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Post by Sarah on Feb 18, 2018 10:42:15 GMT
Hiya everyone! Long time no see, but that's my fault. Life is rather busy (in a good way) and I work a lot less on the computer, apart from writing. Which is also why today after several months of not using it, I wanted to use my Win7 pc, as I have two external drives spare and I was wondering if I could use them as internal drives in that pc. But lo and behold it won't even start!!! Which is funny, because last time I used it it worked perfectly, certainly for an oldtimer, haha! But now it gives me three loud beeps and no visuals on the monitor at all. I can hear it working, but can't see if anything is actually happening. I share the monitor of this pc with the one that has WinX on it (another oldie with problems of its own), so I know for certain the monitor works well. So what am I doing wrong? Any ideas? Thanks in advance  |
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Post by Sarah on Feb 18, 2018 12:10:40 GMT
Btw. Is it possible to make internal drives out of external ones? I know the opposite is possible |
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Post by irvsp on Feb 20, 2018 1:32:42 GMT
Hiya everyone! Long time no see, but that's my fault. Life is rather busy (in a good way) and I work a lot less on the computer, apart from writing. Which is also why today after several months of not using it, I wanted to use my Win7 pc, as I have two external drives spare and I was wondering if I could use them as internal drives in that pc. But lo and behold it won't even start!!! Which is funny, because last time I used it it worked perfectly, certainly for an oldtimer, haha! But now it gives me three loud beeps and no visuals on the monitor at all. I can hear it working, but can't see if anything is actually happening. I share the monitor of this pc with the one that has WinX on it (another oldie with problems of its own), so I know for certain the monitor works well. So what am I doing wrong? Any ideas? Thanks in advance Usually that is a RAM problem... but some PC's have different meanings, see HERE. Dell's on the other hand means the motherboard is bad? Are you 'sure' it is working? Maybe it is the fans or the PSU making a noise. I'd open the case, re-seat the RAM (if you have more than 1, move them around). Check everything for a loose connection too. |
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Post by irvsp on Feb 20, 2018 1:40:00 GMT
Btw. Is it possible to make internal drives out of external ones? I know the opposite is possible Tricky question. Answer is 'it depends'. To be able to use it internally you'll need a drive and power connector your PC uses. Could be PATA, SATA, or even SCSI for the drive type and power could be different type. Some you can splice the power to the connector needed easily, others not as easily. Power could also be a mismatch to what your PSU connectors if the external is a powered one. If a portable, then it gets the power from the computer and you should be OK. Opening some of those external cases can be problematic as well. Some you need to basically 'break apart' to get to the drives. |
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Post by Sarah on Feb 22, 2018 11:49:38 GMT
Hey that is funny! I'd posted an answer the other day, but I don't see it now???
Anyway: I've completely wiped the external drives and they'll go to friends as their backup drives.
I remembered I had moved the PC a little while back and thought I might have dislogged something. So today I opened it up, saw nothing wrong, removed some dust (there wasn't much), felt all things connected to check if they were plugged in right and lo and behold after that it booted up nicely. I got a warning about the CMOS battery, had to press enter, but then it booted normally.
It ran for some 20 minutes ( I was busy feeding the dogs, so no time yet to do anything on it) when all of a sudden I got a notice there was something wrong with an elaborate story about what was wrong and what to do, but the whole pc shut down before I could read it.
Now I get the three beeps again.
I'll replace the CMOS battery and try again after that and see if that might help.
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Post by irvsp on Feb 22, 2018 12:16:23 GMT
Battery sort of makes sense. Usually when it has 'died' on me the PC would boot to the BIOS as it went to the defaults and couldn't boot. I'd change it to what it should be and it booted, until the next time. I was in that loop for a few days and eventually called Dell (it was under warranty). They said that was the battery and sent me one (it cost more to mail it that the battery would cost). Put it in, redid the BIOS settings and all was well. Don't know what make your PC is, but it is possible that some perform differently when the battery is 'weak'? I did see this, www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General/XPS-8300-Beep-Code-3-Beeps-Chipset-error/m-p/4418475, and it was for a Dell, have to do more than just change the battery on it it seems... However a 'weak' battery can cause problems as it can't hold the BIOS settings long after powering off. Generally BIOS stays powered when on? Battery shouldn't play into it I'd think? My newer Dell appears to be always 'on', that is there is a light/led on the motherboard always on when there is AC power to the tower. I'd assume that would keep the BIOS settings always and not need a battery unless there was loss of AC power? |
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Post by Sarah on Feb 22, 2018 12:57:38 GMT
It's called "Auton", don't know more about it as it's old and the case is broken and patched with plastic glued to the front LOL. But the battery did the trick. Still had some laying around from the last time I needed one on the HP machine, so that was an easy first option. Although getting the old one out wasn't easy. Put in the most inconvenient of places with no room to manouvre. But I managed and now it's up and running again. It could benefit from an extra hard drive put in, but I've already decided to give the external ones away as I have no idea how to open them up and what I'll find inside. Which was why I wanted to boot that pc to start with (find out how many HDD I had inside). LOL But now I'll keep that as my second pc. The HP has WinX on it and it is driving me bonkers. Win7 suits me better Thanks for your help, Irv! |
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