I have an established P2 system and an Award BIOS. The only recent hardware change was about three weeks ago when I upgraded the video card.
Starting a few days ago, the machine would power up showing power and HDD lights. When I press (or press and hold) the power button it boots. In the POST check the screen message shows “System health !” and I get the two-tone alert which is documented as indicating a problem with the CPU temp or fan, or just CPU failure.
In CMOS settings, the CPU is reported as being well below the cut-out level. The fan is working (although a software mobo monitor suggests it’s running a little slowly). Despite the alert, the machine will happily boot to Windows.
I’ve tried it with a different known good CPU (though it was a Dell and I had to move the fan out of its standard position). On the first boot with this CPU, the BIOS message was “System health OK” and it looked as though it was going to boot satisfactorily, but it started after a few moments. Shutting down Windows takes the machine back to the initial power and HDD lights state (and no alert). Holding the power button merely reboots the PC. You can only shut off the power by disconnecting the mains. Even with the second CPU, on reconnecting the power supply, it will power up after 20 or 30 seconds and this time the report is back to “System health !”.
