# Strange, apparently random beeping



## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Alright, I put together a system myself for the first time last week. So far there's only one problem, and that is, occasionally I hear a hardware beep from the case. I'm generally aware of what beeps during boot-up/POST mean, the beep never happens when I boot up, ever. It happens randomly (or if it isn't random I can't pinpoint what is causing it) whenever I am using the computer. I keep my computer in a room I'm usually not in unless I'm using it, but I _have_ heard the beep a few times in passing when I've not been using the computer.

To give an idea as to frequency, in general I do a lot of work from home and I might hear the beep once or twice over an 8 hour period. Sometimes though I will hear it 2-3 times in a 2 hour period, it's never happened more frequently than that. It has never been anything more than a single, slightly less than 1 second long "beep." It's the same sort of beep you would hear on boot up if there was a problem, but again, it's only a single beep and it does not occur during boot up.

I'll mention the diagnostics I've ran thus far:

-MemTest68 (overnight)
-SeaTools (a HDD diagnostic program available on the Seagate website)
-SP2400 Orthos Edition (a program designed to "stress test" the system)
-SpeedFan - I keep this on at all times, CPU temperature ranges from 19 C to 34 C (this is when playing a game.) I live in Virginia and it gets somewhat hot here in the summer and while I have central air, the room my system is in sadly doesn't have a vent, however I do keep a window AC in the room and when I turn it on the CPU temp will tend to stay low, around 18-19 and only getting to 25-26 even during gaming.

None of these have come back with any negative results. In operation I've not run into a single problem with the system itself, so aside from the beep I haven't been able to detect any indicators of a problem.

Here are the components that went into the system:

*Power Supply*: Antec True Power Trio TPS-650 ATX12V 650W w/3 12V rails

*Motherboard*: MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLX

*CPU*: Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz 

*RAM*: OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2 GB (2 x 1 GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit

*Video Card*: EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP

*HDD*: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3400833AS 400 GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s

*OS*: Windows XP Home Edition (SP2) 

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give!

Edit: I'll also add that I've not done any overclocking.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

If it's only happening when the PC has set idle for awhile, it might just be that the CPU fan is dropping below the RPM level set in the Bios. Go into Bios disable Smart fan. That should allow your CPU fan to spin at full speed all the time, and see if the beep goes away.


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Alright thanks, I'll try that for a few days and report back.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

note down the sequence of the beep code and check it here
www.bioscentral.com


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi guys,
I've seen this many times and it was related to various un-needed windows services trying to start, but not being able to. The solution is to stop these services from running automatically.
Fadex......If you look in Administrative Tools> Event Viewer, you will see an Error that keeps repeating. It will give you info on what application or service is trying to start.
Find the Service and stop it running.

Or find the application that is trying to start the service!


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

dai said:


> note down the sequence of the beep code and check it here
> www.bioscentral.com


As I said there is no sequence, it is a single beep. To reiterate it isn't a beep during POST; it's my understanding that BIOS beep codes are a way to find out what is wrong when the motherboard plays them during POST, but I was not aware of a random beep hours or days after a boot up being part of the beep-code system present in BIOSes.


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Houndog777 said:


> Hi guys,
> I've seen this many times and it was related to various un-needed windows services trying to start, but not being able to. The solution is to stop these services from running automatically.
> Fadex......If you look in Administrative Tools> Event Viewer, you will see an Error that keeps repeating. It will give you info on what application or service is trying to start.
> Find the Service and stop it running.
> ...


I've found the following errors which have repeated multiple times:

The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: i8042prt

And:

The MSICPL service failed to start due to the following error:

The system cannot find the file specified.

How can I find out what services these two errors are associated with?


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi,
The i8042prt driver is the start-up driver for your PS/2 Port keyboard & mouse.
Are you using USB mouse & keyboard?
If you are; your motherboard may be trying to assign resources to your ps/2 ports but not finding any mouse or keyboard attached.

There are msicpl files usually found in the installers for nvidia cards, but the MSICPL Service, could be for your MSI motherboard and related to the above.

If you have a PS/2 mouse or keyboard you should reinstall them, if not then you should reinstall your USB and/or motherboard drivers.


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Yeah, I have a USB mouse and keyboard, unfortunately I may have lost the drivers to the USB mouse at some point .


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## Barry_R (Aug 6, 2005)

You may find the drivers at the manufacturers website...


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi, Fadex
Just an explanation here.
The most common cause of your problem is when you are using a PS/2 mouse & keybd and replace them with a usb set by simply unplugging the PS/2 and inserting the usb. The system does not register that you have uninstalled the PS/2 set; it merely thinks they are missing and continues to load files at start-up and tries to allocate resources.

So what we have to do, is get the system to realise that our PS/2 devices have been uninstalled and no longer needed.
One way to do this is re-attach a PS/2 mouse & keybd, let them install etc, reboot and then uninstall them again properly from device manager before unplugging them. But this procedure is dictated by the instructions for installation of your usb mouse & keybd set.
Hope I have'nt confused you.

I'm just about to search for a workaround for this problem that does not need any installing or uninstalling, and will get back to you as quick as I can; it's breakfast time here in the UK.
...Houndog...


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Well, I built the system last Thursday; I already had a USB mouse and keyboard ready. Unfortunately, and I suspected this would happen, the USB keyboard I use for reasons I'm not totally sure of, doesn't work/get recognized outside of Windows (ie in BIOS and et cetera) until it has been installed through Windows.

I think the problem is specific to the keyboard itself (it's a Logitech G-series), because when I first bought it some time ago and tried just plugging it in, it wouldn't receive power and my computer couldn't get past POST because it said, "No keyboard detected or present." I eventually found that if I booted up with a PS/2 keyboard and then installed/set up the Logitech USB keyboard in Windows, it works fine outside of the Windows environment. 

So anyway, to make a long story short, when I had finished building the system on Thursday I just plugged in my old PS/2 keyboard and used it to go through the Windows install process, once Windows was installed and set up, I removed it (by just unplugging it) and then connected the USB keyboard and installed its drivers.


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## speedster123 (Oct 18, 2006)

ps2 devices are not "hot swapable".
Check your device manager for any alerts, click _view_ then _show hidden devices._


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

speedster123 said:


> ps2 devices are not "hot swapable".
> Check your device manager for any alerts, click _view_ then _show hidden devices._


Yeah, for about 15 years or so I've always made sure to install/uninstall drivers anytime I hook up a new keyboard/mouse, but for some reason I guess I didn't think it would cause any issues to plug one in/out for some reason :embarased, well anyway, lesson learned.

Should I just remove the PS/2 keyboard via the Device Manager?


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## speedster123 (Oct 18, 2006)

Yes, go ahead and remove it.
good luck


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Hm, I removed the PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse through the device manager, but for some reason the error is still coming up.


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi. Fadex
Sorry I've taken so long.
If you are sure there are no settings in bios to disable PS/2 then try the following using Regedit, if you are comfortable working with the registry.
Back-up the registry beforehand.

Edit this entry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\
i8042prt\Parameters] by changing the value "Headless" data to 0x1 (Allow Hotplugging).


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Sorry for the delay. How do you backup the registry? 

It also appears another error is becoming common as well:

Description:
The server {DC0C2640-1415-4644-875C-6F4D769839BA} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

The aforementioned MSICPL error is no longer an issue (hasn't come up in about a week.)


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi, To back up the registry, Go to Start> All Programs> Run> type..."regedit", highlight Computer at top of tree, Open "File" on top Tab of window, choose Export, choose a name and destination for the .reg file and click ok.
To restrore registry, choose Import from that same window.
While you're their....
Edit this entry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\
i8042prt\Parameters] by changing the value "Headless" data to 0x1

(The best fix for this is actually reinstalling a ps/2 mouse & keybd, uninstalling the usb and starting afresh).


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Houndog777 said:


> While you're their....
> Edit this entry: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\
> i8042prt\Parameters] by changing the value "Headless" data to 0x1


I don't know what value "Headless" data is .



> (The best fix for this is actually reinstalling a ps/2 mouse & keybd, uninstalling the usb and starting afresh).


I had considered that, the unfortunate problem is I didn't properly install the PS/2 keyboard I used, I just plugged it in. I've used a USB mouse since the day I finished putting the system together, and I only used the PS/2 mouse during Windows install until I set up the USB keyboard drivers, I never actually installed any of the PS/2 keyboard's drivers.


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
Value: Headless
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1 (Allow hotplugging a PS/2-style keyboard. To disable this feature, set the data value to 0.)


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

I don't see any value that is set to Headless in the regedit (I must apologize for my complete inexperience w/editing the registry.)

Here's an actual screen shot:


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## Houndog777 (May 17, 2007)

Hi, here's an easier way.....
http://justgold79.googlepages.com/eventid7026andi8042prtregistryfix
Just download and run.


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

Sorry for the delay in posting back, I've been out of town and busy in general.

Anyway, thanks for the posted link it did fix the error messages related to the PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard. Unfortunately, the beeping still seems to happen, and doesn't seem to happen at the same time as any of the error messages that I've gotten.


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

To update it seems that this problem is still around, and if anything the beeping appears to be more frequent. The aforementioned errors no longer pop up, as I've successfully dealt with them, yet the beeping still continues.

This is beginning to worry me somewhat, does anyone have any idea what it could be? In searching the web I've read that some people using the same video card as me have had this happen, but the information on it was vague.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

have you checked the bios beep code
www.bioscentral.com


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## fadex1945 (Sep 21, 2006)

dai said:


> have you checked the bios beep code
> www.bioscentral.com


It's not a beep during POST, I've checked my motherboard's manual and website and both say that if the beep is not during POST then it isn't the MB trying to convey an error message. It is a random beeping during use of the system, not a beep during post.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

there have been reports on the card see if you can get a rma on it


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## samohtrelhe (Nov 15, 2007)

i fadex

I've just experienced the exact same issue. Random beeps mostly when using the PC and mainly when accessing the file explorer after a while at rest...

Luckily for me it started just after mounting a supersilent CPU cooler with a big, slowly rotating fan. 
One hint I found on various forums was to disable fan management in Bios.
That way the fan goes full throttle and never drops below the rotation limit built into the motherboard (normally between 1000 and 1500 rpm).

Exactly that creates the famous beeps on my system!

An alternative that I've ended up with, because I love the quiet PC, is disabling the "Beep" device!
On "Control panel", "System", the "Hardware" tab and "Device Manager" select the menu "View" and "Show hidden devices".

Click on "Non-Plug and Play Drivers", rightclick "Beep", select "Disable". Close and reboot.

No more beeps.:4-dontkno


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