Beep codes on a GA-7VTXH, help?

[Thorin]

As some of you may know, I've been having trouble with XP1800+ chips in the new machine I'm building, and I'm currently waiting for the third chip to be delivered. I'm going home for xmas and need to take a computer with me, but I also need to leave a computer here as my machine has a cable modem connected to it that my flat mate will need to use while I'm away (the cable won't stretch to his room and his monitor is too big for him to use his computer on my desk). As I'm building a duron based system for my girlfriend in the new year, I went out and bought a Duron 1gig from a local computer shop today, so I could get another system up and running while I wait for my XP1800+ and then I can use the duron for my girlfriend's computer when my new chip arrives.
My machine boots (as I've worked out the problems I was having with my heat sink at last), all the temps are ok, it detects the right amount of RAM, the CPU at the correct speed and the video card, the CPU is at 30C, and so far as I can tell I could go ahead and install winXP on it if I so wished. The problem is before it brings up the BIOS details for my video card (so while the monitor is still blank) I get some beeps from the PC speaker. I get a longish beep, followed by a short pause, and then three shorter pips.
I really don't want to run the machine while it's doing this, as I've already destroyed two 1800+XP chips, and I don't fancy adding a duron 1GHz to the damage I've done. I can't find details of beep codes on the Gigabyte webpage, or in my mobo manual. The full spec is as follows:

Enermax 431w PSU
GA7-VTXH mobo
512Mb Crucial DDRAM
Voodoo3 3000
old maxtor 5gig 5,400rpm hard drive (just for now until I get the system working, I have 80 gigs worth of faster hard drives to go in it then)
SB Live 1024
Adaptec 2930U SCSI card
RealMagic Hollywood DVD decoder card
Plextor SCSI CDRW
Pioneer SCSI DVD.

I think that covers it all.

Oh, and while I'm at it, I couldn't find anywhere whether the 1 gig durons are 100FSB or 133FSB, so I set the FSB jumper to 100 and the multiplier jumper to auto to be on the safe side. It's picked it up as a 1gig duron, but will it run ok at 133?

Cheers,

Thorin

::Edit:: Sorry, just realised that it might have been a bright idea to post this to the motherboard forum instead. I blame it entirely on the bottle and a half of red wine I had at lunch time (office party). I'll stick it up there as well.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Thorin on 12/20/01 06:56 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Kelledin]

A long beep, followed by three short blips, is usually the BIOS giving a "No video" error. Generally, if the system gets far enough to give those beep codes, then your processor is working, at least, but you already knew that.

It's possible (assuming you have an AGP video card) that the BIOS is set to first check for a video card in a PCI slot before checking the AGP slot. It's rather unorthodox for the BIOS to give a "no video" error before it's even checked out all video possibilities, but it's something to consider.

There's usually a setting in the BIOS that determines which type of video card to check for first, PCI or AGP.

Kelledin
[dave@discovery ~] kill -9 1
init: Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?

 

[Thorin]

I'm actually installing win xp on the machine at the moment to see if I can have a bit of a play around and see if anything appears to be not working.

While getting it to boot from SCSI a minute ago, I happened to notice that the BIOS is already set to boot from AGP, so it wouldn't appear to be that, although thanks for the suggestion.

I did actually manage to find a page listing interpretations of beep codes for AMI BIOS (which is what my mobo uses), it says that four beeps is a "System Timer Failure" and that I basically need to replace my mobo (which would make it the third one - the first time it was my fault I needed to get it replaced).
What does the System Timer actually do, does anyone have any suggestions that it might be something else, or on how I could try to remedy the situation?
Cheers for the reply though .

Thorin

 

[pike]

Check my post for u under motherboards.

your 1 long 3 short is not 4 beeps but 1 long and 3 short.

Cheerios

Danny

Electric coolaid for everyone, except me, never touch the stuff !

 

[Thorin]

your 1 long 3 short is not 4 beeps but 1 long and 3 short.

I thought that might be the case, but I wasn't sure and since there was no mention of length of beeps on the list I was looking at I thought it might just be 4 beeps!
I've been told it was not being able to detect the monitor by some, and the video card by others. It could plausibly have been either (I had trouble getting the video card in because of the distance between the AGP slot and the side of the case, and I was using a crappy *ancient* monitor to start with), but it seems to have resolved itself now, so I'm satisfied (unless it starts again).
Cheers for all your help,

Thorin