Help! Computer randomly beeps.

[Tiburon11]

This is not a beep while booting, just a random beep from inside my computer while it is running.

Computer Specs:

MSI P965 NeoF Mobo
E6600
2gb Corsair XMS2 Ram
7950GT
Seagate 500gb & WD Black 1gb Hard Drives
Windows 7 64bit

My computer runs completely fine otherwise. It is a single, short beep. It occurs maybe once every hour. My temperatures seem fine (cpu doesn't get hotter than about 50C under load).

I've read that voltage variances can cause beeps like this, but mine seem decent:
CPU Core 1.22 V
+3.3 V 3.31 V
+5 V 5.12 V
+12 V 12.10 V
+5 V Standby 5.02 V

I've tested them under load and they don't seem to vary.

I've been through my bios many times. Enabling and disabling things like smart fan has had no effect. I've disabled the beep service in windows, and nothing changed.

I cannot seem to find a correlation between the beep and anything else. I hear beeps when my computer is idling with nothing running, as well as when I am doing more intensive activities like playing games. It does seem to occur more often when first starting programs, or browsing through files, but it may just be my imagination. Also, it does sound like there is a lot of hard drive activity when one occurs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been trying to fix this for months.

 

[brandonwh64]

ghost?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Check the BIOS. The over temp monitoring may be set low and is beeping as the temps temporary jump to the set temp.

 

[Tiburon11]

Check the BIOS. The over temp monitoring may be set low and is beeping as the temps temporary jump to the set temp.

I couldn't find any settings in the bios, but I did realize my bios were out of date (their numbering system is strange). One of the fixes I saw was:

- Fixed BIOS report incorrect CPU temperature

so hopefully that has fixed it, but I'll have to leave it running for a bit.

On another note, MSI has the worst support I could ever imagine. I'll never buy another msi product.

 

[Tiburon11]

Damnit, it just beeped again. Any other ideas?

 

[Gunbuster]

I see you don't have XP but maybe this? http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/turn-off-the-annoying-windows-xp-system-beeps/

 

[Harvey]

Damnit, it just beeped again. Any other ideas?

Go back to the BIOS, and look under a heading like "PC Health" or "System Health" for the alarm setting. It should also tell you the current CPU temp. That reading won't be under load, but if it's high, you may have a problem.

Did you remember to use thermal paste between the CPU and the HS/fan? Did you use the very thinnest possible coating? More than that can actually impare thermal transfer and leave your CPU hotter.

Good luck.

 

[Tiburon11]

I see you don't have XP but maybe this? http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/turn-off-the-annoying-windows-xp-system-beeps/

I've tried that, and nothing changed. Thanks for the help, though.

Go back to the BIOS, and look under a heading like "PC Health" or "System Health" for the alarm setting. It should also tell you the current CPU temp. That reading won't be under load, but if it's high, you may have a problem.

Did you remember to use thermal paste between the CPU and the HS/fan? Did you use the very thinnest possible coating? More than that can actually impare thermal transfer and leave your CPU hotter.

Good luck.

This is what is under pc health status (took the picture from another website):

I can't seem to find any place with an alarm. I believe I did everything correctly when applying assembling the cpu. I get beeps sometimes even during bootup, which makes it seem unlikely that overheating is the issue.

 

[TridenT]

Yah sure you're not pressing too many keys all together at once?

It's slowly counting down until it explodes.

 

[SolMiester]

Thats high cpu temp IMO for idle?.....there is no system fan?, is it attached, could that be the beep?

 

[olmer]

Fan failure?

I’d try to run memtest for a few passes and listen to beeps to isolate software issues.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

How long does it last? If just a brief second it could be too many keys depressed at the same time, if its longer it could be a motherboard specific item like fan failure or overheat etc

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Also, anything in the event viewer?

 

[Tiburon11]

It happens when I'm not even using my computer, so I don't think it is a key combination being pressed. It's just a quick beep, it lasts maybe a half second.

There are no critical problem in event viewer, and only a handful of errors/warnings (mostly just application errors).

I'll try running memtest again in a bit, but I didn't find any problems last time I ran it.

Those aren't my temps/voltages in that picture, by the way. I grabbed that image off another site.

Thanks a ton for the help.

 

[Tiburon11]

Ran Memtest, no errors or beeps.

 

[olmer]

Long enough? Does it beep when idle? Disable fan/thermal management and test. Also try forcing reassigning IRQs and use different usb ports for your equipment if any. Try another keyboard/HID if available. Alternatively just disable the pesky beeper altogether in device manager.

 

[Gunbuster]

is the beep coming from your main speakers or the system board speaker?

 

[Tiburon11]

Long enough? Does it beep when idle? Disable fan/thermal management and test. Also try forcing reassigning IRQs and use different usb ports for your equipment if any. Try another keyboard/HID if available. Alternatively just disable the pesky beeper altogether in device manager.

Yes, it beeps when idle and under load, there isn't any noticeable difference. I have disabled every smart fan/temperature warning I could find in the bios.

I also disabled the "Beep" in windows services, and it still beeped.

I will try another keyboard, but since disabling the beep service in windows did nothing, I doubt it would fix it.

Thanks a ton for the help though

is the beep coming from your main speakers or the system board speaker?

System board speaker. I assume it's the motherboard's speaker, but since it happens randomly I can't really test that assumption.


One thing - it appears to be happening considerably less frequently since I upgrade my bios. It only happens 2-3 times a day now.

 

[olmer]

Since you cannot disable it via device manager it does indeed sounds like a fan failure to me - CPU fan’s RPMs go too low causing beep. If you have a spare PWM fan try it instead and see if that fixes the issue.

 

[Tiburon11]

That seems like a reasonable cause, so I will order one. Thanks for all of the help.

 

[TJCS]

[FONT=&quot]Try this and see if it stops the beeps:

1) Open Device Manager in an admin account.

2) In Device Manager, click on View menuthen select Show Hidden Devices.

3) Expand the Non-Plug and Play Drivers, then right click 'Beep' and click Properties. From there, go to Driver, then on the drop-down menu select Disable.

4) Reboot.

Note: If beep driver already started, click stop first then disable.[/FONT]

 

[Tiburon11]

When I clicked stop, I got an error which said:

"The system encountered the following error when attempting to stop the device:

The service did not respond to the stop or control request in a timely fashion."


I have disabled the beep (and than restarted) my computer before though, and still received the beep, but I might as well try again.

Thanks for the help, I'll let you know if it beeps again.

 

[Tiburon11]

Beeped again. :'(

I suppose I should upgrade soon anyways...

 

[Binky]

Maybe there's a smoke alarm in your computer, and it has a low battery!

OK, maybe not, but maybe your system has a low battery warning. I've never heard of this, but...

 

[Tiburon11]

Heh...it couldn't hurt to try...

The beep is pretty much constant, but every once in a while it seems to "half-beep". The beep ends prematurely, so it ends up being more of a chirp sound. It's definitely coming form the same place, though.