Rapid beeping for about a minute or 2

[J_Kent]

My 2-1/2 year old Pavillion recently it started beeping while on. Lasts a minute or 2, then stops. No codes. No problems that I can notice. What causes the beeping?

[erico]

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J_Kent wrote:

My 2-1/2 year old Pavillion recently it started beeping while on. Lasts a minute or 2, then stops. No codes. No problems that I can notice. What causes the beeping?

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Take a read of this document on HP BIOS beep codes.

Since you did not state which Pavilion you have and which BIOS it has I was unable to give you a precise answer. More information is always better.

Best regards,

erico

[J_Kent]

Sorry. Here's more: For the record, I know a little about computers. Have built a couple and back in the days of DOS I was always inside the box changing and upgrading things. Too lazy to do that now so I bought this off the shelf. When I bought this 2.5 yrs ago I added Corsair memory to max 8GB, a Powercolor Radeon graphics card and a new Coolmax 450 watt power supply. It has worked fine ever since. Now it sometimes, for no apparent reason, starts beeping rapidly. This is not (AFAIK) a beep code. The beeping lasts a minute or 2 (can't count them--maybe 100 or more beeps) then stops and all seems OK. I have not cracked open the case to poke around inside yet.

Here is the info:

Model #: a6515f
Product #: FJ466AA-ABA
Software Build #: 83NAv6PrA3

OS is Windows Vista Home 64 bit
BIOS American Megatrends ver 5.25 date 6/16/08

I believe the motherboard is an hp-branded ASUS benica

thanks for any help!

[J_Kent]

Any ideas? Anyone?

[Big_Dave]

Hi J_Kent,

Look at the Event Viewer log for errors.  Does your PC beep in Safe mode?

Try this procedure:

Unplug the PC and open it up. Clean out all the dust. Carefully remove and replace all the cables going to the motherboard one at a time. Do the same for the memory dimms and the video and sound cards if you have any.  You might want to buy a can of compressed air to blow the dust out of the CPU heat sink.  Plug your PC back in and give it a go.

[J_Kent]

Thanks Big Dave. Have not tried Safe Mode yet and have not gotten around to opening the puter and doing some spring cleaning.

I did open the Event Viewer and found things under Critical (but not within the past 7 days), Error and Warning (several within the past hour, day etc). I looked at the ones that have occured within the past hour, because I got the beeping when I first started the puter 15 minutes ago. Here are results. Now what?

            Errors

            Source:WMI  Log: Application

            Source: SideBySide  Log: Application

            Source: Dhcp-Client  Log: System (ALSO LISTED UNDER WARNING)

            Source: Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider  Log: System

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

Those events might be normal.

Is it beeping or perhaps a rapid clicking noise?  You need to open your PC up and try to pin point where the noise is originating from.

[J_Kent]

It's definitely beeping--very rapid and lasts a good minute or more, then just stops. I don't notice any problem while this is happening or afterward. It does not happen often. I used to leave the machine on all the time, and maybe it would do the beeping once a day.

The cpu is under the desk. I'll haul it out and blow it (maybe Tuesday) and reset the cables etc as you described but I don't know if I'll be able to leave it open and hope to pinpoint the source when it happens.

The events don't mean anything?

[J_Kent]

OK. I opened the box and blew it out. Pretty filthy in there. Blew all the fans and vents. Removed the fan/heat sink assembly on the CPU for a good blast but I did not have any thermal grease so just reinstalled it as-is. Maybe I should pick up some grease and get a new mobo battery while I'm at it?

Also removed 4 memory sticks and the vid card and reinstalled them. Visually checked everything and did not see anything amiss.

This computer seems quiet. Do the fans run all the time? Im not sure all 3 are running now (PSU, CPU & case fan).

Will see if the beeping returns.

[J_Kent]

OH! Forgot to mention:

 This morning the computer suddenly shut down. When I restarted, the display was screwey--random horizontal colored lines. I started in safe mode, shut down and restarted. Sees OK. Then I disconnected the box and did the service described in previous post.