Mark,
( Sorry, it's a long message, but I wrote a single message to address
several issues raised by you in this thread.)
Sorry, I had missed the part that relates to beeping and that it still
continues. That's the computer trying to blip the swearing words coming
out of your mouth. :-)
Actually, that BIOS' beeping is a code for the error (the outcome of
POST). Search in Google for "bios beep codes" and then add your computer
maker's name, e.g.,
bios beep codes dell
Or see them, e.g. here: http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm .
You'll see what different number of beeps mean.
E.g. 5 short beeps from DELL bios means CMOS battery failure",
which would be consistent with your leaving the computer off
for a week (as Darren has suggested).
As for the events viewer, - you may still get some additional information
about what's wrong.
I don't know if you have Win7 (or an earlier system, Vista or XP).
Under Win-7, there are two ways you can look at things.
On the LHS, click on "Event Viewer (Local)"
Then on the RHS, you'll see "Overview and Summary.
Under the "summary of Administrative Events, you can see categories:
Critical
Error
Warning
Information
...
And then there will be the number of the corresponding events within the
last hour, 24 hours, 7 days.
What you are interested in are the first two categories.
You can click on the "plus" sign to expand, and then see what type of
events there are.
You are interested in those events for which the column "Log" has
"System".
Double-Click on each of those and read what it says what was happening.
In principle, it's ok to have a bunch of those. But you want to see what
might be relevant to device drivers and timeouts.
You get back to that same list by clicking again on the "Event Viewer" on
the LHS.
Alternatively, you can click on "Custom Views" -> Administrative Events,
and go through the events.
Yet the second alternative, or if it is an older version (I don't
remember how it looks under XP, and I don't want know to fire up the old
XP desktop just for that, sorry), you can click
on Windows Logs on the LHS, and then on "System", and the scroll through
tens and hundreds of "Information" messages, looking only at the "Error"
type. Better yet, you can click on the first column "Level", and then it
will sort according to the level (it may take about a minute while it does
that). Then "Critical" and "Error" will be at the top (or at the bottom,
if you clicked twice).
As for restoring to just a few hours ago, that didn't make sense. It was
making sense only to restore to a few days ago, before you had that mishap
with the USB driver installation.
If your HDD space is really tight, the system may have removed the earlier
restore points, but if not, - you may still want to start "restore" again,
and look at the earlier dates.
Re: Custom build vs. off the shelf.
I've been buying custom-built PCs (from a highly reputable custom-builder
Kevin Chalker of KC-Computers, who retired some 3-5 years ago).
These days, you can buy a well balanced high[er]-end desktop from some
standard manufacturers, but I would steer clear from Best Buy.
I haven't used them for desktops, but had bought 1 or 2 customized laptops
from this shop:
http://www.portableone.com/Custom-Desktops
(And I had my laptop fixed couple of times while they were still doing
warranty repairs, which they stopped a few years back.)
They offer customized desktops. You can look at those.
They don't built computers from parts, but they customize the
quality off-the-shelf computer.
You don't pay too much overhead for the customization, but you avoid the
headaches and get some assurance that things will be tested to work
together.
HTH.
Good luck!
Igor
Mark C Tue, 15 Mar 2016 15:53:37 -0700 wrote:
Thanks Igor -
I don't know what to look for in event viewer... I read through all the
logs but the only entries that repeat over and over are ones that indicate
a normal state. The whole "Application and Services Logs" section is blank
- nothing in there, including the Hardware section (where I expected there
would be something.) Does that mean that it is not turned on?
I did try a system restore but before this happened the machine downloaded
and installed 30 some updates and created 5 restore points - at least. So
the best I could do was restore it to a state a few hours earlier. Not
sure why I have so few restore pints... but with the beeping upon power
up, before windows loads, I assume this is a hardware issue and not a
windows issue anyhow.
Mark
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