High-low siren sound on boot

[Canine]

A friend of a friend bought a new computer so he was getting rid of his
current one. After he ransacked it for any good parts he gave it to my
friend, who promptly sold it to me.

It is a emachines C3060 with a sempron 3000+. Any thing else that came
with the computer my friend of a friend took out and kept.

So now I am trying to use this as a base for my own computer.

My problem is this, I put in ram, a hard drive and a dvd burner. Then I
plug it in and boot it up and I get an image on the screen for a moment
before the screen blacks and I hear a high-low-high-low series of beeps
that sound kinda like a siren.

I have tried switching the socket the ram is in and without the drives.

My friend, before he gave it to me said he tested it with some ram he
had and that it said he had the wrong voltage. The ram I have is the
voltage other sites have recommended for an emachines computer, so I am
confident that is not the problem.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Paul]

A friend of a friend bought a new computer so he was getting rid of his
current one. After he ransacked it for any good parts he gave it to my
friend, who promptly sold it to me.

It is a emachines C3060 with a sempron 3000+. Any thing else that came
with the computer my friend of a friend took out and kept.

So now I am trying to use this as a base for my own computer.

My problem is this, I put in ram, a hard drive and a dvd burner. Then I
plug it in and boot it up and I get an image on the screen for a moment
before the screen blacks and I hear a high-low-high-low series of beeps
that sound kinda like a siren.

I have tried switching the socket the ram is in and without the drives.

My friend, before he gave it to me said he tested it with some ram he
had and that it said he had the wrong voltage. The ram I have is the
voltage other sites have recommended for an emachines computer, so I am
confident that is not the problem.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Isn't the high-low siren, the overheat alarm ?

Was the CPU heatsink disturbed, as part of the ransacking ?

Some S462 machines do not have good protection against
overheating, and the CPU can be damaged if it isn't cooled
properly.

Also, if someone has been adding or removing RAM while the
power was on, that could damage the RAM or the Northbridge.
I recommend unplugging the computer, before working inside
it, as that guarantees there is no power still on inside it.

Paul

 

[Canine]

Isn't the high-low siren, the overheat alarm ?

Was the CPU heatsink disturbed, as part of the ransacking ?

Some S462 machines do not have good protection against
overheating, and the CPU can be damaged if it isn't cooled
properly.

Also, if someone has been adding or removing RAM while the
power was on, that could damage the RAM or the Northbridge.
I recommend unplugging the computer, before working inside
it, as that guarantees there is no power still on inside it.

Paul

Thank you.

I am going to get ahold of my friend and get him to help me remove the
heatsink and put it back, reapplying thermal paste or whatever.

And I am going to find out what exactly he did to it.

And on this computer there is no on/off switch on the back and I was
kinda worried so I pulled the plug before I did anything.

 

[r010159]

Paul wrote:

I am going to get ahold of my friend and get him to help me remove the
heatsink and put it back, reapplying thermal paste or whatever.

And I am going to find out what exactly he did to it.

And on this computer there is no on/off switch on the back and I was
kinda worried so I pulled the plug before I did anything.

Good idea pulling the plug. If the heatsink is not the problem, try
something different. If you check for the components that it requires
to be there, perhaps you will uncover the problem. When building PCs, I
would turn the board on with nothing installed, then add the CPU, try
it again, add the memory, and then the video card. This would show me
what the key POST codes are for that BIOS, and allow me to pinpoint the
hardware problem. The POST codes should change as hardware is added.

Bob Graham

 

[John Holmes]

Canine "contributed" in alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:

A friend of a friend bought a new computer so he was getting rid of his
current one. After he ransacked it for any good parts he gave it to my
friend, who promptly sold it to me.

It is a emachines C3060 with a sempron 3000+. Any thing else that came
with the computer my friend of a friend took out and kept.

So now I am trying to use this as a base for my own computer.

My problem is this, I put in ram, a hard drive and a dvd burner. Then I
plug it in and boot it up and I get an image on the screen for a moment
before the screen blacks and I hear a high-low-high-low series of beeps
that sound kinda like a siren.

I have tried switching the socket the ram is in and without the drives.

My friend, before he gave it to me said he tested it with some ram he
had and that it said he had the wrong voltage. The ram I have is the
voltage other sites have recommended for an emachines computer, so I am
confident that is not the problem.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I've seen this behaviour when capacitors on the motherboard went bad or
started leaking. The voltages within the motherboard weren't regulated
properly anymore, the motherboard goes into "down" state to prevent
damage to the CPU and other components and plays the alarm-bell to alert
you. Google for "blown capacitors", you'll find plenty of sites
describing the problem and how to find out if this is your case.

 

[Canine]

Canine "contributed" in alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:


I've seen this behaviour when capacitors on the motherboard went bad or
started leaking. The voltages within the motherboard weren't regulated
properly anymore, the motherboard goes into "down" state to prevent
damage to the CPU and other components and plays the alarm-bell to alert
you. Google for "blown capacitors", you'll find plenty of sites
describing the problem and how to find out if this is your case.

Hmm...

I think I will contact my friend to see exactly what he did to it and
in the mean while I will inspect the board closer.

Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[Canine]

Hmm...

I think I will contact my friend to see exactly what he did to it and
in the mean while I will inspect the board closer.

Thank you for the suggestions.

UPDATE:

The other day I removed the heatsink to see the state of affairs below
it and I saw some thermal paste. I wiped it off and decided I would try
to order some off of newegg

I replace the heatsink, put the pc back where it was in my room and
wandered away.

Later that evening, I received a message from my friend, recommending
this or that and I plugged the computer in and powered it up. (I
wouldn't have done this if I had remembered I removed the thermal
paste) and to my surprise it didn't start the processor failure siren.

One other thing I did, I flipped the heatsink around so an indentation
on the mount would line up, but I don't think that mattered.

But the end result is that it is not overheating!

Thanks all!

 

[JAD]

UPDATE:

The other day I removed the heatsink to see the state of affairs below
it and I saw some thermal paste. I wiped it off and decided I would try
to order some off of newegg

I replace the heatsink, put the pc back where it was in my room and
wandered away.

Later that evening, I received a message from my friend, recommending
this or that and I plugged the computer in and powered it up. (I
wouldn't have done this if I had remembered I removed the thermal
paste) and to my surprise it didn't start the processor failure siren.

One other thing I did, I flipped the heatsink around so an indentation
on the mount would line up, but I don't think that mattered.

THEE most common reason of CPU over heat..... HS on wrong.