Author Topic: Unusual beep code (Read 14681 times)

Hopester Doofus · « **on:** August 23, 2005, 11:47:58 AM »

About three times a week my PC will freeze up, and I'll have to reboot. But during the post, I get a single long beep code, repeating over and over. I haven't seen a reference to this beep code in any of the lists. Anyone know what it might be?

Raptor · « **Reply #1 on:** August 23, 2005, 12:01:57 PM »

That often indicates an overheating processor.

Make certain the following is done:

CPU fan is operational at the correct amount of RPM
Thermal paste has been applied as per instructions
Heatsink has been properly connected
CPU cooler has been cleared of excessive dust
Your system is not overclocked.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #2 on:** August 23, 2005, 07:53:28 PM »

Thanks, Rap. I think.

Wish I could return the favour re: your PayPal question... alas.

Raptor · « **Reply #3 on:** August 24, 2005, 05:49:49 AM »

No problemo, customer support has been very generous in their answers.

Have you resolved the beeping sound?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #4 on:** August 24, 2005, 09:17:07 AM »

Just researching the proper way to check the things you recommended.

Raptor · « **Reply #5 on:** August 24, 2005, 09:43:21 AM »

What is your CPU temperature?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #6 on:** August 24, 2005, 12:55:09 PM »

I downloaded a program last night that supposedly monitors that, and got a steady reading of 50 C.

I'm not confident that's altogether accurate though, because it never fluctuated more than a degree in either direction, and it didn't look like very professional software.

Raptor · « **Reply #7 on:** August 24, 2005, 02:46:44 PM »

Quote

I downloaded a program last night that supposedly monitors that, and got a steady reading of 50 C.

I'm not confident that's altogether accurate though, because it never fluctuated more than a degree in either direction, and it didn't look like very professional software.

Use Everest Home Edition.

You can also use the BIOS to monitor temperatures.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #8 on:** August 24, 2005, 06:58:25 PM »

Gentlemen,

I downloaded and ran both programs and they were excellent. Raptor, my temp is running between 46C and 49C as I type this. Front side bus 133 MHz, CPU multiplier 15x. CPU fan at 2909 RPM, chassis fan at 2766 RPM.

Merlin:

XP SP1
Athlon XP2400
2x256MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM
Radeon 9550 Video Card
2 x 40GB HDD
CD/RW
DVD-ROM
RealTek Onboard Audio
Wireless keyboard/mouse

Thanks, fellows.

Raptor · « **Reply #9 on:** August 24, 2005, 07:00:02 PM »

When does this beep occur?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #10 on:** August 24, 2005, 07:26:45 PM »

Always on reboot, and always before the POST. It's the same symptoms every time, and it always happens after the machine has been on for several hours (we keep it on all day, and shut down at night). I've had it occur in three different scenarios: 1) I do a warm restart after a software install, 2) the system will freeze completely, and I'll have to shut off power and then power up again, 3) the system will shutdown and restart randomly and without warning; most of the time this happens while surfing.

It happens once or twice a week. Not enough to drive me bananas, but enough to cause me concern that this may be the beginning of something more sinister.

Sygate and AVG always running. AdAware scan three times a week.

I'm leaning towards the overheating theory too, because if I leave the machine off for 5 minutes the problem goes away. 50C seems a little warm, but not drastically out of whack.

Raptor · « **Reply #11 on:** August 25, 2005, 09:34:46 AM »

Quote

Always on reboot, and always before the POST. It's the same symptoms every time, and it always happens after the machine has been on for several hours (we keep it on all day, and shut down at night). I've had it occur in three different scenarios: 1) I do a warm restart after a software install, 2) the system will freeze completely, and I'll have to shut off power and then power up again, 3) the system will shutdown and restart randomly and without warning; most of the time this happens while surfing.

Is your videocard properly seated? Make certain that the videocard fan is working if present.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #12 on:** August 25, 2005, 09:18:45 PM »

Quote

Is your videocard properly seated?

Seems to be.

Quote

Make certain that the videocard fan is working if present.

None there. Maybe THAT'S the problem!

I have a feeling this is something I may just have to learn to live with.

Fed · « **Reply #13 on:** August 26, 2005, 12:46:40 AM »

Run a test on your ram overnight.

Raptor · « **Reply #14 on:** August 26, 2005, 05:00:19 AM »

Unless your case temperature is over 50 degrees celcius, I would doubt that a videocard fan could be causing the problems.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #15 on:** August 26, 2005, 04:42:48 PM »

Quote

Run a test on your ram overnight.

What utility do you guys use to do this?

Fed · « **Reply #16 on:** August 26, 2005, 04:53:44 PM »

Memtest http://www.memtest.org/
Microsoft (untried by me) http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

To cut through the jargon...
Download to your computer, put in a floppy, dclick the downloaded file to create the floppy, boot to the floppy and let it rip.

Raptor · « **Reply #17 on:** August 26, 2005, 06:01:51 PM »

Quote

What utility do you guys use to do this?

Microsoft Memory Diagnostic.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #18 on:** August 27, 2005, 01:38:59 AM »

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. And for the instructions, Fed. Well, the memory checks out. And the video card is properly seated, the case is free of dust, the temperature is good, and Spyware and virus scans come up empty.

Is there anything I've missed?

Fed · « **Reply #19 on:** August 27, 2005, 01:50:48 AM »

Reinstall your mobo drivers then update & install your video & sound drivers.

Fed · « **Reply #20 on:** August 27, 2005, 01:59:12 AM »

Turn off 'Auto reboot' on System Failure.

Swap the keyboard & mouse back to standard plugin ones.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #21 on:** August 27, 2005, 02:07:54 AM »

I'll do all those things, Fed.

In looking at another thread here by someone who was having a similar problem, the suggestion was made to run the system in safe mode to see if the video driver was to blame. Today I downloaded a game that I can't play for more than about two minutes before completely freezing my system, so I just tried running it under safe mode. The game crashed, but this time I received a readble error message. This may be totally unrelated, but I'll give it a shot. Here's the message:

Exception: Access Violation (code 0xc0000005) at address 0049675A in thread 348
Module: Heavy Weapon Deluxe.exe
Logical Address: 0001:0009575A

0012EA2C 0049675A 0001:0009575A Heavy Weapon Deluxe.exe
Params: 000000AF 0012EA54 00000800 0012F2E4

0012F334 004AE9AA 0001:000AD9AA Heavy Weapon Deluxe.exe
Params: 0012F8B0 0012F868 77E93120 0012F8B0

0012F340 004AF11E 0001:000AE11E Heavy Weapon Deluxe.exe
Params: 0012F8B0 C0000005 01F51E90 00000000

0012F868 77E93120 UnhandledExceptionFilter+60
Params: 0012F8B0 00547120 00000000 0012FFB0

0012F884 00506585 0001:00105585 Heavy Weapon Deluxe.exe
Params: 00000000 0012F8B0 0050B8F7 0012F8B8

0012FFC0 004FC388 0001:000FB388 Heavy Weapon Deluxe.exe
Params: 70A71A29 80000002 7FFDF000 F7FEECF0

00120834 77E814C7 GetCurrentDirectoryW+44
Params: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

StackWalk failed (error 0)

EAX:00000049 EBX:00000000 ECX:0012F328 EDX:0AAF0003 ESI:00000000 EDI:000000AF
EIP:0049675A ESP:0012EA00 EBP:0012EA2C
CS:001B SS:0023 DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:003B GS:0000
Flags:00010202

Windows Ver: NT 5.1 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
DDraw Ver: 5.3.0000001.0904
DSound Ver: 5.3.0000001.0904

Product: HeavyWeapon
Version: 1.0
Time Loaded: 00:06:30
Fullscreen: Yes
Primary ThreadId: 348
Times Played: 0

I ran a Google search on Unhandled Exception and Stackwalk Failed, but the explanations were a little vague to me.

Raptor · « **Reply #22 on:** August 27, 2005, 07:02:08 AM »

Does your videocard become very hot?

What are your case temperatures?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #23 on:** August 27, 2005, 11:28:07 AM »

Everest shows me four temperatures:

CPU 47c
Motherboard 24c
HDD 1 35c
HDD 2 33c

Raptor · « **Reply #24 on:** August 27, 2005, 01:51:04 PM »

These are rather decent temperatures. You should test another graphics card in this computer. What type is installed now?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #25 on:** August 27, 2005, 02:41:11 PM »

How ya doin' Rap?

Radeon 9550, about a week old. But part of the reason I got it was because I've had this problem for awhile, and I was guessing the video card was the culprit.

Raptor · « **Reply #26 on:** August 27, 2005, 04:22:58 PM »

So the problem was there before you added the videocard? That pretty much eliminates the videocard, then.

Is your AGP slot set to a frequency of more than 66Mhz?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #27 on:** August 27, 2005, 07:30:18 PM »

Quote

Is your AGP slot set to a frequency of more than 66Mhz?

I don't think so. BIOS settings are 8x and AUTO.

Quote

clear the bios..........

Will do.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #28 on:** August 29, 2005, 08:19:54 AM »

The problem has become more frequent in recent days. What do you think the odds may be that reinstalling the OS might alleviate the problem?

Raptor · « **Reply #29 on:** August 29, 2005, 10:40:50 AM »

It happens during POST, not when Windows loads, does it?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #30 on:** August 29, 2005, 11:19:39 AM »

My first entry here said the beep happens during post. That was wrong. It happens before POST.

The sequence of events is:

1) PC freezes, and is completely unresponsive. Only way out is to manually power down. It is now happening during gaming sessions, and it's happening with several different games.

2) When I power up again, it doesn't even go to POST. Just the beeping. BEEEEEEEEP, (pause) BEEEEEEEEEP, (pause) BEEEEEEEEEP. And it will continue beeping until I power down again.

Memory checked out, temp seems fine, card is properly seated (AGP slot hooks are in place). Viruses: no. Spyware: no. Video drivers: not the latest because that requires SP2 and I haven't bothered with that yet. But the problem occurred with my previous card and those drivers were up to date.

Fed · « **Reply #31 on:** August 29, 2005, 02:56:49 PM »

What bios do you have?

Raptor · « **Reply #32 on:** August 29, 2005, 03:20:40 PM »

Quote

The sequence of events is:

1) PC freezes, and is completely unresponsive. Only way out is to manually power down. It is now happening during gaming sessions, and it's happening with several different games.

2) When I power up again, it doesn't even go to POST. Just the beeping. BEEEEEEEEP, (pause) BEEEEEEEEEP, (pause) BEEEEEEEEEP. And it will continue beeping until I power down again.

1. You have tested the RAM?

2. Is your Power Supply Unit living up to the computers demands?

Linda Horan · « **Reply #33 on:** August 29, 2005, 06:02:46 PM »

Just thought I would put in my two cents. I recently had a similiar problem, My temps checked out okay too and I checked everything..... the beeps drove me crazy. no consistant beeps to compare with. I replaced the power supply. and that solved the problem. No more beeps and no more freeze ups.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #34 on:** August 29, 2005, 07:54:10 PM »

Fed,

Quote

What bios do you have?

Award v6.00PG

Raptor:

Quote

1. You have tested the RAM?

2. Is your Power Supply Unit living up to the computers demands?

1. Sure have. No apparent problems. Used Microsoft Memory Diagnostic and let it cycle for about two hours.

2. I've been wondering about that. My power supply is 300 watts. I have an Athlon XP processor, 128MB video card, two hard drives, CD-RW drive, DVD-ROM drive. I calculated rough power usage through this website: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/Power_Supply_Calculator.php?cmd=AMD and found I'm using about 270 watts. That's probably cutting it a little close, isn't it?

Hi Linda!

Quote

Just thought I would put in my two cents. I recently had a similiar problem, My temps checked out okay too and I checked everything..... the beeps drove me crazy. no consistant beeps to compare with. I replaced the power supply. and that solved the problem. No more beeps and no more freeze ups.

I'll certainly consider that. It wouldn't surprise me. Thanks a million for taking the time to respond.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #35 on:** August 29, 2005, 07:57:08 PM »

Quote

but aida32/sisoftsanda would have reported this psu problem.maybe where the person lives has power outrages.

Might it be something as simple as a power dip? I do use a surge suppressor, but not a UPS.

What about motherboard drivers?

Raptor · « **Reply #36 on:** August 30, 2005, 02:35:56 AM »

Quote

I've been wondering about that. My power supply is 300 watts. I have an Athlon XP processor, 128MB video card, two hard drives, CD-RW drive, DVD-ROM drive. I calculated rough power usage through this website: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/Power_Supply_Calculator.php?cmd= AMD and found I'm using about 270 watts. That's probably cutting it a little close, isn't it?

That is only an approximation. The Power Supply Unit may not be 300 Watts truepower, meaning it is having a very difficult time keeping up with the strain that you place on it.

What brand and product is it? What kind of voltages does the BIOS report?

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #37 on:** August 30, 2005, 06:39:17 PM »

Power Supply: Sparkle Power Inc., Model No. FSP300-60ATV

Here's what it looks like, and the specs:

http://www.aopen.com.tw/products/power/FSP300-60ATV.htm

BIOS reports the following:

Vcore = 1.68 v
+3.3v = 3.32 v
+5v = 4.99 v
+12v = 11.85 v
-12v = -11.86 v
-5v = -4.94 v
VBAT(V) = 3.60 v
SVSB(V) = 5.17 v

Raptor · « **Reply #38 on:** August 31, 2005, 04:59:13 AM »

They do not seem dangerously low or high, but to eliminate the PSU as a factor, you should install a higher quality PSU.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #39 on:** August 31, 2005, 04:00:20 PM »

I'm on it. That better be it.

Thanks as always.

Raptor · « **Reply #40 on:** August 31, 2005, 04:26:27 PM »

Before you buy a new PSU, first test this on another PC to see if the results are the same. Then take the PSU from that machine and move it to the system under investigation.

merlin_2 · « **Reply #41 on:** August 31, 2005, 05:25:24 PM »

Faulty motherboard.

Hopester Doofus · « **Reply #42 on:** August 31, 2005, 09:33:14 PM »

Quote

Before you buy a new PSU, first test this on another PC to see if the results are the same. Then take the PSU from that machine and move it to the system under investigation.

Sound advice. After thinking about it a little more, I started thinking that while the psu might explain the lock ups, I'm not sure if I could also blame it for the strange beeping on power up. I have access to a 450W psu and I'm going to try that for awhile.

Quote

Faulty motherboard.

Wouldn't surprise me, Merl.

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Author Topic: Unusual beep code (Read 14681 times)

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Fed

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Fed

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Fed

Fed

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Fed

Raptor

Linda Horan

Hopester Doofus

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

Hopester Doofus

Raptor

merlin_2

Hopester Doofus