Random POST Error Beeps

[Black Panther]

The system is in my system specs under the 'Black Panther' name.

Lately it's been running at stock, nothing overclocked. Tbh it seems the problems started when I removed the overclock

Notwithstanding the clear title, the problem is anything but consistent!

Here's what this pc does:

- It will start up fine and run fine forever until switched off; or

- It will start up fine, then after a couple of hours the picture on the monitor would freeze, requiring a hard-boot; or

- It will start up fine, then after a couple of hours the monitor would go on standby requiring a hard boot; or

- It will refuse to POST saying 'overclocking failed' press F1 for bios or F2 to load system default (the system is not overclocked); or

- It will start up and appear to be running fine, only to find no sound; or

- It will refuse to POST giving the beeps mentioned in the title; or

- It will refuse to POST giving no beeps at all; or

- It will POST but before loading windows the monitor would switch between black and a slightly lighter shade of black (seeming like the graphic driver can't load?)

Once it was running fine then I found this BSOD:

Spoiler

Anyway, it does all the above with varying degrees of frequencies. Before I started typing this post it had started beeping again, but I wouldn't be surprised if I power it on again and it boots and runs fine as if nothing ever happened.

Before these problems started, nothing had been installed or changed on the pc - no drivers, no programs, nothing except the mandatory Win 7 updates. The only thing I did was remove the overclock since I passed the pc on to my daughter and she rarely uses it for gaming. But removing overclock is supposed to solve problems not create them! Anyway, it's still running same drivers, same programs as before. I ran a virus scanner and malwarebytes, ran ccleaner...

All my searches on the P5B's beep codes point out at graphic card failure (I hope it's not!!)

What are your opinions?
Any clue from the screenshot above?

 

[brandonwh64]

When is the last time you have replaced the Cmos battery?

 

[Black Panther]

When is the last time you have replaced the Cmos battery?

Around 18 months ago I guess.

But when the battery needed replacing the pc's symptoms were very different...
I remember I really procrastinated to replace it. The date used to default to 1-1-02 and the system would become un-overclocked. It was routine for me to go in BIOS and OC everytime I powered it up.

I wish it was as simple as changing the cmos battery, but the pc didn't mess up so bad when it needed battery replacement


Update: My daughter just powered the pc on and it's working fine...again...

 

[brandonwh64]

Around 18 months ago I guess.

But when the battery needed replacing the pc's symptoms were very different...
I remember I really procrastinated to replace it. The date used to default to 1-1-02 and the system would become un-overclocked. It was routine for me to go in BIOS and OC everytime I powered it up.

I wish it was as simple as changing the cmos battery, but the pc didn't mess up so bad when it needed battery replacement


Update: My daughter just powered the pc on and it's working fine...again...

Maybe time for another motherboard or a small upgrade to a I3 with Z68 combo?

 

[Fourstaff]

Did you downvolt when you took the overclock away? Bump the voltage slightly to rule out core stability problems.

 

[sneekypeet]

One continuous beep followed by three short beeps is indicative of a GPU issue as per my newer ASUS manual. I assume its the same.

 

[de.das.dude]

exactly this ^

 

[newtekie1]

I'd look at RAM too, when I was using a P5B as my primary machine, the board was super picky with RAM. It would take anything once I manual set up the voltage and timings, but if I left it set to auto it would fail to POST, or POST but say the overclock failed, or crash when in Windows.

I had to keep a 512MB stick of cheap PC2-6400 sitting in the case so that I put it in and boot with it after a CMOS clear, then set the voltage and timings, and put the good RAM back in...

 

[Black Panther]

Did you downvolt when you took the overclock away? Bump the voltage slightly to rule out core stability problems.

Nope, I just put everything on 'auto', guessing that was the way it was supposed to be. I don't trust the BIOS though.

This sounds complicated but when I oc'd I always had to save the BIOS settings twice. The first time the CPU voltage defaults to 'auto' and there'd be no way to change it. If I go cpu-z I find the voltage at 1.4 which is too high, so I'd have to press restart button and go into the BIOS the second time after booting... and on the second time it'd allow me to change the voltage and I'd put it... I don't really remember but I think it was 1.275. Then it'd really be saved.

One continuous beep followed by three short beeps is indicative of a GPU issue as per my newer ASUS manual. I assume its the same.

Yes, I've been reading that. However I was really hoping it's not the 5970 which suddenly called it quitters, exactly at the moment when I decided to run the pc at stock clocks.

I'd look at RAM too, when I was using a P5B as my primary machine, the board was super picky with RAM. It would take anything once I manual set up the voltage and timings, but if I left it set to auto it would fail to POST, or POST but say the overclock failed, or crash when in Windows.

I had to keep a 512MB stick of cheap PC2-6400 sitting in the case so that I put it in and boot with it after a CMOS clear, then set the voltage and timings, and put the good RAM back in...

I think you got a very good point here. My board is super picky with RAM too. Perhaps this is particular to P5B boards...
I hadn't thought of mentioning this because I had tried other RAM only while overclocking and never at stock, but this pc only ever worked with those 2 Apacers inside it. Any other RAM I tried always failed.

_________________________________

Considering that it is still working - I mentioned in my last post that my daughter powered it on and it was running fine... well now 3 hours later it's still up and running with youtube on one tab and farmville on the other (and by gosh that farmville game's really badly optimized - it uses nearly 3GB of the 4GB of RAM available!) when the time's appropriate and she's not using the pc I think I'll try a little experiment and put the overclocks exactly the way they were before all this trouble started......

 

[Black Panther]

Pc gives memory error beeps, but RAM is fine?

This is confusing.

The pc is the 'Black Panther' one in my system specs.

The beeps it gives while POSTing were 1 long 2 short. According to the Asus P5B that's a RAM error.

Occasionally it POSTs, but after a couple of minutes the whole system freezes (fans keep running, pc is powered on but the mouse pointer doesn't move and keyboard doesn't work).

I cleaned the RAM, tried them one by one, and in different slots. Nothing.

Then I took a RAM from a working pc, and it didn't work either! (System freezes or doesn't start up with monitor remaining on standby). I'm sure this RAM is fine, because it's in another pc right now, and it's its only RAM stick, and it's working.

Could I safely say that it's the motherboard?
Or could it be something else (like the 5970) even though the beeps refer to a memory error?

(Btw the pc is not overclocked now, that was the first thing I removed)

 

[sneekypeet]

pull the card and see if the post beep changes.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

This is confusing.

The pc is the 'Black Panther' one in my system specs.

The beeps it gives while POSTing were 1 long 2 short. According to the Asus P5B that's a RAM error.

Occasionally it POSTs, but after a couple of minutes the whole system freezes (fans keep running, pc is powered on but the mouse pointer doesn't move and keyboard doesn't work).

I cleaned the RAM, tried them one by one, and in different slots. Nothing.

Then I took a RAM from a working pc, and it didn't work either! (System freezes or doesn't start up with monitor remaining on standby). I'm sure this RAM is fine, because it's in another pc right now, and it's its only RAM stick, and it's working.

Could I safely say that it's the motherboard?
Or could it be something else (like the 5970) even though the beeps refer to a memory error?

(Btw the pc is not overclocked now, that was the first thing I removed)

I'd probs say motherboard, myself, its an oldish board now. Great board in it's time though.

 

[Black Panther]

pull the card and see if the post beep changes.

I will (though I'd need some excavator truck to do so - it's a very tight fit and I had to bend parts of the case to fit it in..)

I'd probs say motherboard, myself, its an oldish board now. Great board in it's time though.

Yup, in time I had changed everything from the original build, but that mobo's been sitting there since 2007.

 

[Kreij]

You could try leaving the OC off and just giving it a little more RAM voltage.
Maybe the mobo is just getting tired.

 

[Black Panther]

After trying Kreij's solution I'm still at a loss.

I don't have any compatible spare hardware to test (except RAM... and any RAM which doesn't work in this pc always works in others, so I'm pretty sure I can exclude RAM problem).

Do you think the 5970's gone faulty? Or perhaps... it's the 7 year old P5B?

I'm ready to vouch it's the motherboard. It's seen a lot of overclocks during its lifetime, both of RAM and of CPU (even though currently it's running at stock.... that is... when it runs... ) But I ran the E4300 @ 3Ghz (stock 1.8Ghz) for 3 years... then a E8400 @ 4Ghz (stock 3.0 Ghz) for like another 3 years and DDR2 RAM was always oc'd to 890Mhz (from 667Mhz) all the time.

Opinions?

 

[TheMailMan78]

Do you have another PSU you can try?

 

[Black Panther]

Do you have another PSU you can try?

I do but to be honest I'm not that eager to remove the PSU from my working 'Bengal' system to test on the 'Black Panther' system. Especially since I purchased them months within each other.

That PSU is much less than 2 years old. And the pc's usage since it was installed was with all components running on stock, with the pc playing either Sims 3, youtube videos or generally browsing the interwebs.

 

[d1nky]

have you stability tested at stock clocks etc??


memtest and prime or similar, ive had similar issues when unstable

instability does all crazy shit, especially in mid-life LOL

 

[TheMailMan78]

I do but to be honest I'm not that eager to remove the PSU from my working 'Bengal' system to test on the 'Black Panther' system. Especially since I purchased them months within each other.

That PSU is much less than 2 years old. And the pc's usage since it was installed was with all components running on stock, with the pc playing either Sims 3, youtube videos or generally browsing the interwebs.

I was thinking power from the randomness of the issue at stock and its a simple test.

 

[Black Panther]

have you stability tested at stock clocks etc??


memtest and prime or similar, ive had similar issues when unstable

instability does all crazy shit, especially in mid-life LOL

I can't do any tests at stock clocks because the system is currently at stock and I either get beeping on POST or after 2 minutes the entire system freezes. At stock CPU, stock RAM.

 

[Black Panther]

Forgot to update this.
The problem was that the graphics card was too heavy and it was somehow slipping out of the slot, just a little bit.
I found some plastic (taken from an old microwave) and used it to support the 5970, and since 5 months passed I consider the problem as being solved.

If I remember, I might post a pic in the Ghetto mods thread

 

[HammerON]

Please do!!!
Love ghetto mods that do the trick
Glad to hear you resolved the problem.