Further experimentation has led me to discover one more peculiarity: when only 1 of my two RAM sticks are placed in the machine, there is no image on my monitor (still using the old video card). I need both of the 512 DDR sticks to get any signal to my monitor.

Does it still make that sound? And if yes , could you try to find out what part is excactly making that sound?

No, it is no longer making that sound.

1) Sounds like there could be a faulty RAM chip, so lets test. You have
two RAM sticks, lets call them A and B.

We know your PC works with both A and B in, and it doesn't work when
only A is connected. But does it work when only B is connected?
This way we can rule out whether one of the sticks is faulty.

2) Don't worry too much about this error for now, this error normally
comes up when you reset the BIOS or press too many keys when the
PC boots up.
We should still try and get into your BIOS, on your system you need to press the DEL key on startup.
So when you turn your computer on start tapping the DEL key. (1 second between taps).

3) It seems like your computer isn't detecting your hard drive and therefore
is unable to boot into windows so would you be able to test your hard
drive in another computer to see whether you can detect it and see any
of your files on it.

Hi, it's been a while since I updated this thread due to massive amounts of work. I've just finished my extended project and now want to get back at fixing my computer. Just today, I tested out my hard drives on another system. They still work. Apparently, the odd sound I heard prior was not coming from my hard drives.

Replying to what Zimbo posted four weeks ago, it only displays any image at all if BOTH RAM sticks are inserted: either one individually will not allow an image to be produced. The D-Bracket connected to my MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum allows me to infer that my CPU is still working fine.

I've tried replacing the CMOS battery, switching the jumpers, but to no avail: I still get the Boot Block screen, and there's no amount of keyboard tapping that can prevent this.

When I did insert a system disk with MS DOS on it, I was able to get a simple dos interface, but could do nothing with it.

This is infuriating and frustrating. Someone please rekindle this old flame of a post and help me to finally solve this problem. Thanks!

Can I ask what BIOS you are using. Award etc.. This way we can find what the "no post error beep" codes are. Usually one beep means everything is fine.