Resolved Boot up bleeps like lorry reversing

No idea what forum this should go in, take your choice.
Boot up bleeps , about 8 times,like lorry reversing then stops, any downloads are very very slow, can't get into Windows BBS on PC with bleep problem ( See thread in XP forum ). have tried downloading IE 8 on it, but had not downloaded after 90 minutes.
OS Windows XP, 250 GB HD, partitioned 50/50. HD no jumper 'Master' shown on drive as no jumper required
Fed up,
Spanner
Not one of my better days at our over 50's forum, members preparing to get a 1.30 am start to go on holiday to Spain.

 

Hi Spanner, Without M/B brand it's a shot in the dark as Pete said.
Has the comp been moved around lately?
Anything been done internally?
Check to see if the Graphics card is installed fully and clean contacts. Neil.

 

Afternoon al,land thanks for response.
The thread I posted that I referred to , was switched to another forum by Admin, 'Site Comments and suggestions; under the heading " Not allowed view Windows BBS " might be worth a look at to see the responses that link with my comments in this about IE 8.
Will check out rest of your comments SAP.
Spanner

 

Amendment to my reply, phoned owner of PC and got him to boot up PC so I could listen to number of bleeps, It was more like a fleet of lorries reversing, did not stop, told him to press his re-start button, when it booted up on restart only one bleep.
I will get him to install ( fingers crossed) Priiform Speccy, and get a summary of his system spec's.
Not being allowed to access Windows BBS on it still, must be IE ?
Get back again SAP.
Spanner

 

Keyboard ? Check that no key is pressed on keyboard during boot.

 

Thank you rsinfo, I think you may be correct, when I phoned the owner after I had read your post, he admitted that he had a few books on his desk ?.
He downloaded Speccy ok and his BIOS is, Phoenix 16 Feb 2004 version 6, so I got him to install Biosagentplus , that updated his Bios etc, and as from this morning his system is working ok, (x fingers ) only one bleep on start up.
This may be a better day.
Thanks again, marking this Resolved (x fingers again)
Spanner

 

That typically indicates a successful POST (power on self test) - a good thing!

Concerning the HD jumper, there are no Master, Slave, or Cable Select settings for SATA drives because SATA drives have their own dedicated cables.

EIDE (PATA) drive cables support 2 drives per cable and use Master and Slave, or Cable Select. Cable Select (CS) is used with 1 or 2 drives and the system determines if Master (MA) or Slave (SL) depending on the cable connection used (so you don't have to fiddle with MA or SL jumpers). You cannot mix CS and MA/SL on the same cable. With two drives on one cable, both are set to CS, or one is set to MA and the other to SL. If only one drive installed, it should be jumpered to CS and located on the MA connector (opposite end from motherboard connector) or jumpered to MA and on MA connector.

Newer motherboards that still support PATA drives may only have one PATA connector. But older boards typically came with two PATA connectors to support 4 drives. If only two drives are used but the motherboard supports four, install both as Master (CS or MA) using two cables for best performance. Just be sure to route cables to minimize impacting air flow through the case. And replace flat ribbon cables with round ones is recommended.

And we are talking about physical drives - partitions don't count.