Beware Beeping Bios
...or how a PC can play a merry tune
Friday, April 1, 2005 by Fuzzy Logic | Discussion: PC Hardware
I switched my PC on last night to be greeted with a diddley-diddley-diddley-de. My, I thought, what a merry tune my PC is playing, never knew it could do that. My glee at hearing this tuneful melody was tempered seconds later by the sight of a blue screen and susequent boot failure 
So out came the screwdriver and off came the case cover. Out came components one at a time, sometimes followed by a diddley-diddley-diddley-de, sometimes not. As soon as it booted I headed off to BiosCentral to look up the code - not a diddley-diddley-diddley-de in sight, though I did spot a di-di-diddley-di or two 
So I continued with my quest of stripping the PC to its bare bones. Then I added one component at a time, booting after each and listening for the familiar diddley-diddley-diddley-de. After connecting one of my hard drives (backup), my little diddley-diddley-diddley-de reappeared. I disconnected the IDE cable, still a diddley-diddley-diddley-de. I disconnected the power cable, silence! Re-connected the power cable, diddley-diddley-diddley-de...
It seems on closer inspection one of the power pins on the hard drive is damaged. Easy enough to get a new (larger) hard drive. It could have been worse.
So the moral of this story is: if you hear your PC playing diddley-diddley-diddley-de, don't just sit there humming the tune! 
 |
|
Page 2 of 3 | |
|
|---|
Reply #22 Thursday, April 7, 2005 2:00 AM
. I dunno, it quit doing it, and nothing bad ever happened... Weird
Reply #23 Thursday, April 7, 2005 2:55 PM
Reply #24 Thursday, April 7, 2005 7:13 PM
Meowy .... a Bios is supposed to beep on post.
Once is healthy.
Any other amount means there is a problem
Reply #25 Saturday, April 9, 2005 12:07 PM
BTW the new comp seems to take FOREVER to finish POST, and I've tried turning off SMART and the boot location order but still am presented with a blank screen for about 10 secs
Reply #26 Saturday, April 9, 2005 12:10 PM
| click click click |
that sounds like a floppy trying to be booted from.
Maybe running a HD diagnosic test would help.
Reply #27 Saturday, April 9, 2005 8:29 PM
| The new comp doesn't |
Some MoBos can have the post beeps turned off .... but if it's on there will be just the one...
Reply #28 Sunday, April 10, 2005 9:09 AM
| the new comp seems to take FOREVER to finish POST |
i just dont get why
Reply #29 Monday, August 1, 2005 6:56 AM
Reply #30 Monday, August 1, 2005 7:03 AM
The most sensible advice of all is...
DON'T PANIC!
Reply #32 Monday, August 1, 2005 7:17 AM
Reply #33 Monday, August 1, 2005 7:29 AM
Reply #34 Monday, August 1, 2005 7:41 AM
...Thats the beep of it's internal cardiograph
Reply #35 Monday, August 1, 2005 9:16 AM
Please don't die on me little 'puter.
It seems that Gateway has no 'beeping XP' or 'beeping BIOS' info......
Meowy is afraid
Reply #36 Monday, August 1, 2005 9:27 AM
Reply #37 Monday, August 1, 2005 9:29 AM
| You'd think that by now they could replace that old pizo speaker with a proper speaker and let the computer spell it out in your own language? They have....my MoBo has verbal error codes [though this time I haven't heard them....yet]... |
My MB has the voice codes ... however ... I can'y ever understand the thing I just wish it would beep like the rest of my PC's.
Reply #39 Monday, August 1, 2005 1:20 PM
Reply #40 Monday, August 1, 2005 3:31 PM
| Hmmm. I just noticed the POST was a 'beep.' These are 'boop's |
That's a software alert...you're running something that tracks your system hardware (like Windows
). Go into bios and look for the temp/fan/voltage readings. If anything is wrong it will show it there. My guess is it's a heat problem. One less likely scenario is your PSU is going.| My pc sometimes makes a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep sound and keeps doing that, every 5 seconds and just doesnt boot. |
That's a memory/overclock error. Run http://www.memtest86.com/ and see if it gives you an error. If you overclocked, reset to bios defaults by resetting the Jbat jumper (RTFM) or if your board supports it, hold down insert key on power up.
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
|
|
Page 2 of 3 | |
|
|---|
Reply #21 Tuesday, April 5, 2005 7:04 PM