Computer won't boot

Aero

New Member
I work in a lab on a college campus, and one of our machines went down today. It was working last week when I used it and then today I got a call that it was no longer working. I came in and when I tried to turn it on I heard the fans start and then the computer began beeping.
I turned it off immediately and took off the side panel to inspect the insides. I didn't find any loose connections, or anything not plugged in that should be. So I tried booting again. Again the computer started, lights came on, and within 1 second the computer's motherboard turned on a red light in the far bottom corner and started beeping. It won't even make it to the option of going into the BIOS setup so I'm not sure what could be wrong.
The computer was built by Monarch Computer Systems, it has an AMD Athlon 64 and the motherboard is an ABIT-AV8. There website and manual were not helpful at all. Any ideas? Could this be a motherboard issue or something else? I have a feeling it has to be a hardware error since it cannot even finish the booting process.

Thanks for any and all help!!
 
First, just try reseating all expansion cards, memory and such. Sometimes a loose connection causes this.

The beeps are a code telling you whats wrong with the system. You might have short and long peeps or pauses in between. Try and determine what the beep code to be and let us know.
 
This is the point that you begin to learn patients. Assuming (yes, that's a bad thing to do) that you have more than one memory stick remove one and try to boot. If the problem is the same, swap them out and boot again. If you still have the same result begin disconnecting cards, drives and all hardware, one piece at a time.

If you do not get a boot of any sort you need a Motherboard analyzer card to be certain but it will most likely be the motherboard or the processor. Then the cheepest solution is to go to tigerDirect.com and purchase a motherboard Combo that uses the same memory.
 
Thanks guys! I won't get back to the lab till end of this week but I will try to tinker with it more and see what I can figure out. Thanks for the help!
 
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