Asus Z87 Motherboard - 4 Beeps every 45 seconds (approximately)

[ImportantlyMe]

Hi there

New PC running Windows 8 working perfectly normally EXCEPT it now produces 4 short beeps every 45 seconds - this has only just started (Pc is one week old) and is driving me nuts :-O

Onboard Sound Card is working fine for normal sound except for the beeps which happen happen with headphones or speakers in front or back jacks

I've gone as far as the F2 screen and the beep doesn't happen until PC is up and running.

Any ideas

Cheers

John

 

[ubuysa]

Can you just check what make of BIOS you have? It should be somewhere on the splash screen on first boot (the one that tells you to press F2 to enter the BIOS).

I guessing it will be AMI (American Megatrends) because that's the only one that produces four short beeps, you can see from here that 4 short beeps from Ami BIOS means "System Timer Failure". This means that either there is a hardware failure on your motherboard (the system timer) which is unlikely. Or, there is a fault in the first bank of memory - which is highly likely.

RAM is easy to test, download Memtest from here, extract the .iso file and burn it to a blank CD. Then boot from that CD and Memtest will start running. Leave it running overnight (you need a lot of test cycles to be sure) and if there are any errors reported in the morning you have a RAM problem.

 

[nathanjrb]

The user manual that came with the board will also tell you what the beeps mean.

 

[ImportantlyMe]

Thanks

The BIOS is UEFI.

I've looked on the CD Manual that came with the board and that only lists "Four Short Beeps" on startup as 'Hardware Component Failure' (AWARD BIOS)

However, everything seems to be working fine, apart from the beeps, which only happen when Windows is running

I'll run the MEMTEST overnight and see what that brings for breakfast tomorrow...

Cheers

John

 

[ubuysa]

Ah, so your BIOS is from AWARD. I can't find 4 short beeps as an AWARD BIOS error, but if the manual says it's a hardware error then that's probably what it is. You might want to take a look at the Windows Event Log though and see whether anything is reported in there.

I'd call PCS tomorrow. It will have been handy to run Memtest, eliminating RAM is a useful diagnostic.

BTW. Others have had problems using UEFI boot, you might want to consider disabling secure boot in the BIOS, although you'll have to reinstall Windows if you do that.

 

[ImportantlyMe]

Ah, so your BIOS is from AWARD. I can't find 4 short beeps as an AWARD BIOS error, but if the manual says it's a hardware error then that's probably what it is. You might want to take a look at the Windows Event Log though and see whether anything is reported in there.

I'd call PCS tomorrow. It will have been handy to run Memtest, eliminating RAM is a useful diagnostic.

BTW. Others have had problems using UEFI boot, you might want to consider disabling secure boot in the BIOS, although you'll have to reinstall Windows if you do that.

Hiya

I've found the source....but not the solution :-|

It's something in Chrome. When it's open, I get beeps. When it's closed, I get silence....

Now to investigate further but I'm pleased it's not my system

Thanks for your help

Cheers

John

 

[Boozad]

I've found the source....but not the solution :-|

Use Firefox.

 

[ubuysa]

Hiya

I've found the source....but not the solution :-|

It's something in Chrome. When it's open, I get beeps. When it's closed, I get silence....

Now to investigate further but I'm pleased it's not my system

Thanks for your help

Cheers

John

That's interesting, I've never heard of that before. Do please let us know what you find.

 

[mitchell65]

Hiya

I've found the source....but not the solution :-|

It's something in Chrome. When it's open, I get beeps. When it's closed, I get silence....

Now to investigate further but I'm pleased it's not my system

Thanks for your help

Cheers

John

If you are certain that it doesn't happen in other browsers then it might well be a Chrome add on that is causing this.
Open Chrome, delete what is in the address bar and copy and paste this in the address bar "chrome://extensions/ " without the quotes. This will open a page showing the add ons. If any are enabled just disable them all and see if the problem persists. If it does this is not the answer. If it doesn't then enable just one add on and try. See if you can by a process of elimination identify the guilty add on. Then disable it. Not sure how to delete it but googling "How to delete a Chrome add on" will find the answer, I'm sure. Or you can just leave it disabled!

As an addition, I have recently "been made aware" of the amount of information Google Chrome gathers about your browser habits and then sells it on to advertisers. This for me is reason enough not to use Chrome. Firefox, I find much better anyway! Have to say that IE10 is pretty good too now and seems to be gaining favour!

 

[ubuysa]

If you are certain that it doesn't happen in other browsers then it might well be a Chrome add on that is causing this.
Open Chrome, delete what is in the address bar and copy and paste this in the address bar "chrome://extensions/ " without the quotes. This will open a page showing the add ons. If any are enabled just disable them all and see if the problem persists. If it does this is not the answer. If it doesn't then enable just one add on and try. See if you can by a process of elimination identify the guilty add on. Then disable it. Not sure how to delete it but googling "How to delete a Chrome add on" will find the answer, I'm sure. Or you can just leave it disabled!

As an addition, I have recently "been made aware" of the amount of information Google Chrome gathers about your browser habits and then sells it on to advertisers. This for me is reason enough not to use Chrome. Firefox, I find much better anyway! Have to say that IE10 is pretty good too now and seems to be gaining favour!

If you like Chrome but don't want the Google snooping try Comodo Dragon instead. It's based on Chromium but it has none of the Google spyware and it has extra security features too. I've been using it for years, highly recommended.