system speaker necessary?

[Peter]

I am putting together a new system but cannot find where the system
speaker wire (4 pin) should be plugged into my motherboard. Is it
necessary to have it plugged in? I tried booting and I get one long
beep and two very short beeps and no video output.

 

[Mike T.]

I am putting together a new system but cannot find where the system
speaker wire (4 pin) should be plugged into my motherboard. Is it
necessary to have it plugged in? I tried booting and I get one long
beep and two very short beeps and no video output.

Are you playing with us?

The system speaker is what would give you one long beep and two very short
beeps. You can't figure out how to plug it in, but you are getting error
messages out of it? Interesting.

In case this is a serious post, your beep codes indicate that your video
card is possibly defective. But this can be caused by a few different
things:

1) Forgot to plug in the aux power to the video card
2) Forgot to plug in the aux power to the mainboard
3) Video card not seated firmly
4) RAM not supported by mainboard
5) RAM not firmly seated in mainboard

RAM problems can affect your video card or your hard drive or ???, so
sometimes the bios beep codes aren't pointing directly at the problem.
Still, you should start with the obvious first. Reseat the video card and
make sure that the aux power cord is connected to the video card.

Oh, and don't bother trying to plug in the system speaker. -Dave

 

[Peter]

Are you playing with us?

No, I'm not playing.

The system speaker is what would give you one long beep and two very short
beeps. You can't figure out how to plug it in, but you are getting error
messages out of it? Interesting.

Yes, there must be an integrated emitter on the motherboard somewhere.
Normally the speaker is plugged in with the rest of the front panel
wires such as HDD activity LED but this motherboard does not have a
place for it. It does however have a 4-pin connector but it is not
documented in the manual. I can try to provide a picture if necessary.

you should start with the obvious first. Reseat the video card and
make sure that the aux power cord is connected to the video card.

I had already reseated the RAM and the video card (in all three PCI
slots) when I posted here. There is also no auxilliary power for this
old video card (Diamond Monster).

I am using SATA drives for the first time. Is there any way that
putting in three such drives can be causing this problem?

 

[Mike T.]

I had already reseated the RAM and the video card (in all three PCI
slots) when I posted here. There is also no auxilliary power for this
old video card (Diamond Monster).

Well shit, why didn't you say PCI? Now you've got a serious problem on your
hands. First, the video card is old enough that it might not be supported
by the PCI slots that are in your new motherboard*. Second, assuming that
the card IS supported by your mainboard, your mainboard is probably set to
initialize PCI-Express or AGP slot for video. You can change this in the
BIOS setup menu. Problem is, you need a working video card to get into the
BIOS setup menu. (!)

I think eventually you will find that your video card is simply too old for
your mainboard. But, the only thing you can do besides trying a newer video
card in it is to short the CMOS_CLEAR jumper on the mainboard to load
default settings. If the video card is supported at all, there is a chance
that this might flag the mainboard to have it look for that PCI video
ard. -Dave

* For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_Component_Interconnect
See PCI variants in particular

 

[Rod Speed]

Are you playing with us?

The system speaker is what would give you one long beep and two very short beeps. You
can't figure out how to plug it in, but you are getting error messages out of it?
Interesting.

Nope, quite a few motherboards have a piezo on the motherboard
so there is no need for an external speaker for the beep codes.

In case this is a serious post, your beep codes indicate that your
video card is possibly defective. But this can be caused by a few
different things:

1) Forgot to plug in the aux power to the video card
2) Forgot to plug in the aux power to the mainboard
3) Video card not seated firmly
4) RAM not supported by mainboard
5) RAM not firmly seated in mainboard

 

[Peter]

Well shit, why didn't you say PCI? Now you've got a serious problem on your
hands. First, the video card is old enough that it might not be supported
by the PCI slots that are in your new motherboard*. Second, assuming that
the card IS supported by your mainboard, your mainboard is probably set to
initialize PCI-Express or AGP slot for video.

I'm sorry Mike, my board does not have an AGP slot either. Just 3 PCI
and 2 PCI-E slots.

Seeing that I am getting beeps, does this rule out other causes such as
a bad CPU or the motherboard itself? I would be happy if it is just a
matter of buying a video card. I saw an ATI X600 on eBay for a good
price.

 

[Mike T.]

I'm sorry Mike, my board does not have an AGP slot either. Just 3 PCI
and 2 PCI-E slots.

Seeing that I am getting beeps, does this rule out other causes such as
a bad CPU or the motherboard itself? I would be happy if it is just a
matter of buying a video card. I saw an ATI X600 on eBay for a good
price.

If it's new enough to have PCI-Express video slot, it's probably too new to
support that (monster?) PCI video card. I'd be surprised (shocked, maybe)
if replacing your video card with something a tad newer wouldn't solve this
problem. -Dave

 

[Paul]

I'm sorry Mike, my board does not have an AGP slot either. Just 3 PCI
and 2 PCI-E slots.

Seeing that I am getting beeps, does this rule out other causes such as
a bad CPU or the motherboard itself? I would be happy if it is just a
matter of buying a video card. I saw an ATI X600 on eBay for a good
price.

What motherboard is this ? Does the motherboard have integrated
graphics, or does it expect a video card to be used ?

Also, does the PCI video card you are using, have any other
descriptive naming on it ? I'm curious as to whether it is
PCI 2.1 compatible and is modern enough to support VESA
BIOS modes. Just because a card is old, doesn't necessarily
mean it is dead.

Paul

 

[Eric]

Some motherboards now don't provide a connection for a case speaker.

The MSI 7093 is an example that I have come across.

I don't know why, because the beep codes can be useful in diagnosing a
problem.


Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

 

[Peter]

What motherboard is this ? Does the motherboard have integrated
graphics, or does it expect a video card to be used ?

It is a Tyan Tomcat S2866A2NRF:

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tomcatk8esli.html

It expects a card. If it had onboard video I would have said so (given
my problem).

Also, does the PCI video card you are using, have any other
descriptive naming on it ? I'm curious as to whether it is
PCI 2.1 compatible and is modern enough to support VESA
BIOS modes. Just because a card is old, doesn't necessarily
mean it is dead.

Thinking back, I now believe this is a dedicated piggyback card
(accelerator).
It is the original voodoo1 card (Monster 3D). If that's the case then
that is the problem.

 

[JAD]

Some motherboards now don't provide a connection for a case speaker.

The MSI 7093 is an example that I have come across.

I don't know why, because the beep codes can be useful in diagnosing a
problem.

some boards that have OB sound do away with the speaker beeps and use a
'voice' system checker

 

[Rod Speed]

Some motherboards now don't provide a connection for a case speaker.

The MSI 7093 is an example that I have come across.

I don't know why, because the beep codes
can be useful in diagnosing a problem.

Those mostly do have a piezo mounted directly on the motherboard,
so they can still beep, they just dont need an external speaker anymore.