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Solve : PC "beeps" quietly occasionally.?

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I'm having a bit of an unusual problem.

I recently moved from Australia to the USA and had the insides of my computer shipped over so I could put it all back together inside a new tower (it was much cheaper than shipping the tower itself).

ANYWAY, everything went together fine and fired up perfectly - other than some early problems with recurring infection with the VUNDO virus (which is now solved) - the machine seems to be running perfectly.

The only problem is every now and then I hear this very soft "beep" from the case - it's PRETTY quiet and it took me a while to be sure it was coming from the computer - I had to physically sit next to it and wait for it to happen. I took the panel off and it was easier to hear - it's sometimes preceeded by a bit of a soft clicking noise, like when a hard drive starts up or a fan catching (but I couldnt see any cords hitting fans).

It doesn't sound like the beep you get on startup, in fact it doesnt sound like the PC speaker at all - its more of a slight "chirp" than a beep. Sometimes it goes for many hours without happening, then all of a sudden ill get three or four beeps in a single minute, then it will stop again. It's really freaking me out.

I'm a little concerned that it is perhaps one of my four hard drives making the noise - I'm having a bit of a funny issue with one of them. This particular drive is in three partitions, G, H and I. G drive (It's a long story) is my system drive. Anyway, for some reason when I navigate around H: partition in explorer, explorer sort of locks up for 10 seconds or so when I try to enter the Program Files directory (or exit it). I have no problem with any other directory on this partition, nor do I have the problem with any dirs on G or I. Strangely, if I navigate in with "Total Commander" rather than explorer, I experience no lockup whatsoever entering that dir on H. - Still, it's strange.

Anyway, I'm pretty confounded by this beep. Im sort of ignoring it at the moment, but computers are like children to me - I can't stand there being something wrong with them and I stress unless everything is perfect - rogue "beeps" are a worry.

My machine is an oldish Abit BD7 motherboard with 1.5GB DDRAM, Winfast Geforce 7800GS, Buffalo wireless network card, some generic regular network card, Soundblaster Audigy 2, Four Western Digital hard drives of varying size (two SATA ones on a sata card) and Two IDE (including the weirdly ACTING one). This is all inside an Antec NSK6500 tower with 430W power - my system runs idle temp of around 48c and gets into the high 50s under stress.

One final thing I thought of - because my mainboard is pretty old (I have never been able to afford a full upgrade since 2002 so it's been a case of adding on as best I can), could the beep be related to the BIOS battery running low? A warning to replace it or something?

Thanks in advance for any help or even just ideas.

MikeThe beep could be caused by many things. Why not start a program of eliminating possibles by:

1. Replace the cmos battery, they cost just a few dollars and are readily available. If that doesn't fix the beep at least you've replaced a battery which is probably way past its use-by date.

2. Run manufacturers diagnostics on your hard drives. The diagnostic program is free for download from the Western Digital site and if you can't find that then the Seagate diagnostic tool will suffice. If there are no errors then at least you know your hdd's are fine & dandy.

3. Run Memtest86 to check out your Ram, another program free for download.

4. Check the temperatures and fan speeds/voltages against the mobo specs. The temps may be well within specs but always worth checking.

Finally, before doing any of the above, ensure that your backup is up-to-date..

Good luck

I put my money on #2 (HardDrive)Quote from: RedBull on August 03, 2007, 12:15:54 PM

I put my money on #2 (HardDrive)

OK i'll take #1...Ok a little more info.

The "beep" is, I have now decided", accompanied by a bit of a "click" so its more of a beep-click, with the beep but being first - sort of "beepclick".

Secondly. it only seems to start happening towards the end of a long day of the computer being on. This may just be a coincidence but I didnt have a beep all day yesterday until the machine had been switched on for about 14 hours, at which time it was making more beepclicks than ever.

Now, the next day, I have been powered up for 30 mins or so and no beeps yet.

This doesn't seem to be a temp issue as my temp has been stable around 48c all day long, including when the beeps are happening.

Im starting to get paranoid it might be a hard drive, but I have run chkdsks on them and even defragged my system and they are still alive for now.

CMOS battery idea would be the best thing it could be, but why would it go nuts at the end of the day, and whats with the small clicky sound?

Could my motherboard, circa 2002, be freaking out at a 430W PSU?From the end of your POST working backwards...
No. Any MBoard should not freakout at the size of the PSU as the board and PSU together regulate how much power is consumed
Too much...never a problem
Not enough...issues galore.

CMOS battery is a 5 minute fix for less than 5 bucks. As always when working inside the case remove all power sources first and take anti-static precautions.

The best method to check HDD's health is to DLoad the diagnostics from the HDD manuf. site...most reliable tests there are.

Although your temps are within reason i would still check the insides and do some housekeeping paying special attention to all fans and heatsinks.

Ok a little while ago my optical drive stopped working, turns out the IDE cable was loose at the motherboard connector.

Could the beep have been "hey, your cable is loose" - even though the drive was working until recently?

I don't think I have heard the click-beep since I plugged it firmly in.I've never heard of this but sure.Quote from: patio on August 04, 2007, 07:07:44 AM
I've never heard of this but sure.

Alas, it was not to be. Got a couple of beeps just now, went inside the case again -

Another theory. My motherboard lost the little plastic clips that firmly hold the video card in place - its quite a heavy card and maybe its getting jostled around in the socket a bit and thats causing it - I know im grasping at straws, but it seemed a little loose. I resteated the card and im going to sit my computer on the side a bit so the card isnt just hanging there and see what happens. In the meantime, everything critical is off the most suspect drive. If it has to be a hard drive I really hope its the 80MB IBM deskstar thats an old leftover drive for extra space - I can live with that one dying. I rean Western Digital's diags on all my WD drives and they came up fine - at least with the "quick check"HDD's don't beep...period.

They do however click. This is normal on older drives bu t on a NEWER drive it is signalling the demise of that drive otherwise known as the click of death.

DLoad and run the diagnostics from the drive manuf. site. This will tell you whether to trust it with data or not.

Have you replaced that CMOS battery yet ? ?
I'm still betting this is the source of the beeps.


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