Won't Shut the "BEEP" Up!

Incorrect memory, or the system board is bad.

Some PCs wont boot with the case off. There's a switch to detect this. Have you tried to boot it with the case on?

If you have... then Anna's answer is likely to be correct, although I'd try to reseat the memory and cards and check the cables arecorrectly plugged in before I went buying new stuff...

Cheers,
Tim.

Is the video card tight in it's slot? Try removing it and reseating it. A silly question is the keyboard and mouse plugged in and in the right holes? Is the proccesser chip seated ok, try removing it and reseating it.

The other thing to check is the beeps themselves... Is it a single beep? or a few beeps...then a few more beeps?

The beeps will tell you what is wrong if you look up their meaning in the motherboard's manual.

...or...for more information, takea look at...

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

(remove spaces in the above URL)

Cheers,
Tim.

Does the mother board have built in monitoring?

It is possible that the power supply just failed at your friends first boot.

I have a motherboard that started beeping like crazy one day. Turned out that the 3.3 volt PS had gone bad.

Check that the power supply connectors and all others are tight.

If you have a volt meter, look at the AT power connector pin out, and check the voltages. You should be able to carefully poke a test probe onto the crimp of each wire in the connectors.At a minimum, you can check the +5 and +12 volt supplies at a drive connector.

You might also want to check the 120/220 switch on the power supply.

There's something awry there, but I don't beleive it has anything to do with power or the board going bad (because it wouldn't be beeping if it was bad).

This sounds like something has either grounded inside the case or there's a perihpial cardor memory stick loose. I wish I had a dime for everytime I opened a box and ended up reaching behind everything just to reseat the ram or to remove the board and blow all the dust bunnies from underneath and have it work.
I suppose you can yank all the cards except video first, but the best way to really check this is to physically pull the board, seat it on a non-conductive serface (an anti-stat bag should insulate it enough), apply your power on it (remember the black wires are in the middle) and power it up with just a video card. Even without a Video card, these boards should show some progression in booting (like HD access) that'll clue you as to whether the board's working or not.

Good luck to you

Mark

Yep... on the page I sent was the following entry...

Repeating Short Beep No Power, Loose Card, or Short.

...admittedly it was for the IBM motherboard but the page also went on to say that different manufacturers used different codes...

Also TheChas mentioned this (power supply) in his post - so a definite possibility.

Cheers,
Tim.

Something is wrong with the memory. Make sure he didn't change where the memory was set, and make sure all of it is properly seated. Whether he swears he didn't touch it or not, SOMETHING happened to the memory, because that's what causes this kind of a problem.

It used to be that you had to count the beeps and the length. e.g. I think it's 18 beeps for a video conflict (I know from a bad experience). This is a problem with the motherboard.

Then go from there. I have an antique book (80386) that explains how to figure this out. I don't know where to find the reference for a pentium. Send me an email if you haven't figured this out and I'll look it up from my book.

The very first thing checked during the POST after power good is the video. If the monitor remains blank (ie no memory check) then the problem is the video card. Most beep codes for bad video are 4-5 short beeps but I've heard up to seven and its not inconceivable that continued short beeps reflects bad video. If your friend connected the monitor cable while the computer was not plugged into a grounded outlet its possible the video card was damaged by static. Also video card may not be seated correctly. Try plugging into a different slot.

This might be a long shot, but I have had a similar experience with one of my Web servers. It beeped continuously shortly into the post test, and would stop the boot with a blankk screen. BEFORE loading video.

What we finally found, was that the motherboard had a serial sensor in line with the CPU fan, to sense current flow to the fan. If the fan had burned out or failed, your CPU might overheat and you could loose it. Turn your computer on an note if the CPU fan is operating.

After we replaced the fan, no more beeps, and everything was back to normal.

Regards
George

Two options:

1. See the cord leading to the PC speaker? Snip snip.
2. Magnet. Find a huge speaker in your house, gently remove the magnet, and swiped over the hard drive a few times. Then, insert magnet back into speaker.

Try another keyboard to eliminate the possibility that it is a stuck key or failed-close keyboard switch. Both give continuous beeps once the keyboard buffer fills.

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