Problem w/pc

[techcoor]

I have a amd 333, 64 meg pc100 ram, AT mobo, sound blaster 32, a pci video card, and 4 gig drive in my system. It is home built, running win 98. Here's my problem: if i restart the computer, it will produce a continuous beep - beep, beep, beep (until i shut it off. It will not boot back up until I turn it back on after 15 or so minutes. Any suggestions? It runs fine until i have to reboot, then it beeps!

[Chaostician]

All motherboards have "beep" codes. Open your case and look up what type of board you have. Then look it up on the net and find the codes for your board. (To me it sounds like a memory beep code...)

I hope this helps, not hinders.
-Chaostician

[Ygor]

There are 2 main Bios beep codes tables and they don't necessarily mean the same thing.

However, the first thing I'd suggest is checking the RAM and the video card to make sure both are seated correctly. Some new builds require a lot of force to get seated.

Oops, now that I re-read the post I saw that it does boot up. Sounds like something is running too hot. Check your processor voltage. Those AMD's should run at either 2.2 or 2.4 volts. Double check all your jumpers, specially the processor voltage.

If that doesn't solve the problem please let us know what the sticker on the bios chip on the motherboard says. It's likely to be either Ami or Award. Someone probably has the links to those sites handy but I don't.


[This message has been edited by Ygor (edited 01-19-2000).]

[Target]

I agree with Ygor. Sounds to me like something is too hot, and I am guessing since you have a continuous beeping when it does run, that its either the CPU or the motherboard. The beeping could be coming from a CPU or Motherboard thermal sensor alarm. Not knowing which board you have, its hard to say if this is an accurate assessment though.

I would suggest that it could also simply be an incorrect warning level temperature setup in the bios, but since you have to wait for 15 minutes before it will boot up again, I am assuming that it truely is over-heating and needs that amount of time to cool down before it will function again.

Double check to make sure that your CPU and case fans are working, that the clip which holds your heat-sync to the CPU hasn't come un-done, look to see if the bios has a setup for temperature warnings and at what threshold they are set to provide a it, and as Ygor suggested, check to make sure that your CPU voltages are set correctly.

[techcoor]

Thanks for your suggestions everyone! I am heading home now, so I will take a look at the settings/jumpers. I'll be sure to get ya the mobo info 1st thing in the morning. Thanks again for the help - techcoor.

[techcoor]

here's an update:
My mobo is an Epox MVP3 - I looked at their website, and it states that the type of beep that i have is a RAM related problem (found that out AFTER i switched out power supplies!), so i took out/then put the ram back in, still same problems. Why would the ram not work after rebooting? If i leave the pc up and running, it is fine. It is PC 100. any thoughts?

[techcoor]

FROM THE WEB PAGE:

1. one long and 3 very short beeps - video related

2. continuous beeps - memory related

3. no screen and no beep - CPU related



*****I am getting errors 2 and 3 - after i reboot!!!!

[Richard_Cranium72]

Add to that good list, check your cpu fan for air flow. Once I got a AMD475 with a fan that blew so little air you couldn't feel any moving. $12.95 will get a ok fan for un- o/c'd units. lotsaluck DrVette

[Tailkinker]

Did you reseat the RAM in the same slot? Why not try it in another?

[bmckay55]

Sorry about the previous post. Hit the wrong key. In any case, I had a similar problem. Turned out it was defective memory. Do you have another memory module you could try?