Loud siren causes PC to freeze

[maybeimaleo]

The specs of my MotherBoard:

Nf7-s2g
AMD Athlon XP 1800+
2 Corsair 512MB RAM - DDR 333 (in slots 2 & 3)
IDE HD
ATI 7000 (its AGP, the other card I had was a PCI Nvidia Geforce2)
Raidmax ATX12v 380V power supply

Loud, distracting siren causes the PC to freeze and I have to unplug it from the wall in order to reboot it. I was thinking that it might be the power supply or the video card but I am not sure. It happens regardless of what application I run.

I have replaced the cpu fan but that hasn't helped. I am about to replace the Raidmax PS with an Enermax PS.
The Enermax PS I have powers on the mobo but the hard drive does not spin up. The led that is usually for hard drive activity is a solid red (instead of flashing red to signal activity). Can anyone shed light on what the problem may be? I don't think there are any jumpers that need to be changed. I wonder if the PS is made to work with this board (Model # of PS - EG465p-VE 460W, 12v1 or 12V2 - I think that is relavant).


Had to replace a bad HD on this PC bt I am still getting siren followed by shutdown; wierd thing is when the siren goes off the drive is still running (old HD was bad - installing everything from scratch).

Tried raising the temp settings but it did not help. The new PS just doesn't work with the mobo...

Help!

 

[electronicsfreak]

Is this one long beep? or random beeps? have you checked your temps before this thing went off? describe more detail this "siren" noise.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[maybeimaleo]

It is one long beep. I did check the temps and even raised them. This did not solve the problem.
The new power supply turns will give power to the motherboard but it does not do anything else (like boot up...)>

The siren kind of sounds like the fire drills in school - that loud, somewhat static-y kind of noise...

 

[electronicsfreak]

Ok, do you know offhand what bios you are using?

http://bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm

This page list the bios beeps and what they mean

Just make sure you have your bios brand selected

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[edfair]

I've generally found this to be a M/B issue where the BIOS or memory get locked into a loop shoving a continuous beep out. And when it hits the loop it can't process any further and you don't boot. But it can be anything that generates, stores, or modifies addresses.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[HalComps]

sounds like the motherboard to me.

 

[HalComps]

these are just a couple bios errors that i found that relate to your bleep.

IBM BIOS
continuous Power Supply or System Board / Keyboard stuck

Compaq BIOS
one long continuous tone Memory Module

AST Research BIOS
one long DMA channel 0 test failed (POST 16)

 

[Aussie2]

Perhaps on the next reboot you could check the temps in the bios 1800+ cpus particularly palomino cores run very hot a hsf refit with new thermal paste would eliminate heat as possible problem

 

[ATLMatt]

So your PC boots up and runs fine for a while, then locks up? Just wanted to clarify when the error was happening. If so, is there a specific program or type of programs (especially sound/video intensive ones) that you are running when it crashes?

First thing I would check is the temp of your CPU and RAM. If they are ok, download one of the free memory test programs, and run that. Make sure your BIOS is updated. Take out as much hardware as you can from your PC and see if you still have the issue. If you have a good electrical tester, check for steady voltage on your power supply. You can also test the voltage comming from your power outlet if you have a tester that will record spikes over time, this is probably a moot point if you have a battery backup though.

 

[maybeimaleo]

Yes, before the HD died the PC would run fine then it would emit a loud siren and shut down. Pulling the plug from the outlet was the only way to reboot it. The shut down occurs regardless of what application is running (sometimes there isn't anything running outside of windows and NAV).

I will check the temp for the cpu & ram. I will also reduce memory from two to one to see if either memory chips are bad.
I will also check which bios the machine has and check the website mentioned. I think I already updated the BIOS bu if not I will do that too (thank god I have these next two weeks off!)

 

[maybeimaleo]

Took out the memory chip in slot 2 and the PC is running fine so far. I will move the chip to the other two slots to make sure the problem isn't a bad memory slot...

 

[maybeimaleo]

Yep - the problem was a bad memory chip. Took the good chip and put it in each slot to make sure the slots were good (they were). Bought some new memory and the machine is woprking like a champ.

Thanks to all who replied - much faster than the abit forums!