I have had my current home pc for almost two and a half years and have had problems over the last few weeks installing new software.  Last night I switched it on and instead of going through the usual boot up process, a few seconds after switching on it started to beep intermittently and wouldn't go any further through the startup process.  I have tried it with and without the Vista system disc in the drive, many, may times and no joy.

Has my hard drive gone?  If I do get another one are they easy to install?  (I have put in a new graphics card.)  Will my Vista system disc still wrok for another installation?  Any recommendations?  HELP!

Thanks.

1, Can you advise the number of beeps and the brand of motherboard.BIOS as this might give a clue to the problem?

2, Are you getting anything on your monitor as it starts the BIOS sequence?

3, If you are, can you get into the BIOS set-up to check your HDD is being recognised properly?

3. If you don't mind delving inside the PC, try unplugging / reseating your graphics card, memory chips etc. Remember to turn the power off first but touch the chassis to 'earth' yourself first. 

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2 x PC, 2 x Macs......both have their good points
Windows on a Mac = ideal!

Off the top of my head I am getting no image on the monitor and the pc is an HP Media Centre bought from PC World.

still need more info ... esp motherboard / bios then we can provide a more acurate guide

Beeps	Meaning
1 short	DRAM refresh failure
2 short	Parity circuit failure in the first 64KB of RAM: Likely a bad RAM IC, or possibly one of the hardware tests has failed
3 short	Memory failure in the first 64KB of RAM: Likely a bad RAM IC
4 short	System timer failure: Bad clock IC or bad RAM in the first bank of memory
5 short	Processor failure: The CPU has failed.
6 short	Keyboard controller Gate A20 error: The keyboard controller has failed. Due to its integration into the system board, you usually must replace the motherboard.
7 short	Virtual mode exception error: CPU has generated an exception error; bad CPU or motherboard
8 short	Display memory Read/Write test failure: Bad video card
9 short	ROM BIOS checksum failure: BIOS is defective
10 short	CMOS shutdown Read/Write error
11 short	Cache Memory error: Specifically, the L2 cache is bad.
1 long, 2 short	Video system failure: Error in video card BIOS, or a horizontal retrace has failed
1 long, 3 short	Conventional/Extended memory failure: RAM is bad
1 long, 8 short	Display/Retrace test failed: Video adapter is defective or missing

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"wasn`t me it was broken when i got here"

I unplugged all but essential hardware which helped a bit, but the pc is still freezing after boot up or going to "blue screen of death" all the time.  One of the boot up options was to go to back to options at last successful boot up, which slowly loaded up then froze when I tried to update the AVG protection.  The pc doesn't always notice that there is a Vista system disc in the drive and is giving me different error messages all the time, some of which mention hard disc errors.  I was able to go in successfully in safe mode, but then I couldn't do any of the things that I wanted.

I never had this with my Commodore 64...

1. Well, at least it seems you don't have a completely broken PC!

2. Hard disk errors doesn't sound too promising! If you've not got one, take a back-up while you can! Check your disk for errors:

 http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/bc1393cf-9f9c-79c7-0f91-9337c2c41f811033.mspx

3.If you can boot up in Safe Mode, have a look at Device Manager for errors. Start re-adding your hardware one at a time and rebooting  to see if something here is creating the problem.

4. Were you doing anything, adding software etc, which possibly caused the problem? Do you have a system restore point prior to this?

5 SYNTAX ERROR     :-)

Salamat

 

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2 x PC, 2 x Macs......both have their good points
Windows on a Mac = ideal!

The situation now... The first attempt to go in got a blue screen of death and error message Ox656E6FCA, OxOOOOOOOOOO2, OxOOOOOOOOOO, then Ox8225DEOB.  Not sure about the exact number of zeros in the middle two, but you get the gist.

I can go online in safe mode and do basic stuff, which is okay but not satisfactory in the long term.

I tried doing a system restore to a previous date but got the error code 0x80070057.

I ran the windows memory diagnostic tool which told me that hardware problems had been detected, then it froze
during the test pass one with 28% complete, overall test status 14% complete.

The HP media centre PC was bought in May 2006 and has dual core.

Any ideas?  How much will it cost for somewhere like PC World to have a look at it?

1. When you boot up and the BIOS does it's tests, is it showing the full amount of ram?

2. How many memory modules do you have? If a pair. maybe try removing one at a time and running the memory test and you might identify faulty ram.

3. Know anyone else who could test your ram or got some to substitute.

4. Am surprised it's working in Safe Mode if you have memory errors...I would have thought that would indicate problems in drivers that are used when not in Safe Mode.

5. If you've had it since 2006, have you thought about a reinstall from scratch....can do wonders to clear out accumulated **** !

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can come up with some more suggestions for you.

Salamat

 

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2 x PC, 2 x Macs......both have their good points
Windows on a Mac = ideal!

The 0x80070057 error code typically occurs because of 3rd party driver issues , but outlook is also known to cause this error

What causes Error 0x80070057

# Windows Update simply has an issue with your "Software Distribution" folder.

# This appears to be an issue with the program Netop which enters a driver entry into the enum\root\unknown key in the registry.

0x00000000 is a memory error . If you keep trying and supply the relevant information I'm sure we can fix this , but the quick fix option would be to do a complete re-install

 

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"wasn`t me it was broken when i got here"