I'm trying to diagnose and fix an emachine for a friend. model S1940 (1900 AMD Athlon XP and FIC AM37 Motherboard).

All stock. The story is, that it just wouldn't start one day. When powered up, the system gives one long beep about every 5 seconds, but nothing else happens. It does not give any feedback via the display. (as if the video were not connected). I tried to prove that each component worked by testing with another machine... but that didn't yield conclusive results.

I think the H.D. is ok. I think the Power supply is ok, but less certain then the HD. (I can elaborate more on these hunches, but will abstain to keep this short) I couldn't make it boot with a known good hard drive. I also couldn't make it work with a known good power supply. (This is complicated by the fact that I don't know if the spare power supply was exactly right for the machine. ?)

When I swap in the good hard drive, I can hear it spin, but it clicks and makes noises that it doesn't when it boots in my other machine. The CPU fan spins too. I'm guessing this means that those two components are getting the necessary power from the Power Supply?

It came to me with no memory in it. -When the system died, the friends son swiped the memory to put in something else. I take it to mean that the memory was not the reason for the breakdown. I purchased and installed a stick, but without a working machine in the first place, I can't prove that the memory is good. My other machines run different memory, so I can't swap it out and prove it works. For now, I'm assuming the memory is fine, and another problem exists.

I'd like to know what the long beep indicates. Is it a clue that would indicate the next steps to take? Suggestions please?