What is my PC speaker telling me?
 

Every once in a while the speaker inside my pc starts beeping at me.
Short beeps, less than one second I'd say at about 4 second intervals.
It's driving me nuts.
Any thoughts?
It happens pretty consistantly if I open MS Money.
Otherwise random occurences.

If you do a Google search for computer beeps or some such there is a list explaining their meaning.

It happens pretty consistantly if I open MS Money.

MS-KB129C64
Symptom: Short beeps, less than one second at 4 second intervals.
Cause: User Overdrawn

Peter, Vulcanised is about right, BOAC is funny (and probably close to some truth too).

First thing I would do is BACK-UP your data, make sure you know all your passwords etc and then find out what brand of motherboard you have on your machine. Next, as suggested, do a search on the interweb of "mother-board error codes"

Hopefully you will find a match to the ones you are hearing and it will help identify the fault (or impending fault)

I believe they are normally referred to as POST beeps or BIOS beeps.

Have a squint here to get an idea.

Post Beep Codes, AMI & Phoenix/Award BIOS error codes

BUT BACK UP THAT DATA just in case it is terminal :ok:


edited to add: when you open MS Money is there a sequence of keys you need to press (a password or login code)? Reason I ask is that a computer will sometimes beep if a key is held down, it could simply be a sticky key within the sequence that you normally don't use like Q or Z etc ----just a thought.:ok:

I did actually think of googling just before I left for work.
General consensus seems to suggest motherboard or memory is cactus.
Maybe I'll try some different memory for a while and see how it goes.
Could be time to build another one.
Hello, IRS? Hurry up with that refund would you!

If the computer is still usable while beeping it probably isn't RAM or motherboard failure as they generally cause crashes, lock-ups & failures to boot.

One possibility is the BIOS is configured to beep when the CPU reaches a certain temperature, warning things are getting a bit warm.

Check the fans on the CPU, in the power supply & on the GPU, plus any others you can find for dust & functionality. The CPU heatsink could be full of dust as well - a nice insulating blanket.

It's also possible the warning temperature is set low - settings can spontaneously change so check.

check the bios
 

for temperature, fan speed etc warning settings. Oh, and pay some money into the account just in case BOAC is right.

Account is topped up, still beeping.

The inside of the computer is actually very clean due to my pressurized case design.
I have two case fans drawing filtered air into the case which then exits through the various openings, different to the norm where air is drawn in through various openings usually leaving dust buildup on things like CD/DVD ROM drive doors and volume controls and inside the case itself.

I did have an issue with the processor overheating a while back apparently due to the heat sink paste drying up. Cleaned it up and applied fresh paste and that seems to be ok now.

I will probably get around to building a new one soon, but it's been a while and I'm a little out of touch with what's hot in components these days.

The BIOS could also be set to beep if a fan has failed or is disconnected.

If it happens only within Money, check the sound configuration for events within that program and make sure that the sound files used for each sound that is enabled are indeed on the system in the place where Money is looking for them.

Likewise, when beeps occur outside Money in a running system, it may be that some program running in the system is trying to play a sound but cannot find the required WAV file. As a last resort, it may play the PC speaker instead. Any application can beep the speaker, even though that is very rare these days.

Beeps indicating motherboard problems only occur in POST (power-on self-test), not on a running system. If the system beeps before you even see a Windows logo, something is wrong, e.g., no keyboard or monitor has been detected, etc.

Thought of a possible fix..........disconnect the PC speaker! :}

Swapped the video card this morning for one known to be good, seems to have solved the problem.
Didn't notice any issues with the other but it seemed like a good place to start swapping.

I would suggest your PSU might be on the way south then. You've replaced your video card with one that draws less power from it, temporarily removing the problem......but it'll likely be back.

But wouldn't a power supply issue not be dependent on certain applications being in use?
It got to the point I could start and stop the beeping by opening and closing certain applications or web pages.
I wouldn't disagree that a heftier power supply could be beneficial however, the replacement video card has added yet another fan to the unit.

Ain't that the truth.

Googled on 'ms money beep' and found lots of folk with same problem, for example this one, with an answer that worked:

How to stop loud beep

Hope this is helpful.

If the PSU is starting to go south then small variances in the outputs COULD be picked up by the motherboard and then the beeping could start.

To take satcos' suggestion further, what is the make/model of the computer or the make/model of the motherboard (if you didn't buy a "brand name" system and built your own)? Let us know that and I'll see what I can dig up.

It's a home built.
M/B is a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2
running 1 Gbyte of RAM
with an Athlon 3.2 Gig Processor.

Since it is beeping and not crashing (and from what you have told us it is the little mobo speaker that beeps, not the sound card) I'd suspect a CPU overheat warning.

When you put the CPU cooler back after you replaced the heat sink paste, did you put it back in the correct orientation? It is possible to put the Athlon XP coolers back 180deg out. There is a step in the cooler which, if you get it wrong, actually prevents the cooler from making proper thermal contact with the CPU.

Suggest you check this.

As for the bootup beep error-codes - from the manual for your mobo - http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList...n400pro2_e.pdf


AMI BIOS Beep Codes
*Computer gives 1 short beep when system boots successfully.
*Except for beep code 8, these codes are always fatal.
1 beep Refresh failure
2 beeps Parity error
3 beeps Base 64K memory failure
4 beeps Timer not operational
5 beeps Processor error
6 beeps 8042 - gate A20 failure
7 beeps Processor exception interrupt error
8 beeps Display memory read/write failure
9 beeps ROM checksum error

AWARD BIOS Beep Codes
1 short: System boots successfully
2 short: CMOS setting error
1 long 1 short: DRAM or M/B error
1 long 2 short: Monitor or display card error
1 long 3 short: Keyboard error
1 long 9 short: BIOS ROM error
Continuous long beeps: DRAM error
Continuous short beeps: Power error
10 beeps CMOS shutdown register read/write error
11 beeps Cache memory bad

A hard memory error when up and running will almost always crash the system (and you'd better hope it does before it corrupts stuff).

Otherwise try Memtest86 - Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Finally, 1GB is barely enough for WinXP - you could try and find a couple of matching 1GB sticks of DDR400.

Good luck!

:ok:

Mac