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When your system is switched on, the BIOS does
a POST
check to establish what hardware is present in the system.
If the BIOS finds a problem with any of the hardware during
the POST it will issue a sequence of tones or beeps to
indicate what the problem is.
The BIOS may also try and display an
error message on the screen, however it may not have had
a chance to initialize the display adapter when it finds
a problem. The best method of communicating the diagnosis
is by a series audible beeps.
The meaning of the beeps varies depending
on the manufacturer of your BIOS.
Listed below are the beep codes for the
most popular BIOS, however if you need more information
relating to the latest BIOS versions, the official BIOS
beep code documents can be downloaded directly from the
folowing links...
AMIBIOS (American Megatrends)
AMIBIOS is one of the most popular BIOS
on the market. The AMIBIOS
Beep Code Guide is also available directly from the
American Megatrends website.
AMIBIOS Beep Codes - Fatal Errors
1 - Refresh failure
2 - Parity error
3 - Base 64K RAM failure
4 - System timer not operational
5 - Processor error
6 - Gate A20 failure (Keyboard)
7 - Processor exception interrupt error
8 - Display memory read/write failure
9 - ROM checksum error
10 - CMOS shutdown register read/write error
11 - Cache memory problem
AWARD BIOS
There is only one beep code that indicates
a specific error in the Award BIOS. One long beep followed
by two short beeps indicates a video/display adapter error.
Any other beep code probably indicates a memory error.
A list of all the Award
BIOS messages that are displayed on screen when an
error occurs, along with some diagnostic tips is available
at the Phoenix BIOS website.
Phoenix BIOS
1-2-2-3 - BIOS ROM Checksum error
1-3-1-1 - DRAM Refresh error
1-3-1-3 - Keyboard Controller error
1-3-4-1 - RAM error
1-3-4-3 - RAM error
1-4-1-1 - RAM error
2-2-3-1 - Unexpected Interrupt
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