Occasional No Post?

[Sammy_TicTac]

Hi all,

I have this weird problem with my computer -

I have a slight overclock currently on the following system -

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Athlon 3500+ Venice @2.4ghz @1.4v
1gb Gskill Ram, 3,3,3,8 @220mhz
Geforce 6200TC
Antec Smartpower II
160gb Seagate Barracuda.

My computer is prime and superpi stable for a long time. I turned it on this morning and it wouldn't post! I think it was 1 long beep, and then 2 short ones possibly. Shorting the onboard battery to reset the bios settings got things working instantly again.

Yet I know, I can go up to 2.5ghz stable at stock volts and I know it has been stable in everything I do, so why did I suddenly get this non-post? I have had my computer 6 months, and if my memory serves me correctly this has happened twice.

I don't think any of my components can be faulty to cause a non-post with a slight overclock every 3 months or so?

(My HT does not exceed 1000mhz, my PCI(E) frequencies are locked, my RAM is stable with no errors, my HD has no bad sectors).

My computer is a little dusty inside in places, but I don't think that would cause the problem?

Any ideas or advice,
Thanks

 

[shadowduck]

That motherboard is the champion of weird problems. Nothing beats it! Now for your problem, check your motherboard manual, it will tell you exactly what the beeps mean. Post that here, and I should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

[Sammy_TicTac]

hmm, rather stupidly I did not take enough time to make sure I knew what they were.

It was something like 2 short 1 long, or the other way round. I'll set up the voice thing for next time.

I can't find any info about the beeps in the manual, apart from getting the Winbond Voice thing edited right so it speaks to me when my system won't post.

Thanks for the info anyway, but ill have to wait until next non-post

 

[Sammy_TicTac]

The problem seems to be occuring more frequently now.

The beeps are 1 long and 3 short. . on my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. I can't find anything about beeps in the manual and I can't get the speech thing to work.

It seems to always happen when something is overclocked even though it has been prime stable in windows and booted many times before

Any ideas?

 

[aristotelus]

You already hinted the problem i think.

You mentioned that your computer does gather some dust.
Out of experience ( i smoke ) i know for fact that dust kills airflow and heat dissipation even in the smallest of amounts.

I can imagine that a pc clocked to the very edge of its abilities will fail sooner when gathered some dust. Even small amounts of dust can raise the case tempreture by a few degrees. Which might be just that little bit to much for a system clocked on the edge.

 

[turboflame]

1 long and 3 short means its a video problem. I guess that helps narrow it down. Maybe try dusting off the video card.

But dust wouldn't really explain why it wouldn't start up

Another possibility is that the power supply isn't getting enough power to your system. How many watts is your power supply? and more importantly, whats the voltage on the +12v?

 

[Sammy_TicTac]

I've never test my PSU properly, only with bios - it noramlly is at about 12.19v which seems fine but I might have to get a psu tester.

My PSU is 500w so plent of power.

 

[mitch074]

1 long, 3 short beeps mean video problem (never ending beep is a CPU problem, never stopping short beeps is a RAM problem if I remember well).

If your system is dusty - remember that dust can conduct current - , try extracting the video card. Clean it with a dry air bomb, and the contacts with some alcohol-free VCR head cleaner. Clean the AGP or PCI-E port well too, to ensure there is no dust in it. Also clean the screen connector - you might want to replace the cable too. In general, just make your system dust-free - and reboot.

A BIOS update might help too, strangely - sometimes activation timings are modified from one BIOS revision to the other, and such intermittent problems may go away after such an operation. However, a complete dusting is good practice, especially on an overclocked system, every 4 months or so.

 

[turboflame]

I meant to say amps on the +12v but it sounds like the psu probably isn't the problem with 500 watts.

hmm... I'm not sure how the overclock would affect the video card if the pci-e bus frequency is locked

 

[turboflame]

Yeah, a bios update could fix it and dusting the computer sounds like it could help too

 

[Sammy_TicTac]

ok, thanks for the help everyone:

It may be coincedence that its had this problem whem my system is OCed.

I'm changing cases soon, so I'll give everything a good clean up and reseat.

 

[oaksmokedbacon]

I had a simular problem with my Athlon 64 setup. Occasional no post had to hit reset and it would boot. It happened 1in4 times i turned on the PC

After i moved house the PSU died so had to get a new one, 6 weeks gone and problem solved. you might have a faulty or dying PSU.

Just a thought

 

[martyjs]

Try this link all the beep codes in the world.
Good luck

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm#4