"Phoenix-award beeps on Asus A8N-E socket 939 board"
This is a computer I put together for someone just under 3 years ago. Been working fine all along - they used it yesterday all day long and shut it off normally last night. This morning soon as they turned it on they got five short beeps and nada. socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+ Asus A8N-E Phoenix-Award Bios
I have been trying to sort it out over the phone with the guy (they live out of town, so no way to go there and look at it)
As far as I know the beep code is a Processor Failure.
the first thing I suspected was heat, so got him to open it up and look at the CPU fan. It was badly plugged up with dust (but still spinning) as were all the case fans and power supply fan.
I got him to clean it up with compressed air and a vacuum. After cleaning - no change. I listened to the beeps over the phone and it does sound like five short or possibly one long and four short (the beep code does not repeat)
Walked him through re-seating the video card and memory modules with no change re-set the cmos chip next had him remove the heatsink and look at the CPU. No discoloring observed. I had him attempt to remove the CPU to reseat it, but it was absolutely solid and could not be moved at all. I had him moving the lock lever up and down while trying to get the CPU to let go, but it was stuck tight to the motherboard. I'm not sure if it overheated and welded the pins to the board or what has happened. He has no access to any spare parts to do much more than we did for now. But, I got him to put the heatsink back on and attempt a boot just to see if the beeps changed and at that point it did not produce any beeps at all. Just dead in the water with all fans running and the hard drive light on steady. the motherboard looks fine he says, no sign of anything visible anyway. Does it ring a bell with anyone?
#2. "RE: Phoenix-award beeps on Asus A8N-E socket 939 board" In response to Horatio (Reply # 0)
Did they replace the Tim when the heatsink was put back?I have had both hard drives and motherboards defective with those symptoms.I thought those processors had thermal protection and would just shut down before overheating seriously.The only processors I've seen fail is overclocked/over volted ones.
#3. "RE: Phoenix-award beeps on Asus A8N-E socket 939 board" In response to jbmcmillan (Reply # 2)
Quote:
Huh? If you remove the HS, you must replace the thermal material.
Or did he unlatch the CPU & remove both the CPU & HS without disturbing the connection between the two?
No, I just got him to put it (the heatsink) back on the CPU and boot for a few seconds to see if he got the same beep code. There was enough thermal paste remaining for that. It will have to be re-applied before the computer is used again.
but what worries me, is that CPU refusing to come off the motherboard. I've never seen that before.
Quote:
Did they replace the Tim when the heatsink was put back?I have had both hard drives and motherboards defective with those symptoms.I thought those processors had thermal protection and would just shut down before overheating seriously.The only processors I've seen fail is overclocked/over volted ones.
I doubt if it would be a failed processor - possibly defective motherboard, or maybe a bad hard drive??? Could a failed hard drive cause those symptoms jbm? He said the HD lite came on just after pushing the power button about the same time the beeps happened and stayed on.
#6. "RE: Phoenix-award beeps on Asus A8N-E socket 939 board" In response to Horatio (Reply # 5) Wed Dec-31-08 05:06 AM by therube
When he replaced the HS, he replaced the fan wires to the M/B (assuming they came disconnected)? (And orientated the ??? correctly - I'm confused a bit as to what came off & from where?)
Otherwise, my guess would be the M/B.
Doc's working on a M/B tester .
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#7. "RE: Phoenix-award beeps on Asus A8N-E socket 939 board" In response to therube (Reply # 6)
Quote:
QUOTE: When he replaced the HS, he replaced the fan wires to the M/B (assuming the came disconnected)? (And orientated the ??? correctly - I'm confused a bit as to what came off & from where?)
Otherwise, my guess would be the M/B.
Doc's working on a M/B tester .
Yes, he re-connected the CPU fan on to the motherboard. I explained how it had to go on and made sure the fan spun up as soon as power came on.
The reason I had him remove the heatsink was because I suspected maybe a heat problem with the CPU or some other fault with it because of the beep code (and the large dust buildup on the CPU fan) and wanted to re and re-seat the CPU chip. (as it failed to boot after cleaning the heatsink up). But couldn't do it because it wouldn't come off the motherboard and I didn't want to let him try too hard to get it off for fear he might break something.
My thought was that this machine has been running without a hiccup for a month under 3 years and shut off normally yesterday. He had not added any hardware at all, and the computer had not been moved or kicked (that anyone knows of anyway) so I was looking first at the dust/gunk buildup causing heat issues, but could be anything really. I don't think it's memory failure because I had him take them both out and try each one seperately, but you never know. But the only way now is take everything out and strip it down and go one step at a time..
#9. "RE: Phoenix-award beeps on Asus A8N-E socket 939 board" In response to Horatio (Reply # 0)
Phoenix has had a variety of beep codes over the years. Thes are the current ones.
Phoenix BIOS ERROR BEEP CODES
Phoenix BIOS beep codes are a series of beeps separated by a pause, for example: beep --- beep beep --- beep --- beep beep would be 1-2-1-2 1-1-4-1 - Cache Error (level 2) 1-2-2-3 - BIOS ROM Checksum 1-3-1-1 - DRAM Refresh Test 1-3-1-3 - Keyboard controller test 1-3-4-1 - RAM Failure on address line xxxx (check memory) 1-3-4-3 - RAM Failure on data bits xxxx of low byte of memory bus 1-4-1-1 - RAM Failure on data bits xxxx of high byte of memory bus 2-1-2-3 - ROM copyright notice 2-2-3-1 - Test for unexpected interrupts
#10. "RE: Phoenix-award beeps on Asus A8N-E socket 939 board" In response to Shelly (Reply # 9)
Thanks Shelly.
Yes, I saw those too. I listened (over the phone) and it was difficult to be sure. I thought it sounded more like 3 and 2 than 5 short, but I am getting him to take it to UPS and ship it to me so I can see what's wrong with it.
Allyn
You may have something there. It was not in a very good space.
It was an L shaped desk with a section on the end. the computer was about 10 inches off the floor (on top of some sort of box) no space on top no space on one side, and a couple of inches on the other side. at the rear there was about 6 inches between the case and the back of the desk. In other words, a disaster.
this machine had a mid sized case with an 80mm fan sucking in at the lower-front, and another 80mm at the rear top just below the PS blowing out.
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