HP Pavilion a6230n with Vista - 1 short beep followed by one long beep repetitively and will not boot at all. The beeping pattern continues indefinitely.

check ram and other peripherals. If not those then the CPU may not be seated properly or you may have forgot to put thermal paste between the cpu and heatsync

hope this helps

2 short beeps and 1 long beep (repeats 5 times)
Unable to initialize video or video card required but not installed.
if you have a video board add on card, reseat after unplugging power cord.
If built in, time for new computer

firt well try the easiest solution.... did u take out the cmos battery on the board for a few minutes, put back in and try again. of course, unplug your computer before u do this. is there a beep pattern?, how many beeps...

Based on your description of your problem, my educated guess is that you have a problem with the system board or motherboard. Checking Compaq support site, it says that beeps are generally heard when a hardware device is not connected properly or has failed.

First thing to try is disconnect the keybaord and mouse and try to start the computer again. What we are trying to do is find out which hardware device might be involved. So start with the keyboard an mouse. If the computer still does not start, remove any periferal drives, like floppy or cd drives.

There are several beep codes, below are a few examples listed:

Beep codes common to HP and Compaq Desktop PCs The following beep codes are common to many HP and Compaq desktop computers. Use these codes first before referring to the other code lists. NOTE: Not all codes are shown. Beeps Description 1 short beep and 1 long beep Memory problem 2 short beeps and 1 long beep (repeats 5 times) Unable to initialize video or video card required but not installed 3 short beeps and 1 long beep CPU configuration error or CPU type is not compatible The following beep codes are common to many HP and Compaq desktop computers that can occur while restoring, flashing or updating the BIOS : Beeps Description 1 short beep Legacy floppy drive or CD/DVD drive not detected 2 short beeps Floppy diskette or compact disc not detected 3 short beeps Unable to start flashing (such as when missing a utility or BIOS image) 4 short beeps Flashing failed (checksum error, corrupted image, etc.) 5 short beeps BIOS recovery successful Try working on this solution and see if you can get the computer to start. Below is a link to a troubleshooting page from Compaq for your computer. This can be a good reference as well.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00899280&tmp_task=solveCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&dest_page=solveCategory&tool=solveCategory&query=pavilion%20m8200n&product=3548185

I hope that this information was helpful.

Brian

If not solved yet, make sure the fan is spinning on the heat sink on the processor. If it is, then if you have a video card installed, make sure that fan is spinning. These are 2 pieces of hardware that will cause the beeping and shut down.

The beeps you are receiving are called "BIOS beep codes." You can look what the beep code indicates from here for HP:

h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph07107

I found some info on a forum, it says the 1 long and 2 short beeps is a problem with the graphics chip. You may need a replacement motherboard.
Check this post out
http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/1-long-2-short-beeps-hp-laptop-/52894.html

that is vga problem bring to the com tech.. to repair the vga.....

This website:
http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

Lists standard beep codes for computers. The one long, followed by two short beeps indicates a display problem according to the site.

I have heard other people say that the same beep codes specify a RAM problem.

Have you recently installed any new RAM or a new graphics card, or made changes to either.

It seems likely to be the graphics card because of the missing info on the screen. Usually when RAM is bad there is something on the screen.