I have a problem with the PC not booting. It goes straight into a Phoenix Bios Beep code of 3 sets of beeps, not the newer 4 set. It gives the following beeps, which I investigated, but what does it really mean?

1-3-2; 64KB RAM failure; The test of the first 64KB RAM has failed to start.

The PC is a Dell, and the unit opens from a kind of hinged front. When I open the unit, the computer boots as far as asking if I want to start in "Safe Mode" or "Start from last known good configuration" or "Start Windows Normally". I click "Start Windows Normally" and it winds up at the same menu time after time. (I did try the rest of the options too, but same results) When I close the unit, I get the beep codes with no sign of booting up at all.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Reseat all your cables and RAM. Try again. If no go, do a barebones boot by disconnecting all drives and peripherals then try to go into setup. If that is no go, download Memtest86 and run that to test the RAM. That is best done with one stick at a time.

"hinged front"??

What model is this unit?

And, welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

Thanks for the help so far :)

The model is a Dell Dimension 8400 and yes it opens from a hinge on the front right hand side. The case opens to 90 degrees so that the case innards are fully accessible.

Having completed all the tasks apart from the Memtest86, I have been presented with another problem. The boot sequence goes thus:

1. Dell welcome page appears from BIOS on pressing power button.
2. A blue bar appears (with www.dell.com on it) and a line below says "Loading PBR for descriptor 2... Done".
3. Screen goes onto "Apologize for inconvenience but windows did not start successfully etc etc" with choices to go into safe mode or last known good config or start normally. All choices lead to same next stage.
4. Windows Home Ed welcome page FLASHES up.
5. A blue MS error page FLASHES up (no chance to see the error as there is loads of writing on the error page. can't pause it either)
6. Then goes back to the Dell welcome page from the BIOS and begins all over again!

I tried to boot it from a Win98 boot disk and it got to the A: prompt no problem. (although there was a funny @ type symbol before the cursor.)

I can get into setup easily too.

See Loading PBR for descriptor 2...done (http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?p=88058)
At:
"sykotik here from Dell Gold Tech Support, it's simply loading the Image Restore Partitions. If you press CTRL+F11 when you see www.dell.com (you have a 2 second window) it will load the Restore screen. However, if don't want to lose your data and revert back to factory defaults, don't continue with it (Don't worry, it won't just RUN automatically if you hit CTRL+F11, it will pop up a Window)
It's an informational message only."

The recovery thing will not work. An "Unsupported change has occured"

I tried to setup Windows XP with an XP OS original disc but the files loaded up and it said Windows was starting and then it told me that there was no hard disk! I booted again using the 98 boot disk and typed DIR into the C: and it gave me the list OK, I don't know how much of a difference that makes but it seemed to load all the files onto the HDD at the start of the setup using the CD then tells me there's no HDD!!!???

I might try to format the HDD and run the original setup again.

This thing is taking on a life of it's own.

Cheers for that Sylvander. What's the weather like there in West Lothian :) ? I'm in Lanarkshire. It's tropical oot here. :D

See:
Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have cause this (http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=214045)
At:
"After a 40 minute phone call to Dell Customer support we ran tests on the machine and it turns out the Memory is bu**ered. Someone is coming on Tuesday to pick up the machine and replace the memory."

See:
Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. (http://www.hardwaresoftwarearticles.com/archive/index.php/t-23538.html)
At:
"I, too had the exact symptoms and my problem was that my son downloaded a
file that contained a virus and he didn't scan the file prior to opening it.
The first thing this virus did was to disable my Anti-virus programs by
deleting some of the necessary Anti-virus program files. Then, it went into
the BIOS and changed the voltages on a couple of areas on my motherboard and
fried them. I wound up bying a new motherboard from H-P for about $178.00 (a
Media Center).

Once I installed the new motherboard and then put the Pentium into the
socket and applied the heat-paste and hooked all the wires back in place, I
used my emergency bootable floppy disks to scan the hard drive. I found out
that the virus also deleted the Master Boot record on my hard drive, so I
had to do a clean (re-formatted) install. Fortunately, my last (virus-free)
backup was only a week prior, so I didn't lose very many files. Thank God I
did that backup! If I hadn't done that backup, I would have lost about 140
Gigs of data and programs!

This was a nasty bug, and AVG, Norton, and my 3 anti-spyware programs didn't
catch it in time because the first thing it did (once my son opened the
unscanned file) was to go in and delete some of the Antivirus progam's files."

The weather here in West Lothian is cool, cloudy, windless, bright. ;)

The problem has come to light.

I tried to change the HDD and try it as an IDE instead of a SATA one. The different HDD worked a treat, suggesting that it was the original HDD which was at fault. When I put the original one back as the drive to boot from, the bloody thing worked.

I think there must be an intermittent fault with the drive itself, the SATA cable or the SATA socket. I will persevere and see if it goes faulty again.

Main thing is I've isolated the fault to 3 places all associated with the Hard Drive.

thanks for al your help folks.

This seems like a great place to come for help when I'm stuck with future PC's. (I'm supposed to be the local village PC repair guy! :eek: )

What's the common factor here I wonder?

Is it that this is the BIOS giving a warning when [for whatever reason] it's unable to hand over to DOS?
And the assumption built in by the programmers is that "A recent hardware or software "change" might have caused" it.
For change read possible/probable fault.

Which village in which part of the planet? :)

All in all I reckon Dell have tried to scupper any repair attempts by "amateurs" like myself. This should have been a straight forward hard drive problem because after all, there was nothing else wrong with the PC. As you said, there might have been, and still will be a prog built in to make the problem look huge. I mean, first of all, there was the beep codes, then the fact that it worked when the case was open, but not closed!! Then the original fault showed it's face when I tried to boot from an original XP CD. I would think that it probably is something as simple as a dry joint in the blue SATA socket on the MOBO. But Dell makes us go all around the houses to try to fix it!!! :mad:

I'm in Lesmahagow by the way Sylvander. And I've got an ad. up in the chip shop which gets me two or three PC repair jobs a week. I don't advertise anywhere else because word of mouth is a great weapon in a tiny village :p . I must be doing something right because I am always being asked what to do. I'd love to get some orders to build and supply PC's but folk seem to want to throw their money at PC World and Dell and Tiny :mad: (they still on the go?). Theres been a bit of money in it so far, but I've got a good reputation now (Christ knows why, cos I bluffed for the first couple of years before I really picked up the essentials :D )

I was astonished by the behaviour of Maxtor recently.

I'd used their "MaxBlast 4" program to "set the drive size" to work with an older BIOS and needed to reset the drive size so a new IDE Controller Card would see all 80 GB rather than the 32 GB it was seeing.
I asked them for instructions on how to do it and in response they said the drive was "defective" and would send a replacement if I gave them my credit card details as security that I'd send the defective drive to them within 30 days of receiving the replacement.
I fixed it myself, then asked them why, instead of giving me the instructions I'd asked for, they'd said that a perfectly good drive was "defective".
She said that the instructions of their technicians had failed to produce a fix so this was the step available to them.
YIKES!
The instructions they gave were for setting the drive up for the old BIOS [exactly what I was trying to UNDO].
The procedure to fix it was pretty routine and they should have known how.
Yet when asked, they couldn't provide the instructions, and resorted to the FALSEHOOD that the drive was defective!

I was out your way at Wilsontown and Haywood to visit where my wife's fathers' father lived in 1886. :)

Thanks for all your help, I'm sure "I'll Be Back"

Hey guys im new to the forum but am in need of some big help :confused: . I have a similar problem with my Dell 8600 not booting. It goes straight into a Phoenix Bios Beep code of 3 sets of beeps. It gives the following beeps.
1-3-2. Same as alex.

My computer opens the same way with the hindge, but open or closed I get the beep codes with no sign of booting up at all (Blank Screen).

How did you guys go about solving this problem before. I suspect the motherboard but I would like to figure out exactly what it is to keep from a pricey trial and error repair.


Thanks so much for your time, Any help will be much appreciated.

Try a bare-bones boot as shown here
NO POST, NO BEEP, NO VIDEO
www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=39685

Use these for background & guidance
Sylvander’s Diagnostic Flowcharts
Download a copy of my diagnostic flowcharts from here
www.erniek.eclipse.co.uk/downloads/sylvanderdiags.zip
and print them to leaf through.
Begin on the STARTUP chart.