Legit Reviews

My oldest computer doesn't restart when you tell it to have the time. It will shut down but then instead of restarting, it beeps ( 3 times in a row with a couple seconds in between) at which point I have to hold donw the off button til it turns off, then I click the power button again and it starts. I always figured it was a setting somewhere but I could never find it. It's only mildly a pain in the butt, but thought maybe someone could help me stop it. Thanks for any ideas

Well, beeps at boot up are usually an indicator of a hardware problem in your pc. I believe the beep codes are different depending on your bios.

Bios is one of the scary words to me. I don't know much about it. I don't think I have a probem that shows up on the device manager. I haven't opened them all to see if there is an ! somewhere. Should I do that? I know I have an MSI MB in there also, but that's about it.

bios can be entered before the pc boots up (usually right after the logo), it should say something like "Press F1 to enter setup", if it doesn't some common key combos to try to enter bios are F1, F2, Del, Esc, or Ctrl+Alt+(one of previously mentioned keys). Once in bios, you can see what manufacturer and version of BIOS you have.

heh, i have the same problem with my HTPC system.

i'm running a MSI mobo also. i have a generic 400watt psu, 512mb SDRam, 160gig hdd, XP1600, AIW 9600XT.

i don't have a speaker hooked up to the mobo, b/c who wants to hear that thing when you already know you have a problem, lol. most beep codes are a lost cause anyway.

i never really got into finding out the reason, my best guess is either memory or cpu issues. maybe the bios doesn't support the cpu or the coding got mixed up and needs a new flash. thats what i'm thinking.

here's something you can try tho, it isn't very hard. if you've built computers before.

1. remove everything off the mobo and anything plugged into the mobo
2. use the clear cmos jumper
3. pull the battery out, looks like a watch battery

let it sit there for about an hour for all the capacitors to loose thier stored juice. this will clear any little lasting bit of settings or codes from hardware that the bios has taken on.

then put it all back together, go into the bios by using the "Delete" key while turning on the machine. there's a "Load Optimised Defualts" option. click on that, then hit F10 and save out of the bios and it will reboot with the optimised settings for the hardware you have installed.

thats the only thing i can think of that could clear the settings and pssibly the codes that may have gotten messed up in the bios and hardware eproms.

i've just never screwed with it as i leave my HTPC on 24/7.

TGM

http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm

depending on which BIOS you have - on the right and left are links for POST or BIOS codes - see if you can find it there...might be an easy fix.

TGM - that site is REAL nice - can tell you about yours too hopefully!

Mike

It would just be a Bios option under power management......I can't remember what it's called but something to do with power states......S1 / S2 / S3 ???

I'd say setting the bios to defaults as TGM stated would fix that....
Even re-flashing the bios should do it