Hi, hoping someone can steer me in the right direction. Home computer was working fine until last night, when it could not be brought out of "sleep" mode. Finally had to shut the system down. Now when we try to bring the system up, the hard drive just beeps every 10 seconds or so, and the monitor is blank (yellow light is on, as if it's not getting any signal from the hard drive). Double-checked all connections, and all are fine. Anyone have any suggestions? Is it time to contact a repair person? Thanks!
That's not your hard drive beeping. That's a POST error. You can look here to find out what your combination means. http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm
One thing to try....shut off your computer and then, unplug it from the wall outlet so there is *no* power going to the PC. Wait about 30-45 seconds and then plug it back in and try starting it. We often see computers "hung" at startup when an error has occured on the built in IDE drive contoller or the built-in NIC. Just turning off your computer doesn't get rid of the error as power is still being applied to the motherboard. Unplugging it from the wall and waiting a short time will allow the internal components to completely discharge and (hopefully) correct the error. Good luck!
You'll need to know what kind of BIOS you have to use this page for beep code definitions. When your computer boots to the black screen, look at the very first line up top. Look for "Award" "AMI" those are the 2 most common. Then click on that link on the page Space Cowboy gave you. Or you can post the beep code on here and we can tell you what it means. Beep codes can be counted. Something like moorse code. Like 3 beeps a pause and 1 beep or 7 continuous beeps ...etc. Telling us the age of the PC helps define some of the reasons.
Unplugging from the wall worked once, and we were able to begin startup in Safe mode, but then it never made it all the way "up" and just froze. We're still getting only a black screen, with a single beep every seven seconds. Is there a reset button somewhere in the hard drive?
Sorry no reset buttons on hard drives. Without looking at it you have 1 of 2 possible problems. RAM or Hard Drive. I would guess it's the hard drive. Outside chance, it could be the power supply. If you have important data on the drive you don't want to loose STOP PLAYING WITH IT!! Have it fixed by someone who knows what they are doing and they can possibly recover your data.
