Immediate beeping upon power-up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Charles Packer
  • Start date Start date
C

Charles Packer

On powering up my new box it beeps
(i.e. the little beeper hanging off
the motherboard) complainingly right
away, repeatedly. Scary. There's no
video either. I had assembled it to
the point where I had installed the
new hard drive, verifying that it
showed up in BIOS. The floppy drive
wasn't installed, just plugged in
(because for some reason the motherboard
needed it before even letting
me get to BIOS). This setup I had
gotten to boot an old Win 98 crash
floppy I had lying around. So I went
ahead and installed the floppy drive
and the CR-ROM reader-writer. On next
power-up the symptoms appeared. So I undid
the last two steps, but to no avail.
Something's blown. What could it be?
 
On powering up my new box it beeps
(i.e. the little beeper hanging off
the motherboard) complainingly right
away, repeatedly. Scary. There's no
video either. I had assembled it to
the point where I had installed the
new hard drive, verifying that it
showed up in BIOS. The floppy drive
wasn't installed, just plugged in
(because for some reason the motherboard
needed it before even letting
me get to BIOS). This setup I had
gotten to boot an old Win 98 crash
floppy I had lying around. So I went
ahead and installed the floppy drive
and the CR-ROM reader-writer. On next
power-up the symptoms appeared. So I undid
the last two steps, but to no avail.
Something's blown. What could it be?
Click to expand...

Junk psu, or something on the mainboard is grounded to the case.
Other than that, it could be anything. Unplug everything except mb
and vid card. Pull mb and place it on cardboard or something else
that doesn't conduct electricity and test it.
 
Charles Packer said:
On powering up my new box it beeps
(i.e. the little beeper hanging off
the motherboard) complainingly right
away, repeatedly. Scary. There's no
video either. I had assembled it to
the point where I had installed the
new hard drive, verifying that it
showed up in BIOS. The floppy drive
wasn't installed, just plugged in
(because for some reason the motherboard
needed it before even letting
me get to BIOS). This setup I had
gotten to boot an old Win 98 crash
floppy I had lying around. So I went
ahead and installed the floppy drive
and the CR-ROM reader-writer. On next
power-up the symptoms appeared. So I undid
the last two steps, but to no avail.
Something's blown. What could it be?
Click to expand...
Did you plug in the aux power plug on your MB? It is usually a 4 pin
molex or on some newer boards an 8 pin/4 pin. The video card will also
cause that problem on occaision if you forget to plug in the aux power
plug/plugs to it. I just recently had that happen on an 8800GTX that I
didn't have one of the aux power plugs completely plugged in. Scared the
$!IT out of me.......:-)

Ed
 
Did you plug in the aux power plug on your MB? It is usually a 4 pin
molex or on some newer boards an 8 pin/4 pin. The video card will also
cause that problem on occaision if you forget to plug in the aux power
Click to expand...

That's plugged in. I don't have a video card; I'm using the
motherboard's
own video interface. And my primary computer -- the one I'm using now
 
Junk psu, or something on the mainboard is grounded to the case.
Other than that, it could be anything. Unplug everything except mb
and vid card. Pull mb and place it on cardboard or something else
that doesn't conduct electricity and test it.
Click to expand...

Well, I just did this and it still beeps. and I disconnected
everything
except the necessary wires to the power switch. Are there
voltage points I can check?

One possible explanation that occured to me: earlier when I was ready
to
install the floppy drive and CR-ROM, I picked up the case and
carried it over to my workbench. I was wearing flip-flops (rubber)
and there's a threadbare rug on the floor. Could static electricity
have zapped anything? With the humidity at 70-80 percent and no
air conditioning it would seem unlikely...but what do I know?
 
Well, I just did this and it still beeps. and I disconnected
everything
except the necessary wires to the power switch. Are there
voltage points I can check?

One possible explanation that occured to me: earlier when I was ready
to
install the floppy drive and CR-ROM, I picked up the case and
carried it over to my workbench. I was wearing flip-flops (rubber)
and there's a threadbare rug on the floor. Could static electricity
have zapped anything? With the humidity at 70-80 percent and no
Click to expand...
air conditioning it would seem unlikely...but what do I know?
Click to expand...
Not likely. Stattic is usually only an issue when handling chips
themselves. What are the beeps like, is it one beep pause, one beep
pause, forever? If so, the ram is either not installed well, not
compatible or bad.
 
Well, I just did this and it still beeps. and I disconnected
everything
except the necessary wires to the power switch. Are there
voltage points I can check?

One possible explanation that occured to me: earlier when I was ready
to
install the floppy drive and CR-ROM, I picked up the case and
carried it over to my workbench. I was wearing flip-flops (rubber)
and there's a threadbare rug on the floor. Could static electricity
have zapped anything? With the humidity at 70-80 percent and no
air conditioning it would seem unlikely...but what do I know?
Click to expand...

I read something just recently that says that a beep almost always
means memory or video.
 
beeping is useally the error code for RAM error. Be sure CPU fan is in right
plug and try clearing CMOS battery jumper.
 
Chris Hill said:
Junk psu, or something on the mainboard is grounded to the case.
Other than that, it could be anything. Unplug everything except mb
and vid card. Pull mb and place it on cardboard or something else
that doesn't conduct electricity and test it.
Click to expand...

Repeated beeps is often memory fault. Try reseating the memory. If more
than 1 module, try one at a time.

Mike.
 
Repeated beeps is often memory fault. Try reseating the memory. If more
than 1 module, try one at a time.
Click to expand...


That was it. I have one module, and I removed and reinserted it.

Thanks very much to everybody who responded.
 
On Jul 30, 7:53 am, "Michael Hawes"
Click to expand...
That was it. I have one module, and I removed and reinserted it.

Thanks very much to everybody who responded.
Click to expand...

I had a very similar problem yesterday; remove memory, reseated
memory, changed memory, different slots.... finally I noticed that
the video card was not quite straight. Removed and reinserted
....fixed!


Geo
 
Charles said:
On powering up my new box it beeps
(i.e. the little beeper hanging off
the motherboard) complainingly right
away, repeatedly. Scary. There's no
video either. I had assembled it to
the point where I had installed the
new hard drive, verifying that it
showed up in BIOS. The floppy drive
wasn't installed, just plugged in
(because for some reason the motherboard
needed it before even letting
me get to BIOS). This setup I had
gotten to boot an old Win 98 crash
floppy I had lying around. So I went
ahead and installed the floppy drive
and the CR-ROM reader-writer. On next
power-up the symptoms appeared. So I undid
the last two steps, but to no avail.
Something's blown. What could it be?
Click to expand...
You might disconnect various elements one at a time to see if this
affects the beeping. The number of beeps are related to a code for the
motherboard and if you can find out what that code is you can learn from
the number of beeps what is the culprit. Continuous beeping on some
motherboards means there is no RAM.
 
Charles said:
On powering up my new box it beeps
(i.e. the little beeper hanging off
the motherboard) complainingly right
away, repeatedly. Scary. There's no
video either. I had assembled it to
the point where I had installed the
new hard drive, verifying that it
showed up in BIOS. The floppy drive
wasn't installed, just plugged in
(because for some reason the motherboard
needed it before even letting
me get to BIOS). This setup I had
gotten to boot an old Win 98 crash
floppy I had lying around. So I went
ahead and installed the floppy drive
and the CR-ROM reader-writer. On next
power-up the symptoms appeared. So I undid
the last two steps, but to no avail.
Something's blown. What could it be?
Click to expand...
You have to find out what the beep code for that motherboard is. Each
pattern of beeps defines a particular error. Sometimes continuous
beeping means no RAM.
 
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