5 Beeps on Startup - Motherboard Red Light

[Dazzler_3000]

Hi,

For the last 2 weeks or so sometimes on startup my PC is beeping 5 times and then running normally. When this happens there's also a red light on the motherboard in the bottom right hand corner (photo included). I've tried googling the issue but I get a variety of possible causes and my PC knowledge isn't great so I don't want to go fiddling with stuff and creating more problems.

One thing I've tried is removing and reconnecting the RAM but that doesn't seem to work (RAM appears to be working fine as far as I'm aware). PC specs are below:

Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Six Core (3.7GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
EVGA RTX 2080XC
500GB Samsung 860 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fans

Any advice on what it could be and how to resolve it? I'm not sure if it's linked, but about a month ago I dusted the computer and I'm thinking I may have knocked something loose but I've checked the connections and they all seem to be fine. If this issue is tied to one specific thing though I can check that connection in isolation.

Thanks very much

 

[ubuysa]

Assuming you have an AMI BIOS, five short beeps is a 'process failure', this is really an unknown error which means it's not something specific that could be identified (and which would have resulted in a different beep code).

What happened two weeks ago? If you've moved the PC or bumped it, or added/removed any hardware internally, or even plugged in or unplugged anything external, then they would be the first suspects.

The manual for your board is at https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_z370-aorus-ultra-gaming_e.pdf, that LED is one of the status LEDs (see item 22 in the manual). There should be four; CPU/VGA/DRAM/BOOT indicating what's failed I assume.

Failing that the next most likely cause, and the easiest to test is RAM. Download Memtest, write it a USB stick, boot that USB stick and Memtest should start running. Leave it overnight, this free version only does four iterations of the various tests but that's enough to detect 98% of RAM problems.

It's also worth popping RAM cards out and back in and pooping all other cards out and back in. Check that all connectors are fully home and secure too.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Short Beeps or long beeps?

What does BIOS beep sound mean? | FAQ - GIGABYTE Global

www.gigabyte.com

What does BIOS beep sound mean?
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



The position of that Red diode points to the VGA from this manual shot (bottom Right):

 

[Dazzler_3000]

Hi both,

Thanks for the replies - Sorry for the delay coming back.

I'll do another lap around the PC to check everything's connected properly as that's the only thing I can think has happened. I'm guessing there's no issue with unplugging and re-plugging everything in as long as the power has been disconnected?

I checked which lights were lit up and normally its the 'BOOT' light but on one occasion it was the 'VGA' light. I'll do some digging to figure out what that means.

To answer one of the questions, it's 5 short beeps which looks to be 'CPU Error' on the explanations above but not sure that ties in to the light that comes on.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again

 

[Craigie1874]

Hi both,

Thanks for the replies - Sorry for the delay coming back.

I'll do another lap around the PC to check everything's connected properly as that's the only thing I can think has happened. I'm guessing there's no issue with unplugging and re-plugging everything in as long as the power has been disconnected?

I checked which lights were lit up and normally its the 'BOOT' light but on one occasion it was the 'VGA' light. I'll do some digging to figure out what that means.

To answer one of the questions, it's 5 short beeps which looks to be 'CPU Error' on the explanations above but not sure that ties in to the light that comes on.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again

Hey Dazzler_3000. Did you ever get to the bottom of the x5 beeps? I just connected up a new monitor The new Samsung G7 Odyssey and ever since I have also been getting the five beeps although I have no idea what to do about it. I have the same Motherboard as you. Any info you can give to help me resolve this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hey Dazzler_3000. Did you ever get to the bottom of the x5 beeps? I just connected up a new monitor The new Samsung G7 Odyssey and ever since I have also been getting the five beeps although I have no idea what to do about it. I have the same Motherboard as you. Any info you can give to help me resolve this would be greatly appreciated.

Just try it with a different connector so hdmi if you’re using DP and vice versa.

Sometime the motherboard makes these beeps when the display isn’t powered on when it boots, it’s a bug of the motherboard.

 

[Craigie1874]

Just try it with a different connector so hdmi if you’re using DP and vice versa.

Sometime the motherboard makes these beeps when the display isn’t powered on when it boots, it’s a bug of the motherboard.

Hi and thats done the trick. Thanks very much, most appreciated.