Booting process is beeping, but not booting

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tepeco

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I have a SONY PC (RX-580) and it is not booting on an erratic basis. The first problem was after pushing the start button, the fan starts on high speed, but no activity light and no HD light came on at all. AFter 1.5 minutes or so, I rebooted after removing the power cord for 30 seconds. This happened 8 times today. I should mention that during this time, nothing comes on screen at all. There is no opportunity to get to the CMOS settings or even to boot with a floopy. (yes this still has a floppy drive in it.) Normally, for the past several months, this problem has simply been an inconvenience and after 2 or 3 tries, the unit boots up fine and works fine all day. Today, when it failed to do this so many times, I shut it down, opened the case and proceeded to reset all cables and connections. I didn't notice any loose connections. I didn't remove ram sticks. I then rebooted and this time, I got the HD light activity for a few seconds, then the fan slowed to a normal level as like everything was going to be okay. After a few minutes, the activity light was still lit, but no flickering like something was happening.

I turned the machine off again. I should mention that each time I turned the machine off, I didn't have to hold the button in for the normal 5 seconds. It turned of immediately.

I once again, inspected and reseated cards. I did not remove RAM sticks. This time, I plugged in and booted and right away, got a 3 or 4 second solid warning tone, followed by about 3 seconds of silence. It repeated and kept going until I turned the unit off again.

I suspected the power supply but I don't want to replace it until I know for sure. Do places test these power supplies or do they just replace them because of the cost of service? Any suggestions?
 
you a buy a tester tool for $12 and also use a multimeter. I would just replace the darn PSU.
 
Replace the power supply. It is the cheapest, and most prone part for failure in your Sony. I bet you don't even know what a power supply tester or a multimeter is :)
 
I also know what an electron microscope is and that you can test the presence of very small matter with it, but having that knowledge doesn't make me qualified to use it. And the smiley face is cute but does not hide the rudeness of the comment. I asked for a little help here, not to have my intelligence questioned.

Now, that said, my question was whether the power supply might be the problem. And whether it is worthwhile to have someone check it. You know, some things cost more to check than to replace. It is apparent from you two, that testing would be fairly simple, but both of you also suggest replacement. I wouldn't begin to understand how to use a tester, so blind replacement would be better than paying a techie to test it?

I would just like to save some time and money, both of which I have little of. If the computer is likely to work right again after replaced the power supply, then that's what I would do. If not, I suspect that the cost to fix might surpass value. There is a law of diminishing returns and at what point is enough already?
 
The most educated scientist or engineer may not know diddily about the individual components of a computer or how they work together. My comment was not meant to be rude. It was meant as a statment of fact. Most computer users do not have the knowledge to replace individual components of a computer, let alone, know how to test these components. A computer power supply tester is under $20, and it can be bought at places like Radio Shack or Best Buy. I have one. Do I use it? Not often... It takes all of 10 minutes to swap out a power supply. If you can replace the power supply, do it first. Hopefully, the motherboard is ok
 
you gotta develop a thick skin around here..... and buying a tester for $12 certainly costs less than spending $50 or $100 for a new psu - especially when it may not be necessary. Tester tools are pretty much self explanitory. You just plug the load ends in. Green for good, red for bad.... and good ones have ports to plug in multimeter leads to check voltages and amps. You will need to test the psu under load and no-load to see what it is drawing.

You will need both for a correct diagnosis. If you're not comfortable doing this, then spend $100 for a new psu with adequate wattage. google psu calculator and add 30% to the results - then buy quality. The comments you were saying indicated you didn't have a clue. Most of us around here know more than the basics. But if you want to LEARN, then do it yourself. We all started somewhere and the best teacher is experience.
 
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