PC dying?

[Plan B]

I tried to start my 5 yr old media PC just now.
It gave 2 short beeps followed by 6 long ones, and then nothing, didn't post, let alone boot.

After about 10 tries it caught and booted, giving me a message about how overclocking had failed, and if I would kindly press F1 for setup or F2 to use default settings.
I have never tried to overclock this PC, or changed anything else. Apparently, this just happens spontaneously.

As I type this I'm backing up some stuff, because I suspect this is the last time I can get this PC to boot.


Is this indeed an indication of something terminal, and should I be looking for another media PC?

[Therac-25]

I tried to start my 5 yr old media PC just now.
It gave 2 short beeps followed by 6 long ones, and then nothing, didn't post, let alone boot.

your motherboard manual (if you've lost it, you should be able to find it online at the moterboard mfgr's site) should tell you what this means. the post beeps are diagnostic codes.

After about 10 tries it caught and booted, giving me a message about how overclocking had failed, and if I would kindly press F1 for setup or F2 to use default settings.
I have never tried to overclock this PC, or changed anything else. Apparently, this just happens spontaneously.

As I type this I'm backing up some stuff, because I suspect this is the last time I can get this PC to boot.


Is this indeed an indication of something terminal, and should I be looking for another media PC?

probably, yes.

i'd check the meaning of those post beeps first. besides that, i'd just check the basics -- cooling (make sure all the fans are still working), reseat all the ram and cables, and load the default bios settings and go from there. if that boots, run memtest to check your ram.

but it's more fun to just by a new system.

[SoM]

those beeps should me mentioned in your users manual, if not google em with the mobo/cpu etc, or seperatly.

[SoM]

btw, is your CPU fan spinning properly? mobo fan? PSU fan?

[Plan B]

I gave her the once over (quite dusty in there), and everything seems fine
Posting and booting back to normal again.
Can't really deduct the cause from this specific beep code combo, btw, so what happened remains vague.

1 The memory refresh circuitry has failed
2 Parity errors have been detected in the first 64 KB of memory
3 A failure has occurred within the first 64 KB or memory
4 System Timer failure: Timer 1 on the mainboard does not work properly
5 The CPU has generated an undetectable error
6 8042 Gate-A20 failure: BIOS cannot switch the CPU into protected mode
7 The CPU has generated an exception error
8 The video adapter is missing, or the memory on the adapter has generated a failure
9 The ROM checksum value does not match the value in BIOS
10 The shutdown register for CMOS interrupt channel 2 has failed POST; the system board cannot retrieve CMOS contents during POST
11 Level-2 cache memory has failed the tests, and has been disabled
2 short POST has failed, caused by a failure of one of the hardware tests
1 long, 2 short Failure in video system: a checksum error was encountered in video BIOS ROM, or a horizontal retrace failure has been encountered
1 long, 3 short Failure in video system: the video DAC, the monitor detection procedure or the video RAM has failed
1 long POST procedures have passed

Ah well, I'll just wait and see how much more I can squeeze out of this rig...

[GONNAFISTYA]

Have you tried dumping coffee into the case while it's runnin?

[Captain]

Almost all of those are memory-related. Have you tried running Memtest?

[AmIdYfReAk]

F1 to what mazduh said..

also, you may want to look at the Volt level's in the computer, run an app like HWmonitor ( By CPUID the makers of CPUID ) and look to see how much the voltiges varry for the North bridge, Vcore, and Memory.

[corpse]

Have you tried dumping coffee into the case while it's runnin?

[Plan B]

Mem's fine, things seem to be back to normal, and I can't be arsed to do any more analysis on this old fucker, tbh.