This morning, one of our staff came in and booted her - machine she got one long beep and three short beeps. PC won’t boot. Fearing a potential loss of files we swapped HDs with an identical machine to back it up. Now that machine has the same problem. Usually this beep code means video but swapping the HDs and causing both machines to not boot has me baffled. Chad

Defective hard drive causing the motherboard to fail???

AMIBIOS Beep Codes Except for beep code #8, these codes are always fatal. 1 beep Refresh failure Try reseating the memory first. If the error still occurs, replace the memory with known good chips. 2 beeps Parity error Try reseating the memory first. If the error still occurs, replace the memory with known good chips. 3 beeps Base 64K memory failure Try reseating the memory first. If the error still occurs, replace the memory with known good chips. 4 beeps Timer not operational The system board must be sent in for repair. 5 beeps Processor error The system board must be sent in for repair. 6 beeps 8042 - gate A20 failure Try reseating the keyboard controller chip. If the error still occurs, replace the keyboard chip. If the error persists, check parts of the system relating to the keyboard, e.g. try another keyboard, check to see if the system has a keyboard fuse. 7 beeps Processor exception interrupt error The system board must be sent in for repair. 8 beeps Display memory read/write failure Indicates a memory error on the video adapter. Replace the video card or the memory on the video card. 9 beeps ROM checksum error Indicates faulty BIOS chips. It is not likely that this error can be corrected by reseating the chips. Consult the motherboard supplier or an AMI product distributor for replacement parts. 10 beeps CMOS shutdown register read/write error The system board must be sent in for repair. 11 beeps Cache memory bad If no beeps are heard and no display is on the screen, The first thing to check is the power supply. Connect a LED to the POWER LED connection on the motherboard. If this LED lights and the drives spin up then the power supply will usually be good. Next, inspect the motherboard for loose components. A loose or missing CPU, BIOS chip, Crystal Oscillator, or Chipset chip will cause the motherboard not to function. Next, eliminate the possibility of interference by a bad or improperly set up I/O card by removing all cards except the video adapter. The system should at least power up and wait for a drive time-out. Insert the cards back into the system one at a time until the problem happens again. When the system does nothing, the problem will be with the last expansion card that was put in. If the above suggestions fail to cause any change in the dysfunction of the system, the motherboard must be returned for repair. IBM Corporation BiosIBIBMIBM CORPORATION BEEPS ERROR DESCRIPTION 1 Short Successful POST, no errors 2 Short Initialization Error, DMA, ROM, Floppy, Serial or Parallel 1 Long, 1 Short System Board 1 Long, 2 Short Video Adapter or Video Memory 1 Long, 3 Short Video Adapter None Power Supply or System Board Continuous Power Supply or System Board Repeating Short Power Supply or System Board INTEL BEEP CODESBEEP CODES BEEPS ERROR MESSAGE DESCRIPTION 1 Long 2 Short No video card found Applies only to baseboards with no on-board video. 1 Long 3 Short No Monitor connected Applies only to baseboards with an on-board video present. 1 Long X Short Video related failure Other video beep codes may exist and are tied to specific video BIOS implementations. Contact the vendor for details should the need arise. 1 Refresh Failure The memory refresh circuitry on the baseboard is faulty. 2 Parity Error Parity is not supported on this product, will not occur. 3 Base 64KB Memory Failure Memory failure in first 64 KB. 4 Timer Not Operational Memory failure in first 64 KB of memory, or Timer 1 on baseboard not functioning. 5 Processor Error The CPU on the baseboard generated an error. 6 8042-Gate A20 Failure Keyboard controller (8042) may be bad. BIOS cannot switch to protected mode. 7 Processor Exception The CPU generated an exception interrupt. Interrupt Error 8 Display Memory Read The system video adapter is either missing or its memory is faulty. Write Error not a fatal error 9 ROM Checksum Error ROM checksum value does not match the value encoded in BIOS. 10 CMOS Shutdown Register The shutdown register for CMOS RAM failed. Read/Write Error 11 Cache Error/The external cache is faulty External Cache Bad PHOENIX BEEP CODES Phoenix beep codes are more detailed than are the AMI codes. It emits three sets of beeps. For example, 1 -pause- 3 -pause 3 -pause-. This is a 1-3-3 combo and each set of beeps is separated by a brief pause. So, you need to listen and count when your computer starts doing this. Reboot and recount if you have to. 1-1-3 CMOS failure 1-1-4 ROM BIOS check failure 1-2-1 Programmable Timer failure 1-2-2 DMA init failure 1-2-3 DMA page register read/write failure 1-3-1 RAM refresh verification failure 1-3-3 First 64kb RAM or data line failure 1-3-4 First 64kb RAM parity logic failure 1-4-1 First 64kb RAM address line failure 1-4-2 First 64kb RAM Parity failure 2-?-? First 64kb RAM bit failure 3-1-1 Slave DMA register failure 3-1-2 Master DMA register failure 3-1-3 Master interrupt mask register failure 3-1-4 Slave interrupt mask register failure 3-2-4 Keyboard controller failure

when i start my pc it beeps 3 times, never knew why til now, how exactly do you reset memory, i'm new to all this, thanks very much Mark

I replaced the video card and solved the problem (three beeps = video = Compaq board). Thanks - Chad