This computer (let's call it Computer A) was built by somebody else. It has a Soyo motherboard, 2 CD/ROM drives, a Maxtor hard drive, 512 MB RAM, modem, sound card, video card, diskette drive.
I have swapped out or disconnected all the above items, except for the hard drive. I replaced the CPU with a known good AMD Athlon XP 2200 processor (let's call it CPU B). It did not respond at all.
I have determined that the old CPU (let's call it CPU A) was bad. I know this because I disabled or swapped out every other peripheral, including memory, and still just get the one long beep code. This is an Award BIOS. I put a PCI BIOS Code reader in a PCI slot, and get a C1 code. This indicates memory. But swapping the memory does not make the beep code go away.
OK, then I replaced CPU B into the computer from which it was taken (let's call it Computer B), but it froze on POST, right after checking the memory.
I thought that I had fried the CPU when I put it in Computer A. So, I went out to Fry's and bought a new Sempron 2500 CPU (which we will call CPU C). It did the same thing: It froze on POST, just after checking the memory.
I fiddled with it, and reset the BIOS by moving the jumper, and then moving the jumper back to the normal position. It still froze at the same place in POST. Then, I noticed that the power cable to the diskette drive was not connected. When I connected it and booted, it went all the way into Windows XP! So, apparently, CPU C is OK, especially since I am using it right now to post this thread.
So, this caused me to think that maybe it's just a BIOS configuration issue with Computer A. I tried resetting the BIOS jumper on Computer A and installing CPU B, and attaching all the peripherals, in hopes that it would boot OK. Now, there is no beep code, but it doesn't even show anything on the monitor.
I will try using the PCI POST Code card to see what error code it might return. Meanwhile, I just wanted to get this thread started, and get your ideas. Let me know what to do. Thanks.
