old_expat - 2:47 am on Feb 26, 2007 (gmt 0)

New computer with pretty standard bells and whistles, Thai version of XP.

A week ago I started getting triple "beeps" like a component/board failure or (?), and a black screen.

After a few tries it would start and seemed to run okay. This went on for several days.

Two days ago, I hit the start button and got a bezel light very briefly, then nothing. Dead silence. Pressing 'start' .. nothing .. unless I unplug the power for a few seconds. Then I get the same symptom = fans just start to turn (not even 1 rev), then dies again.

I tried unseating and replugging VGA and RAM. No good. I started to try a spare power supply but the main board has one of those 24 pin power sockets .. where the 20 pin plug and 4 pin plug nest together.

Someone suggested that it might be the main board battery.

Monitor is okay .. (backup machine.)

It's a long way to the nearest "good" 'puter shop? But if I know for sure what the problem is, I can get a friend to buy the part(s) in BKK and EMS them to me. (Computer is too large to EMS.)

What does this sound like to you?

TIA