Too many beeps from the motherboard!! 1

[FeetofClay]

Can anyone help me its driving me crazy.

Abit NF7-S rev 1.2
AXP 1800
2x512 generic PC2700
450w PSupply
Radeon 9800
XP Home
2xstandard IDE HDD

Has been working like a dream for over a year.
Out of the blue I start getting beep codes from the board, often 2 short followed by at least 6 sometimes more and then lockup of Windows. This usually starts after about half an hour of PC being on and is preceded by a noise of the hard drive being polled quite loudly.

First thing I did was update the BIOS to the latest version, something I had been meaning to do anyway - no change.

I know 2 short beeps mean a CMOS setting error so I reset to fail safe defaults and (after getting bloody XP re-registered) still no change.

I have left the pc in the bios to check the CPU temp and it stayed at about 40 degrees after a short time I got the beeps again.

I have also swapped the ram around and reseated the graphics card.

At times I would not get past the POST with one of the following errors but a reboot would get me in OK.

CPU is missing or unworkable
Detecting IDE drives....

After getting that last one a few times I disconnected all except my main drive and it would boot, I then plugged all the other 3 ide devices back in and it was OK...except all these times I got the beeps after being in Windows for a short time and then the freeze/crash.

 

[Prydonian]

I'm not sure if this will help you, but you should be able to check the beep codes based upon which BIOS you have on your motherboard.

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm#04

The unfortunate thing is that it souinds like your CPU may be cooked...



"It's better to be a case over than a beer short....

 

[wagnj1]

sounds like your CPU might have been overheating. My old mobo used to beep whenever my CPU ran above the acceptable temp set in the BIOS.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there, from reading your post, I conclude two possible things to try...

1.) reseat the CPU (take of HS-Fan, open lever, push down on the CPU, close the lever back, reapply a bit of HS-Compound and reattach the HS-FAN correctly) while at it check for DUST build up on the FAN and HeatSink...

2.) Powersupply possibly not delivering enough juice anymore, or overheating... try another good working PSU...

Ben

PS - also check out the HD's with the appropriate progies from the manufacturer ie., SEAGATE TOOLS for SEAGATE, F-TOOL for IBM and HITACHI drives... etc...

 

[FeetofClay]

Hmm well the plot thickens...

I tried another power supply last night but it was just the same so I think we can rule that out.
I then had a hunch (mainly cause of this disk pollng sound before the beeps start) and unplugged my dvd-rom, cdrw and slave ide drive leaving only my master hard drive in the first ide channel. Booted and all was well - left it on for over 2 hours with no problem! I then plugged the dvd back into ide2 and again all seems to be well.

The only thing that is screwed is the network connection - green light is on but the nvidia network device does not show anywhere and hence no lan connection but I can only think this must be unrelated.....i reloaded the latest driver bundle which includes network device but no joy. I will just throw a network card in to get around this irritation but has anyone had their nvidia network device just dissappear?

My next step is to plug in the other 2 ide devices one at a time and see when it starts complaining.

Has anyone heard of beeps denoting a problem with an IDE device or is this just another bizarre instance in my mad little world of hardware :roll:

 

[BadBigBen]

Has anyone heard of beeps denoting a problem with an IDE device" - actually no... but it could be manufacturer related, ie. special beep codes for special things...

from the sounds of it, ie. lockup with all drives attached and no lockup with just master, either denotes that 1.) PSU doesn't have the oomph or going out (not the case here since you swapped PSU for testing and was still SNAFU) or 2.) one of the IDE drives is going out on you, which could very well be a bad cable and/or wrong jumpering/bad power connector, with that one drive...

suggestion - switch IDE cables (pref. 80 lead cable) and switch to another Powerconnector... if this doesn't help any, then try to isolate the drive and replace it...

Ben

 

[FeetofClay]

You might be on to something there actually Ben. One of the cables I am using us a rounded IDE that I bought from PC World and the other I got from god knows where. I'll have to chcek that they are both 80 pin.

At the moment I have everything except my CDRW plugged in and all seems to be well. The cdrw is about 5 years old but again I don't see a device causing beeps like that. Will keep you posted
Cheers

 

[BadBigBen]

Well, this leads me to think that the cdrw is busted or going out on you... had similiar probs where one drive died gradually and started hogging the IDE BUS...

Ben

PS - yes keep us posted...

 

[FeetofClay]

sorry to take so long to clear this up.
I took the cdrw out of the pc and all has been fine ever since - it must have been screwing up the ide bus

thanks all

 

[BadBigBen]

You're welcome... and GLAD you got it sorted out...

Ben

 

[JRBeltman]

Just to add to this.
It could have well been that your cdrw has a fan inside to keep it cool (like mine had). Sometimes this fan just gives up and your cdrw starts overheating. This can cause some funny things to happen.

The overheating could even affect other hardware near it and melt cables (yes I was the unlucky one)

So maybe check that cdrw, although buying a cd/dvd rw is cheap and much cooler!

JR
(In need of a cool signature)