Computer just died, can I save it??? *UPDATED**

Winjackie

Thanks for all your responses, will try all these options and report back in a while.

Unstoppable_2

Depending on the BIOS, if it's an AWARD BIOS and a long beep it could be CPU failure. If it's an AMI BIOS and a short beep, it is a DRAM refresh failure.

Can you ask your friend what make motherboard it is if they remember?

Little_John

Check the fan, The little battery can cause a PC to beep but it is due to the battery being flat and not being able to retain the bios (system configuration settings) so the PC will beep at you way before anything regarding windows is even thought of It will ask you if you want to load system defaults and continue by pressing the F1 key normally or enter setup by pressing usually F2 Your problem isnt the bios battery.

It could be the fan in the power supply has failed that will casue the power supply to over heat or some graphics cards have fans on them now, the graphics card may be built on to the mother board but if not look at the back of the pc where the monitor connects that is the graphics card.

If any fans are not spinning than don't touch the metal bits below them especailly if the pc has been on as they will be hot.

Winjackie

Ok I have cleaned out any dust and made sure that everything is firmly in the place it should be but it's still beeping

I have a large fan on the side of the tower which doesn't move when I switch it on but I can't remember whether it started straight away before. TBH, I didn't see any battery on the motherboard but DD1 woke up so thought it best to put back together whilst she is running around. I will try to get another battery, where's the best place, I have access to currys, comet, staples but nowhere near a Maplins

Any other advice gratefully received:D

DCFC79

Im sure ive seen them in the supermarkets, you mention a fan on the side of the tower which doesnt move when its turned on, does this fan move at all

espresso

Winjackie wrote: »

I will try to get another battery, where's the best place, I have access to currys, comet, staples but nowhere near a Maplins

Is your date and time correct when it boots up? It's unlikely to be the motherboard battery unless the date/time are incorrect.

Winjackie

To be honest, I can't remember if this fan moves or not, I'm pretty sure it does normally.

As for the date and time, it started losing the correct date and time a couple of months ago, after always being correct. I have to correct the date most days myself

espresso

Winjackie wrote: »

As for the date and time, it started losing the correct date and time a couple of months ago, after always being correct. I have to correct the date most days myself

So you need to get a new CR2032 battery then! £1 - £2 from anywhere e.g. supermarkets etc.

huddsman

If it is your battery I will be amazed, I do not know what motherboard you are using but the beeping usually is a warning that something is running too hot or that your power supply is failing or your cooler fan has failed, I fail to understand how someone who knows about computers would tell you to just buy another. 1st thing I would see if the CPU fan spins up when you start the PC secondly (assuming it does spin up) I would try another PSU. As for the fan on the side of your case I would look for the wire which leads to it and just disconnect it as this is just a red herring.

Winjackie

Thanks for your response. As you can guess, I don't know much about the insides of computers but can I just ask a question. The computer broke about 3 days ago. Apart from the man who came to look at it, it has not been switched on since that day. After I cleaned it out today, I switched it on to try it and the beeping started straight away. Would this happen, as surely the computer cannot be hot as soon as its switched on?

TIA