Immediate beeping upon power-up

[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?

 

[Chris Hill]

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?

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.

 

[Ed Medlin]

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?

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

 

[Charles Packer]

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

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

 

[Charles Packer]

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.

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?

 

[Chris Hill]

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?

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.

 

[Terry]

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?

I read something just recently that says that a beep almost always
means memory or video.

 

[Kent_Diego]

beeping is useally the error code for RAM error. Be sure CPU fan is in right
plug and try clearing CMOS battery jumper.

 

[Michael Hawes]

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.

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

Mike.

 

[Charles Packer]

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

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

Thanks very much to everybody who responded.

 

[GEO Me]

On Jul 30, 7:53 am, "Michael Hawes"

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

Thanks very much to everybody who responded.

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

 

[ProfGene]

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?

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.

 

[ProfGene]

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?

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.