Dell 8200 won't boot, what do the beeps mean?

I would appreciate assistance with my dell 8200, thank you in advance.

There are beeps when I turn it on, I don't know how to describe
them.........sorry.
I checked the cards to make sure they are seated, seems to be OK.
Could this be a hard drive problem or possibly.......(I hope) cmos
battery problem? I'll get a new battery tomorrow, btw.
Or worse would this indicate a possible motherboard problem?
If someone could assist with what different beeps mean, I'd appreciate
it very much and give me a general direction to go in.

Miraculously it did boot into windows when I hit F12, however I know
there is still a problem. No blue screen, it just won't boot into XP.

bb28 wrote:
> I would appreciate assistance with my dell 8200, thank you in advance.
>
> There are beeps when I turn it on, I don't know how to describe
> them.........sorry.
> I checked the cards to make sure they are seated, seems to be OK.
> Could this be a hard drive problem or possibly.......(I hope) cmos
> battery problem? I'll get a new battery tomorrow, btw.
> Or worse would this indicate a possible motherboard problem?
> If someone could assist with what different beeps mean, I'd appreciate
> it very much and give me a general direction to go in.
>
> Miraculously it did boot into windows when I hit F12, however I know
> there is still a problem. No blue screen, it just won't boot into XP.
>
Check the LEDs on th rear panel, also the beep codes listed here;
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...es.htm#1101734

try reseating the memory
"Pen" <> wrote in message
news:. ..
> bb28 wrote:
>> I would appreciate assistance with my dell 8200, thank you in advance.
>>
>> There are beeps when I turn it on, I don't know how to describe
>> them.........sorry.
>> I checked the cards to make sure they are seated, seems to be OK.
>> Could this be a hard drive problem or possibly.......(I hope) cmos
>> battery problem? I'll get a new battery tomorrow, btw.
>> Or worse would this indicate a possible motherboard problem?
>> If someone could assist with what different beeps mean, I'd appreciate
>> it very much and give me a general direction to go in.
>>
>> Miraculously it did boot into windows when I hit F12, however I know
>> there is still a problem. No blue screen, it just won't boot into XP.
>>
> Check the LEDs on th rear panel, also the beep codes listed here;
> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...es.htm#1101734

and try listening closely to the beep code and report back what you hear.
the beeps will either come in long or short bursts... so you should be able
to identify what the error code is such as one long, and three short (ie.
beeeeeeeeep, beep, beep). often beep codes occur when there is something
fundamentally wrong with the system, so fundamental that the problem
prodeeds the power on self test that would later activate the lights on the
back to not register a code... here is a list of led diagnostic codes and
beep codes for your system...
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...es.htm#1101572

"Fixer" <> wrote in message
news:NcNoh.6$...
> try reseating the memory
> "Pen" <> wrote in message
> news:. ..
>> bb28 wrote:
>>> I would appreciate assistance with my dell 8200, thank you in advance.
>>>
>>> There are beeps when I turn it on, I don't know how to describe
>>> them.........sorry.
>>> I checked the cards to make sure they are seated, seems to be OK.
>>> Could this be a hard drive problem or possibly.......(I hope) cmos
>>> battery problem? I'll get a new battery tomorrow, btw.
>>> Or worse would this indicate a possible motherboard problem?
>>> If someone could assist with what different beeps mean, I'd appreciate
>>> it very much and give me a general direction to go in.
>>>
>>> Miraculously it did boot into windows when I hit F12, however I know
>>> there is still a problem. No blue screen, it just won't boot into XP.
>>>
>> Check the LEDs on th rear panel, also the beep codes listed here;
>> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...es.htm#1101734
>
>

Thanks for the tips. I put in a new battery today and reset the ram.
Everything seems to be good, although I won't be completely confident
until we've had several successful boots.
Again.......thanks, the advice was helpful.