iBook beeps and flashes when turned on

My iBook has just become the latest computer to die on me, and now i'm reduced to writing this from a phone's browser.

(iFixit works well on a phone)

I was typing in pages '06 when the screen froze and the keyboard and trackpad stopped working. i held the power button to turn it off and now when i try to turn it on i always get 3 beeps and after that the sleep light flashes 4 times every few seconds. it doesn't give me the chance to try fsck -fy or hold c with a hardware test disc. do i need to reimage?