Beeps and Beeps and wont start

[john_johnson]

I recently picked up an old compaq deskpro pentium 2, with an 8gb hard drive and some mixed-and-matched parts to rebuild.  The hard drive had Win 98, which was working fine.  I tried to get into the BIOS to install XP and it froze, so i shut off and restarted.  Unfortunatley, the computer wouldn't restart.  It just beeps an annoying amount of times, the cd drive spins, and then nothing else happens.  I am completely stumped and worried, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Computer_Commando]

...
1.  I tried to get into the BIOS to install XP
2.  It just beeps an annoying amount of times, the cd drive spins, and then nothing else happens.  I am completely stumped and worried, any help would be greatly appreciated.

1.  Why do you need "to get into the BIOS to install XP"?
2.  Have you removed or reinstalled any hardware?  
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm
How much memory on the PII?  XP needs at least 128MB.

[GX1_Man]

You spent more on XP than that old machine is worth, and it will not run it well, as is. I would rethink the operating system as Win98 would be a much better solution once you get it working.