Eddie Truong-Cao's post (clipped):--

<<<< There
is a periodic 1-second long beep every 2 or 3 seconds, but nothing else happens>>>>

It appears you have an " improperly seated" ram memory stick.

Suggest you power down, ground yourself properly, take out the memory stick(s)
and " reseat" them taking care you apply uniform pressure at both the ends so that both the latches at both ends " latch" simultaneously and not one after the other which happens sometimes if the pressure is not uniform accross the width of the stick.

HTH and good luck----Venkat Viswanathan

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