[DanniKuhn]

Hi everyone, I wasn't sure where to turn for help so googled "computer help forum" and came across this site. Hopefully someone can help me out.

I had a lot of issues with my computer just recently, I was getting all kinds of blue screens of death, I even got a light green screen once. I was getting beeping and my computer would just shut itself off. At first I just did a system restore, hoping that would solve my problem, it seemed fine for a bit until it started shutting itself off again and I was getting error messages once again. I looked into the beeping codes, and with that and with all my other issues, and some of the error messages it made sense to me that it was a memory problem. I bought a new stick of ram from dell, inserted it(replaced the old one), and all my problems seemed to be gone. I even did a "test" of leaving firefox open with an online game running while I went out to see if it would turn itself off and no problems occurred. This was at least three weeks ago, probably more, and everything has been running smoothly until just about an hour ago when I turned my computer on I got two short beeps. No messages, everything booted fine, but is this a problem? Should I just ignore the beeps or have I not completely fixed all my computer issues yet?

In case its important to know: the first time I knew there was an issue with my computer, I accidentally(no, seriously, I didn't mean to leave it open) left firefox running with a game in the browser. When I came back my computer was shut off. I left it off but when I tried to turn it on the next morning, I got beeps, but it booted up, but then I couldn't use the mouse or keyboard, my computer wouldn't respond to them at all.

My computer is a desktop, Dell dimension 4700, I'm running XP.

If you need any more information to help me figure out what the problem is, let me know! thanks!

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Hi,

Welcome to GeeksToGo

Now the beeps you heard are what's called POST (Power On Self Test) beeps and they determine hardware configurations when you start.

Now are you sure there were only 2 beeps? Because if you take a look HERE the Dell POST set for your PC consists of 3 or more beeps. For example could it have been 2 short beeps and a quick beep possibly?

Seemingly its nothing at the moment of great concern but it could indicate a future problem.

However just as a quick check i would open the side of your PC and double check that the new stick of RAM you inserted is fully clipped in and is not moving or sticking out at any point.

[rev_olie]

Hi,

Welcome to GeeksToGo

Now the beeps you heard are what's called POST (Power On Self Test) beeps and they determine hardware configurations when you start.

Now are you sure there were only 2 beeps? Because if you take a look HERE the Dell POST set for your PC consists of 3 or more beeps. For example could it have been 2 short beeps and a quick beep possibly?

Seemingly its nothing at the moment of great concern but it could indicate a future problem.

However just as a quick check i would open the side of your PC and double check that the new stick of RAM you inserted is fully clipped in and is not moving or sticking out at any point.

[DanniKuhn]

Thanks,

I'm fairly certain it was just two short beeps, but I wasn't really paying attention because I wasn't expecting them, so I could have been mistaken. When I started up my computer today there were no beeps, so, good sign I suppose? Aside from double checking the ram, is there any other way to test if I still have a problem?

[rev_olie]

Hi,

From what you've said i don't think its a serious problem. It could have been a bad value or something when you booted or something hadn't close properly with you saying it had restarted.

However just 1 question, your keyboard and mouse, are they USB or the old style PS/2?

If your still worried we can run a test on your RAM.

Download memtest86

Get the file that is named Download - The one you want is "Download - Pre-compiled Bootable ISO (.zip). When it downloads, it will be labeled memtest86+2.11.iso.zip
Unzip the file once you download it. You should have a .iso file in the unzipped directory. It will look like a zip file in some cases but the file name will now be memtest86+2.11.iso

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files download burncdcc.

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its memtest86.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

Make sure the bios is set for the cd drive as the first boot device
Put the cd in the cd drive and then boot your computer.

Running the Diagnostic Program:

The basic diagnostic screen has five main sections of relevant information. Three at the top which are labeled, PASS %, TEST %, and TEST #. This will basically show you the total progress of the current test, the overall progress of the diagnostic test, and the test number is currently performing.

On the middle left hand side of the of the program interface there is a “Wall Time” section that will keep track of how long the diagnostic test has been running for. This just gives you an idea if you are not attending the testing process.

The main section to look for is the lower half of the screen which is usually blank. As long as the memory testing is going ok with no errors this section of the screen should remain blank. If the diagnostic program finds any serious faults in the memory you will see it display a memory dump of address’s in this section. This is similar to what is displayed on your screen when you encounter a blue screen of death.

You now have most everything you need to know about setting up and testing your memory with diagnostic programs. This guide should help you get to the source of any intermittent problems related to your memory.


Run memtest for at least 2 hours
If it starts showing any errors during that time then you will have to replace the memory
If there are no errors after 2 hours press Esc and that will end the tests

Report back with the results of any failures

[rshaffer61]

How to Interpret Computer Error Beep Codes

When the computer makes those funny sound via the system speaker, it's not doing it because it wants to be heard.
The computer is trying to talk to the operator/technician and tell them what's wrong.

Beep Codes:

No Beeps: Short, No power, Bad CPU/MB, Loose Peripherals

One Beep: Everything is normal and Computer Posted fine

Two Beeps: POST/CMOS Error

One Long Beep, One Short Beep: Motherboard Problem

One Long Beep, Two Short Beeps: Video Problem

One Long Beep, Three Short Beeps: Video Problem

Three Long Beeps: Keyboard Error

Repeated Long Beeps: Memory Error

Continuous Hi-Lo Beeps: CPU Overheating


Thanks to alandemartino for this tutorial.