System Won't POST

[RalphTheCow]

I have an old Gigabyte HA-586HX motherboard with Award BIOS and Cyrix 686 chip that has been inactive for about a year. I installed a new 3.5" drive, IDE hard disc and CDROM. I get a constant beeping on POST with no video. So that would seem to be probably either the memory or video.

Would a dead motherboard battery cause this? The drives are totally new so I'm not sure that if the battery is dead what information could be needed that isn't there. Is it OK to start it with no IDE cables, just the power cables on the drives and CDROM to make sure that enough current is drawn, to eliminate the drives as a source of trouble? What can I check on the Diamond Stealth PCI video card?

This is an pretty old system that I am just trying to put together to try Linux on. Thanks.

 

[DodgyDoug]

Nope would'nt have though a battery would cause that. If the battery goes you might lose some settings and/or the time.. would still boot though..

You'd be ok to try booting with just the power cables on your hard drive though dont really understand why you'd wasnt to do that.... I suppose you could hear them spin up but if you really want to eliminate them, diconnect them totally, you'll still get to BIOS..

Think your right about the ram and the video card.. Outta the two i'd go for memory. The single continuous beep is trying to indicate that something is urgently wrong. Normally the videocard missing is broken beeps.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Also make sure that the CPU is seated properly. The BIOS also beeps when no CPU found or BAD CPU. You can contact the motherboard manufacturer to get the errors that go with the beep sequence that you have.

 

[RalphTheCow]

Thanks for the help. It was a loose SIMM.