BIOS won't post

[jubalskeiki]

My grandmothers computer is about 3 years old. It has been running absolutely stable with no problems until recently. A few months ago the mouse stopped working. It was having IRQ issues. It wasn't a huge deal (I actually didn't even find out about it until a couple months ago...and didn't find out exactly what had happened until about 30 minutes ago) because we have extra mice. Well, about a week and a half ago the computer started getting really hinky. It sounds like the processor may have been over heating (there were alternating high and low beeps and the comp froze up). Now it won't post at all. It sits and beeps when you turn it on. It is one long beep followed by a pause and then another long beep until you shut it off. I looked up the error code (it is an award BIOS) and couldn't find this pattern.

The computer specs are:
MB: Abit KD7-e
Proc: XP 2500
VC: Radeon 7500
RAM: 512 Corsair VS
PSU: Generic 300w
CDRW: Liteon 52x 32x 52x
HD: WD 7200RPM 80GB

The first time It happened I was able to get it back up and running by taking out my extra HD out (thinking maybe it was over taxing the PSU). My HD is a WD 200GB. Today it crashed again. Even with all of the peripherals unplugged/removed the BIOS still won't post. The light on the monitor doesn't even change color.

I am thinking maybe the processor got fried...but is there a way to test that without having to spend the money for a new socket a proc? Other alternative I had thought is a bad PSU (but that needs to be replaced any way...that was just to be a short term thing anyway). Or a bad motherboard. I don't think that bad RAM would cause this behavior would it? Is there something else I am not considering? What do those BIOS post codes mean? Thanks for any help.