Beep! Beep! - And It's Not A Sputnik!

[gl556tr]

I have an Asus motherboard "M2N-E". It has been performing quite satisfactorily. When I switched on the PC, nothing happened: the screen was blank. All the feedback -- if one can call it that -- I had were two beeps, of the same tone.
_I then did two checks:
1) HDD - attached it as an external HDD to my notebook. I was able to read (access) the contents. Gave that a tick, and popped it back in the PC.
2) Monitor - attached that as a second display to my notebook. I was able to see the notebook's desktop on the monitor. Another tick, and re-connected to the PC. For this, I am using a DVI connection. I need to get hold of a VGA cable in order to check PC-to-monitor function via this connection.

_When power is switched on, I can see a green light, which I think is on the motherboard. This is before I boot the PC.
How can one find out what the acoustic signals mean?
Has anybody some suggestions, please?
Thank you.

[hammerman]

Not sure if this is of any help but i have an Asus laptop and it went blank before the warranty was up. I asked around and was told that the motherboard failing was a common problem with Asus.

Got mine renewed under warranty

[gl556tr]

H, thank you for your hasty reply. My Asus mb has been serving me well for > seven years. I was not aware of the Asus mb being a problem. Is 7+ years old for a mb? I wonder what life-expectancy of these generally is.

I'll get a VGA cable tomorrow. But, I hope that, in the meantime, a helpful answer arrives. Otherwise, I'll be rather busy replacing the Asus. With another make? ...!

[TheChair]

"When power is switched on, I can see a green light, which I think is on the motherboard. This is before I boot the PC."
This is normal, and found on all modern motherboards, and indicates power to the motherboard, and (usually) USB. The power switch on the front of the case puts the computer in standby mode, as does choosing shutdown from the Windows options. This is not the same as Sleep of Hibernate - it's like the standby on your telly when you turn it off using the zapper.

The motherboard will always send error info to the monitor if possible, so when you hear beep codes and get no screen, it's because it can't.

Possible reasons are:
PSU failure.
CPU failure.
GPU failure.
Total memory failure.

I believe that the MSN-E does not have onboard graphics. If that's the case, the first thing to check is that the Graphics card is fully seated. Often (really often) the downward pressure from the monitor cable will gradually rotate the Grahics card in its slot, causing the back to lift (that's why there's a clip at the back of the adaptor - to try to prevent this).

The very first thing I would do is open the case, remove the graphics adaptor, ensure that the contacts are clean, and reseat it. While the case is open, you might as well do the same with the RAM.

[bhg481]

Did you make yourself recovery discs when you first got the laptop? Have you got a DVD drive? If "Yes" to both you could try putting the recovery DVD in the optical drive and re-booting - you may be able to go into System REcovery.

[TheChair]

Should have said. Ensure that you either turn of the machine with the switch at the back, or pull the mains cord (the green light will go out a few seconds later) before fiddling with the memory sticks!

[TTG]

Take ram sticks out and try one at a time if you have 2 sticks. If still problem, replace ram.

[gl556tr]

I am pleased with all your helpful answers. (Whilst they were 'arriving', I had been engaged in reviving my PC. First, I disconnected the power! Although all cards are held securely to the motherboard with a lever-clamp, I checked the graphics card and RAMs. The problem persisted. So I put in a new CMOS battery, which did the job - once I reset BIOS with date, etc.
Then a re-boot: lo and behold, Win started. Wonders never cease.

TAB UK is an excellent forum.

TC, what is a " PSU failure"?

[TheChair]

TC, what is a " PSU failure"?
PSU = Power Supply Unit.
Because the PSU supplies a number of different voltages on different lines, it's possible for one or another of the lines to fail, while still supplying power to some parts of the computer.