HP Pavilion a230n won't work- Need help [ Edited ]

[Alato]

Someone let me have some taken apart HP Pavilion a230n desktop(they got it somewhere else, so basically, I don't have anything that came with it originally). Everything except the hard drive was still there, though. So I'd try to use it with a 40GB hard drive I have. I was trying a bunch of different things-changing the power source, fiddling with the fans inside, memory and all the connections, replacing ribbons,- and always ending up with different problems. One thing I found out was that one of the sticks of RAM(256) was bad, so I put that aside.

There just seems to be all these different problems though. I'll go into the BIOS setup and it won't detect my hard drive. Or I'll use an XP install boot disc, then after it says "Starting Windows" it'll give an error. I've probably gotten 5 different errors like that; 4 different STOP errors and most recently where the screen just went pink-ish and had a bunch bars on screen.

Right now, I keep getting two problems that I can't change for some reason. Either everything will turn on but the display won't work, or I'll turn it on, the display won't work and the blue LED keeps flashing.

Here's what I know about my specs(essentially what I've touched and what it says on the front):

40GB Western Digital hard drive

2.08GHz AMD Atholon processor

256 MB DDR SDRAM memory - Not sure if it's 100% okay.

NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX

DVD+RW/CD-RW combo drive

I was thinking of updating the BIOS to see if that would help, but now I can't even find my BIOS version since it won't display. Any help in regards to what I can do to get this working?

Message Edited by Alato on 08-20-2009 05:19 PM

Message Edited by Alato on 08-20-2009 05:21 PM

[Rooifalk]

try this page its some info about your pc..also for bios update..maybe will help...sorry dont know answer to other stuff..s

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00006476&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=330086&lang...

[Alato]

Thanks for the link, I'm sure it'll be handy for finding drivers, but only when this thing is running. I also tried clearing the CMOS settings like it shows on the page, since I remember something about the CMOS settings coming up when it would display. That didn't seem to do anything, though. And I still can't update the BIOS since I can't see what version I'm using. I just know it's an AMI BIOS.

So, I thought I would ask three questions which could probably help me:

Would someone be able to tell me what BIOS version I'm using based on the hardware?

What does it mean when the blue LED keeps flashing when I turn it on?

And what does it mean when I turn it on, and there's a long continuous beep?(Happens every now and then)

Thanks in advance.

[Alato]

Anyone?

[Rooifalk]

No sorry m8..i wish i could tell you what to do..s.....response on this website isnt always great either.....but what you could do is call HP..i know they have a warranty line..and non warranty line for tech support you can call.....give that a try...they cant kill you..00...and im sure the help if they cant

[Adamtech]

I would contact HP directly or have a local technician look at the unit.