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Friday, October 26, 2012

Identifying Error Beep Codes on Booting




Beep codes produced by a computer is very important for a Computer Technician. You can save a lot of time troubleshooting by just listening to these beep codes. That's why it is very important to bring your own PC speaker when you are in the field. I always encounter PC's that doesn't have a PC speaker, or if there is one, it is connected the wrong way (+ to - and vice versa) so make sure to check it first before doing anything else.

Old-school PC speaker

Small but terrible. This is what I bring whenever i'm on the Road.



The most common beeps that you will encounter 95% of the time in repairing PC's are:

1 beep - computer ok
continous beeps / long beeps - memory error
continous short beeps - bios boot block/corrupted bios
1 long beep followed by 3 short beeps - video card error

They are the most common/standard beep codes that you will encounter daily as a Computer Tech. However if you happen to came across other beep codes that are not listed above, you can check out this list



AMI BIOS 


  1. 1 Short - Computer ok 
  2. 2 Short - RAM failure 
  3. 3 Short - Parity RAM failure 
  4. 4 Short - System timer failure 
  5. 5 Short - Motherboard failure 
  6. 6 Short - Keyboard controller error 
  7. 7 Short - CPU failure 
  8. 8 Short - Video RAM failure 
  9. 9 Short - ROM BIOS error 
  10. 10 Short - CMOS read/write error 
  11. 11 Short - Cache RAM error 
  12. 1 Short, 3 long - Memory failure 
  13. 1 Short, 8 long - Video adapter failure 


Check board/chipset makers website for more infomation.

AWARD BIOS 

1 long - Memory error 
1 long, 2 short - Video error 
1 long, 3 short - Video failure 
Continuous beeps - Memory or video failure 

note that AWARD relies on motherboard manufacturers to develop their own beep codes - the above are only their own internal codes. You will need to refer to your own manual for an explanation of precise codes. 


Standard IBM beep codes. 

No beep - Power supply or motherboard failure 
1 short - System is ok 
2 short - POST error (code displayed on screen) 
Repeating short - Motherboard failure 
1 long, 1 short - Motherboard failure 
1 long, 2 short - Video display adapter failure 
1 long, 3 short - Video display adapter error 
3 long - Keyboard error 


Pheonix beep codes 

1-1-3 CMOS memory failure 
1-1-4 BIOS failure 
1-2-1 System timer error 
1-2-2 Motherboard error 
1-2-3 Motherboard error 
1-3-1 Motherboard error 
1-4-1 Motherboard error 
1-4-2 Memory error 
2-x-x Memory failure (any number of other beeps) 
3-1-x Chipset error (any number of other beeps) 
3-2-4 Keyboard controller error 
3-3-4 Video adapter failure 
4-2-4 Expansion card failure 
4-3-4 Time of day clock failure 
4-4-1 Serial port error 
4-4-2 Parallel port error 
4-4-3 Math co-processor error

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