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General discussion

Computer crash

by acaaleks2 Nov 25, 2004 6:23AM PST

I'm runing XP Home & periodically after about an hour online I get a short single beep sound just before a system crash. Later I get a long single beep. Has anyone had this problem? Does anyone know what the beeps means?
Thanking you all in advance,
Aleks.

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3 Posts
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Re: Computer crash
by Yew Nov 25, 2004 7:48AM PST

If the beep seems to be coming from inside your computer, and is a single tone, then that probably means there's some sort of crittical hardware failure and the system is shutting down to protect itself.

My first guess in such a situation, would be a CPU temp alarm. For whatever reason, your CPU is reaching dangerous temperatures, and if the system didn't shut down, it might be damaged (and you can't repair a CPU, only get a new one). Check to make sure your CPU fan isn't clogged with dust, and that it's seated properly. You might even consider getting a more efficient heat sink fan unit, and some better thermal grease.

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Re: Computer crash
by skippyd333 Nov 25, 2004 9:52AM PST

Try to clean and reseat your memory. If more than one chip, put one at a time in the first bank to figure out witch chip if any are bad.

1 short: System RAM Refresh failure. Your programmable interrupt timer on your motherboard has failed. It could also be your interrupt controller, but either way, your motherboard will need to be replaced to fix it.

1 Long Beep: indicates a problem with memory in the first bank, usually an unseated

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Re: Computer crash
by acaaleks2 Nov 28, 2004 5:55AM PST

Thanks Skippy, but I have a Toshiba Satellite 2250CDT laptop built for Win98 or Win2000. I can't access the primary 64RAM module,only the 2nd 128RAM module,under the modem,under my keyboard.I replaced this 2nd one without any change of performance.The motherboard would cost a fortune for a laptop.Is there some way to verify that the motherboard is the problem?
I was thinking of using driverguide to find my BIOS string & update it through them to XP compatible.
I use diskscan weekly & defrag daily.For the last two days the pc has behaved itself.Seeing that the pc was made for Win2000 I've wondered whether I should install Win2000.If so,will a partition be the best way to save my files while I get rid of XP Home?
Thanking you in advance, Aleks.

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