when it reached a critical temperature.

A normal PC wouldn't overheat that fast without a fan. Even a Barton would reach the bootloader.