Wolfie Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 My base unit at home is playing up... i have an intermittent problem, where on boot up the motherboard will give a single long 'beep' this problem will resolve itself after a while and the PC would boot normally. Originally i thought it was the GFX card, as i have an old GX2 which always ran very hot. Last night when i got home, the PC was off (i usually keep it on 24/7) so i tried to boot it and had the same problem with the Beep on boot, the PC had been off all day and the GFX card was cool. After struggling with it for a little while the PC finally managed to boot into windows. This time however it would load windows, play the intro sound and then just sit there on a black screen, the mouse cursor would show and be responsive but i would not get any log in prompt. I tried a restore that didnt help, i could boot into safe mode with no problems. So anyway, i reinstalled windows and the problem went away, however whilst i was downloading all the updates etc the monitor went into 'sleep' mode and i wasnt able to wake it up again, so i rebooted the PC, has a problem with the single long beep again and after a while the PC booted back into windows and had the same black screen problem. So it sounds like i have two issues here 1. the cause of the bios level single long beep 2. the cause of the windows black screen instead of a login screen. Anyone have any insights into what might be causing either of these problems? The motherboard is fairly new, maybe 6mths old, its a Gigabyte board (dont remember the model number) Is my GFX card dead? Ram maybe? Anyone have any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Below is a list of beep codes, unfortunately it doesn't show a single long beep as part of it. When you start up, go into the BIOS and Power Settings or similar option and check the voltages and temperatures in case a power or thermal issue on the mainboard. If you have more then one memory card, remove them all and put one back in and check again. Also, re-seat your hard drive SATA and power connectors. //edit - also make sure in the BIOS you are not overclocking and it is set to AUTO (if that option is available) From the Gigabyte support site. 1.AWARD BIOS 1short beep :System normal 2 short beep :CMOS Error 1 long beep and 1 short beep :Memory error 1 long beep and 2 short beep :Graphic card error 1 long beep and 3 short beep :AGP error 1 long beep and 9 short beep :Memory Error Continuous long beep :Memory not correctly installed Continuous short beep :Power supply unit failed 2.AMI BIOS 1 short beep :Memory Error 2 short beep:Memory parity check error. 3 short beep :basic memory 64K address check error 4 short beep :Real Time Clock malfunction . 5 short beep :CPU error 6 short beep :Keyboard error 7 short beep :CPU interruption error 8 short beep:Graphic card error 9 short beep :Memory error 10 short beep :CMOS error 11 short beep :CPU cache memory malfunction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 I've never tried to overclock the system, on one of the times i was able to get into the BIOS, i checked that everything is set to Auto. Its just the one GFX card (The GX2 is two cards inside one case/housing). The Award BIOS beep codes you listed suggest that one continuous beep is a memory problem, i guess the next step is to strip down the PC and make sure everything has clean connectors and is seated properly. Its weird that this problem seems to resolve itself without me doing anything, one time it will just boot without a problem. and another time it will give this beep code error. Most frustrating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Its weird that this problem seems to resolve itself without me doing anything, one time it will just boot without a problem. and another time it will give this beep code error. Most frustrating! A marginal contact or marginal power supply or overheating of a component can cause this. Memory would be my first check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 Yeah, thats my feeling... a few of the websites ive checked suggest that error code is a memory problem... unfortunately the support site of my mobo manufacturer doesnt have anything for that beep code - time to strip the beast down and rebuild it - ho hum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernova Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 The motherboard is fairly new, maybe 6mths old, its a Gigabyte board (dont remember the model number) CPU-Z - System information tool Memtest86+ - An advanced memory diagnostic tool Windows Memory Diagnostic - Microsoft's own memory diagnostic tool Alternatively, you could test system stability by running Prime95. Download for Windows 32-bit | 64-bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 Excellent - thanks for those Links Supernova, when i get home tonight i will give those tools a try! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thanh-BKK Posted April 1, 2010 Share Posted April 1, 2010 Hi. Shut down the computer. Unplug it from ALL cables that connect at the back. Open the case by removing the side panel. Take out the RAM stick(s). Clean the golden contacts on both sides of each RAM stick with a soft pencil eraser. Wipe with a tissue after that. Re-insert RAM stick(s), be careful to insert them the correct way (they fit only one way). Close case. Re-Connect all cables. Likely both problems (long beep as well as Windows boot failure) solved. Best regards..... Thanh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie Posted April 2, 2010 Author Share Posted April 2, 2010 Well it turned out to be my GFX card that was dead. After buying a new HD 5870 and installing that everything works fine (My gawd its a 'long' card - struggled to get it in the box!) The PC boots first time every time, Windows shows the login screen without a glitch and the PC is alive again! As a side note, my old 9800 GX2 used to run really hot, this card doesn't seem to run as hot, even under pressure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welo Posted April 2, 2010 Share Posted April 2, 2010 Well it turned out to be my GFX card that was dead. After buying a new HD 5870 and installing that everything works fine (My gawd its a 'long' card - struggled to get it in the box!) The PC boots first time every time, Windows shows the login screen without a glitch and the PC is alive again! As a side note, my old 9800 GX2 used to run really hot, this card doesn't seem to run as hot, even under pressure I assume that you tested the old card in a 2nd PC - just to make sure it is really dead and not just some problem with the power supply or overheating in your box... Agreed the chances are low but it's worth a try... welo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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