Help with a hardware problem

[Amer]

I have a problem with my PC where it will boot into Windows 98 SE then after a little while it will black screen and a steady tone will come from the speakers. Could this be a bad video card? maybe the whole mb or cpu? is there a way to norrow it down without buying new parts that I may not need?

Any help would be great!

system specs:
AMD K6-III 400
FIC PA-2013 motherboard
96 Meg RAM
TNT2 M64 video card
SB Live! Value
250W power supply:frown:

 

[Melnibone]

Unfortunately, it could be the MB, video card, or just about anything in your computer- including your system or OS set-ups. At least it's doubtful that it's your CPU or RAM.

I'd strip everything not necessary for boot-up out- no sound cards, no CD, no floppy, no nics, no SCSI, no USB, etc. and try safe mode- see if it's cured. Then re-add one piece at a time, see what happens.

 

[WarCon]

If you just turn it on and do nothing will it lock-up? Kind of sounds like a temperature issue. I would get some canned air and some thermal compound. I would blow out my system very well and then take the heatsink off and clean off the old thermal compound and reapply new stuff. Thermal compound can dry out and then it isn't very effective and can cause heat related crashes. Use rubbing alcohol to clean the old paste off and then apply a fairly thin coat to the heatsink.

This may not be the problem, it could be dying power supply (250W is enough for what your running). But it might be full of dust and overheating so make sure you blow the powersupply out too.

Another scenario might simply be hostile software. (bad driver, corrupt activeX, lower version of directX over a newer version, virus....etc.)

And less likely but still possible it could be any of your other components failing. You solve that by removing one component at a time and see if you can replicate the problem with that device out.