POST beep I can't decipher

[jmjohnson]

I recently upgraded my PC case and replaced a DVD-RW, and now on boot-up I am coming-up with a POST beep (at least I assume it is) that I can't find in the list provided by this site. Aside of the new DVD-RW, all of my hardware remains exactly the same.

The beep is continuously alternating between a low and high tone, and both tones occur for the same period of time. The strange thing is that despite this beep, my PC appears to function normally and boots/lets me log into Windows XP just fine. After being on for approximately four minutes, the PC shuts itself off.

I have isolated the MoBo from my hard drives and DVD drives and the issue still continues. Since it does boot normally, and seems to fail as Windows is finishing its boot process while my RAM is being sucked-up with all of the programs that initialize during start-up, could this be a RAM issue?

I am using a Phoenix BIOS.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Raptor]

You probably didn't configure the Master/Slave jumper settings since you didn't mention any of that.

[jmjohnson]

The only master/slave jumper settings that I set while upgrading my case are to my replacement DVD-RW, which I jumpered as a master. All of my jumpers on existing hardware (two hard drives and another DVD-RW set as a slave) remain the way that they were configured previously in my old case.

[Raptor]

The alarm is most likely there to warn you about overheating and the shutting down is done to protect it self.

All heatsinks and fans properly seated and fully operational?

[jmjohnson]

My heatsinks remain firmly in place. As for fans, I had to do a trade-off and instead of using 4 80mm fans, I'm using 2 120mm. They are placed correctly for optimal airflow.

I am becoming rather suspicious of the fan atop my processor now, however, since you mentioned this idea. In my old case a fan was making a rather high-pitch whine as if a cable was rubbing against it (and nothing was), and now with my old fans aside of the one on top of my processor now gone, I can still hear the whine in the new case. My fan might have finally reached its failure point.

I'll check my temps in BIOS when I boot-up the next time. Thanks a ton for the idea.

[Raptor]

And the videocard/PSU fans/temperature?

How are your voltages?

[Tinygnome]

i had they same soung on my new computer

it was that the graphics card had no power but more importantly i pluged the CPU fan power into the wrong one....so its booted up but thought there was no CPU fan.......and wouldnt STFU

[GX1_Man]

Is that an Intel processor? With an AMD you can cook them rather quickly.  

[jmjohnson]

I've been able to isolate the problem to my chipset. I'm surprised it gave-out, but none-the-less my MoBo is getting up to being 2 years old, and I was looking at replacing it anyway.

Thanks to everyone for your ideas.

[GX1_Man]

I never considered 2 years to be a full lifespan for a motherboard, but maybe they don't make them like they used to.....

[jmjohnson]

I agree with you. A few months back I had a dinosaur Compaq 200 MHz Pc that I fired-up just for kicks before I scrapped it and it worked fine. My motherboard is an ABit bought from a wholesaler, so perhaps that added to my problems.

[Fed]

I've been able to isolate the problem to my chipset.

How do you know this?

I am becoming rather suspicious of the fan atop my processor now, however, since you mentioned this idea. In my old case a fan was making a rather high-pitch whine as if a cable was rubbing against it (and nothing was), [highlight]and now with my old fans aside of the one on top of my processor now gone,[/highlight] I can still hear the whine in the new case. My fan might have finally reached its failure point.

Can you translate the highlighted section?

[jmjohnson]

I know this because after I looked in BIOS and saw normal operating voltages and temperatures, I also noticed that the fan covering my chipset was not functioning. I took off the fan assembly and could smell that it got very hot, and after 20 minutes of not using the PC, it was still hot to the touch.

[Fed]

So wouldn't you think if the fan was smelling and not working then there would be a fault in the fan?

[jmjohnson]

Absolutely it was originally a fault with the fan, but with as much as I've had the system on trying to troubleshoot, the chipset's temperature got to a point where I'm not going to trust it to work for much longer. It might, but it might not.