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I recently moved from NY to California. I had my computer shipped vis UPS. (with insurance) When my computer arrived, I tried booting it up. It started making the normal sounds (fan starting, hard drives spinning, etc) But instead of getting the normal BIOS screen or any screen, it just makes these long repeated beeps. Each beep lasts about 3 seconds and continues until I shut down the computer. I don't think this has ever happened. Anyone have an idea what might be the problem? I think UPS will cover any damages, but more importantly, I have 200 GBs of information on that computer that I need. Most of my important information is on my D: drive so reformatting wouldnt be that devastating. (But i do have some important stuff on my C: drive) Any advise would be much appreciated.
It's a pentium 4
Windows XP Home
3 Gbs of RAM
ATI All In Wonder video card
Sound Blaster Audigy sound card
one 80 GB hard drive (master) and one 200 GB hard drive (additional slave)
It's a pentium 4
Windows XP Home
3 Gbs of RAM
ATI All In Wonder video card
Sound Blaster Audigy sound card
one 80 GB hard drive (master) and one 200 GB hard drive (additional slave)
posted by:
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Chicago
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Re: beep of death
Mon, August 21, 2006 - 1:51 PMMake and model of the computer is importaint. more importaint, if you know it, is the make and modle of the motherboard. That will tell you where to go to look for the beep codes.
the good thing is that beeps usually mean a system problem, not a hard drive problem.
It sounds to me that maybe there were some issues with moving, most likley a component has become unseated. You'll need to open the case, and make sure all the components and cables are properly seated. (Of course, use proper anti-static procedures first...) -
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Re: beep of death
Mon, August 21, 2006 - 2:14 PMChances are something become unseated as Lee says.
Reseat all the pci cards and graphics card, pull and reseat the memory as well.
If that doesnt fix the problem, pull your cmos battery and leave the computer disconnected from power for about 30 seconds and then power it back on. Though this is a drastic step and sounds more like unseated memory. -
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Re: beep of death
Mon, August 21, 2006 - 11:45 PMConstant beeping usually means it the memory as far as I know. Probably the unseating/seating problemthe other guys mentioned. But if it's not that you might also check that none of the cables inside came loose. -
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Re: beep of death
Thu, August 31, 2006 - 11:18 PMThere is no make or model for this computer. It was custom-built.
I'll open up my computer this weekend and take a look inside. I don't see how my memory or other cards could have been unseated because they are all snapped into place and/or screwed in. It would have taken a pretty hard drop by UPS to have one of these items to become unseated. A cable may have come loose, but I'm no expert, and it might take me a while to figure out where to plug the cable back into. even if these things came out, shouldn't the BIOS screen at least appear?
Why is taking the battery out risky? I'm not even sure how to take the battery out. -
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Re: beep of death
Sat, September 2, 2006 - 1:59 AMThe beep codes will be specific to your individual motherboard. Usually they're consistant across an individual manufacturer, but not always. The best way to decipher beep codes is to identify what model your motherboard is and obtain it's manual. -
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Re: beep of death
Sat, September 16, 2006 - 7:23 PMThis is my motherboard model: ABIT VT7
www.abit-usa.com/products/...oducts.php
I checked the users manual, but couldnt find anything related to beep codes. I guess I can start unplugging peripherals one by one and seeing if it changes anything... -
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Re: beep of death
Sat, September 16, 2006 - 9:33 PMWell, I "fixed" it. I had four 1-GB sticks of RAM installed in my computer. I took off one of them, and my computer booted up perfectly.
I had installed the 4 GBs last summer, but my computer only recognized 3 GBs. (I think I posted on this tribe asking why) Anyways, I never got around to taking out that extra memory stick out and eventually forgot about it. I don't know why NOW, a year later, it would start to cause boot-up problems.
Tonight, I'm going to be backing up all of my data to my external firewire drives. Whew! -
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Re: beep of death
Thu, December 7, 2006 - 3:07 PMSorry I just read this and Im glad you fixed the problem. I was not in agreement with agreement with it being a memory problem as that is usually represented by 3 beeps only. I guess the continuous beeping indicates a compatibility conflict? In this case more memroy than the motherboard supports. As far as the earlier post about concern for removing battery? It resets the bios clock and erases the bios password. It can also cause the bios to revert to default settings which in my experience has been German language in the past. It was a good thing I understand a fair amount of German. You want to be careful and make sure you have no other options before removing the battery or restoring a bios to defaults.
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Re: beep of death
Thu, December 7, 2006 - 11:21 PMBeep codes really are BIOS dependent.
Last week we booted a Dell system with a PERC raid controller and while it would boot and do some things, we were getting a repeated beep of 3 seconds duration. After a fair amount of search engine stuff, and looking at Dell pages that documented beep codes (but not this one), we discovered it meant "logical drive failure". We had do mess with the mirrored drives to get it to go away.
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Re: beep of death
Fri, December 8, 2006 - 2:19 PMThe Error beep codes for Dell machines change every couple of years and are different on each of their models...
I have one sitting in my office right now for repair that has a bad motherboard. Though Dell initially claimed that Diagnostic light B orange and the other 3 green ment it passed POST and failed on video. The system never issued beeps and instead the system fans would fire up full speed and sounded like a vortex.
2 sets of ram and 3 video cards later, Dell finally accepted it was the motherboard and is shipping a new one to us...
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