Beep of Death?

I would like to start by saying that I am typing this from my eMac . My iMac G5 just pooped out on me. When I turn it on, it makes the start up chord, then it takes me to a white screen and does three loud beeps, then it sits there(I've waited for up to eighteen minutes) and every couple of seconds the power light blinks three times. I was wondering if anyone here knows what's going on, because I have no idea. Any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

Try taking out and reseating the memory.

"If a fault is detected during the test, you will not hear a normal startup chime. Instead, the system will beep as explained below.

1 beep = no RAM installed
2 beeps = incompatible RAM types
3 beeps = no good banks
4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)
5 beeps = processor is not usable

In addition to the beeps, on some computers the power LED will flash a corresponding number of times plus one. The LED will repeat the sequence after approximately a 5-second pause. The tones are only played once."
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547

Sounds like you may need new ram. (memory)

Which iMac G5 do you have? (processor speed, screen size)

I took the two pieces out of the "trap door" on the bottom of the computer, put them back in, and then tried to turn the computer on. Now all that happens is the three beeps, white screen, and the repeated three blinks from the power light. My iMac is 10.75' by 17', 20' diagonal. My iMac is the one w/o the black boarder around it so I don't know if the processor info is the same but the information that I got from the iMac with the black boarder was...
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB memory
320GB hard drive1
8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
I don't know if that will answer your question, sorry, I'm sort of technologically impaired.

"Some RAM may appear to pass the Power-On-Self-Test (POST) but still cannot be used by the operating system. In this case, the computer will display a gray screen, sound three tones and blink the power LED on the front of the computer three times, pause, and repeat the blinking until the computer is turned off.

The solution to both of these situations is to first re-seat the memory and test the computer again. If the memory fails the POST test again, try memory that has been verified to work correctly on another system (i.e., "known-good") or order new memory."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303083

I'll post back in a minute. I'll look to see if I can find your exact model.

Have a look at these models. See if you can identify yours.
The G5's aren't intel based processors. (core duo's and core 2 duo's are)

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

Do you have access to another Mac?

Apple iMac G5/2.0 20-Inch (ALS) Specs (M9845LL/A). I am on my eMac right now. One of the problems is that I don't know how to open the back of the iMac.

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=222
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=iMac (G5-2.0GHz, 20-inch)&pl=Apple&cat=RAM

Maximum ram is 2GB.
You should install in identical pairs (preferably in kits) for optimal performance.

A how to manual.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/imacG5_20inch_memory.pdf

Thank you SO much for all of your help. I just took out both of the ram GBs and put each one in and tried it, I found the one that isn't working and I'll just use one GB of ram for now.
Thanks again for the help.

Famn said:

Thank you SO much for all of your help. I just took out both of the ram GBs and put each one in and tried it, I found the one that isn't working and I'll just use one GB of ram for now.
Thanks again for the help.

Click to expand...

You're welcome!
Good to hear you're up and running again!