Computer starts with long beep and no display picture

[Janar]

And another problem happening with my computer. 5 years old computer, no wonder that these happen.
It happened last year also, but then it didn't happen that often. This time, it is happening way too often and is interrupting my RL stuff.

I turn on my computer, it starts up fine, but instead of a short BEEP, it makes BEEEEEEP(a long one) and no picture is on my display.
That happens sometimes only. Restarting never worked, but when I turned off computer from power supply switch and turn back on, then computer starts correctly, with short beep, after 5-20 tries, varies a lot. It doesn't happen everyday, didn't happen for a week, today I wasted hours to get my PC working.

I did some Google search, possible faulty things are motherboard, RAM-memory or power supply connection. All wires were checked, everything is correctly in socket. Every hardware part works fine, checked by removing side cover.

Where to start to look for faulty stuff? All data is now backed up on my external hard drive, problems were before and after formatting and reinstalling Windows.

[Todor]

Provide specs...
Either a dying GPU, one that's not connected well or a motherboard issue. Specs first, though.

[Janar]

CPU:	DualCore Intel Pentium D 820, 2800 MHz (14 x 200)
Motherboard:	Gigabyte GA-8I945PLGE-RH  (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
System Memory:	1024 MB  (DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM)
Graphics card:	nVidia GeForce 7300 GT 256MB
Hard Drive:	SAMSUNG HD160JJ  (160 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)

Temperatures: GPU is 43, CPU 51, HDD 34

[Todor]

Give this a go - remove the graphics card and clean it's pins thoroughly with a slightly damp cloth - not soaking, very slightly damp. After that try and vacuum or just blow into the slot you had the card plugged into (I assume it was the x16 one). Are those idle temps? The CPU one seems kind of high, is it overclocked? What cooler are you using? Some pics of the inside of your rig might help.

[Janar]

Not overclocked. It is some original cooler, no idea.
Will try it some day.

[Bilbo]

You're sure it's just one long beep?

Because according to your motherboard's manual and its BIOS, there ain't such beep code for an error.
http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/awardbeep.htm

But IF your PC happens to have a Compaq or HP logo on it... then a long never ending beep indicates a memory failure.

[Janar]

1 long beep. Will make video with voice, if it ever does it.

[Bilbo]

Well, I'd suggest to clean your case from any excessive dust.

A long beep will most likely indicate a memory failure, which may even happen even if there isn't any physical problem.
And cutting the power would address that issue which occurs within memory modules.

Does the beep occur after starting your PC instantly after shutting it off or after a loss of power?
Or does it just occur randomly when you happen to start your PC up?

[Janar]

It happens randomly when starting my PC.

[Leon.]

You, my sir, may have come across the beep of death caused by faulty hard drives.

[Janar]

Case is now cleaned from dust. Graphics card socket seemed to be clean, although was still cleaned.
Current temperatures - CPU is 48, GPU 38 and HDD 17. Computer was recently started, last time it had been running for like 1,5-2 hours.

Today, when I started it, it started fine, no beeps, no problems.Pictures of the inside case before cleaning:

And during the cleaning.

[Leon_Mokomaki]

>_< If you take your CPU Heat sink fan off like that your going to have to clean the CPU and HSF from the old thermal paste and apply new one.

[Reece]

When working inside the computer;

Was it on the carpet?
Did you ground yourself to the chassis?
Have you applied more thermal paste to the CPU & Heat sink?
Did you touch the motherboard with pressure?

[Janar]

When working inside the computer;

Was it on the carpet?
Did you ground yourself to the chassis?
Have you applied more thermal paste to the CPU & Heat sink?
Did you touch the motherboard with pressure?

During the cleaning - no.
Uhm...yes
No.
Far distance.


My question is still, what is causing the error in the system.

[Reece]

How were you ground to the chassis?
Re-apply thermal paste.