I got a PC that emitted one continuous beep - until you switched if off.
This is not listed in the BIOS beep codes. Could have been 1 dud transistor
that switched on the beep oscillator, but then maybe the PC would still boot.
Nothing else happened: no lights lit up on keyboard or CD drive.
I eventually found 2 problems. It was an Asus SLI mainboard. It has a
printed circuit card to select whether you have 1 or 2 graphics cards.
It was set for 2 cards, but the second card was removed. Secondly, it
had a faulty RAM module. After sorting that it, the PC booted okay.
Anybody else come across one of these unlisted beep situations?
In the history of sound here, there's a description of the PC beep.
It uses a timer, run in square wave mode.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/larryosterm...t-s-up-with-the-beep-driver-in-windows-7.aspx
Probably the reason the beep stays running, is the CPU is crashed at that
point, and the BIOS can no longer change the programming of it.
It managed to execute enough code to program it, and then it
crashed.
*******
Using a PCI Port 80 card may give additional info (over and above what
a beep code can tell you). But that's only in theory. Practically speaking,
the odds are low that the code displayed on the card is documented.
(The motherboard manual will have a table of codes, and then the display
on the card shows a code which simply is not present in the provided table.
The value is shown as "reserved". Code monkeys add additional codes,
without documenting them.)
*******
When changing the paddle card on one of those boards, remember to
use your antistatic strap (straps you to the chassis ground). There
were some curious failures of PCI Express slots on some chipsets,
implying the circuits are more static sensitive than normal. There's
really no way to properly judge, as users, just which chipsets continue
to be like that. Anecdotal reports aren't good enough to trace
every chipset.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2260808
Static sensitivity, ranges from around 30V (no protection, 4 pin signal MOSFETs),
to around 15000 volts (RS232 ports, well protected). USB ports on Intel,
have around 5000 or 6000 volt protection (fairly well protected, not
all USB will be that good, value listed in Intel journal). Average IC signal
leads are 1000V or 2000V protection (modest protection when handling,
assumes good handling practices).
The largest spark you can draw, between your finger and that grounded
screw on the light switch, is 50000 volts. So any IC can be destroyed
by human handling static. If you actually worked on any of those 30V
things (extremely sensitive), you'd learn a lot about static electricity
Based on the reports of a few PCI Express slots blowing out on early chipsets,
I would estimate the slot only has 1000V protection. Even RAM modules seem
to be better than those PCI Express slots. I don't see a correlation between
improper handling of DIMMs and RAM failures. And my observations, are just
based on how often a described maintenance action on a PC by a home user,
seems to lead to damage, as reported by posters here.
Paul
