# Computer beep 2 fast then 8 slow times and refuses to boot



## manixrock (Feb 20, 2009)

My computer was giving me troubles when booting as it was beeping 2 fast then 8 slow times, then after 10-20 seconds beeps 2 times then once. I rebooted it repeatedly and it usually finally booted after a few reboots. But now it won't boot at all. I looked for the beeps codes but the best I found was http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm which doesn't seem to contain the 2 then 8 sequence of beeps.

I have an MSI (AGP 8X) motherboard with AMIBIOS 3.31a, GeForce 6600GT video card. I would give more details but I no longer have the manual for the individual components.

I have had this problem for about 2 weeks now, and just replaced my video card's cooler which was failing. But that's not the problem since after replacing it I'm still having the same problem. Maybe my video card is burned because it wasn't getting cooled by the cooler (sometimes it manages to turn on the monitor and I can get into BIOS so probably not), or maybe my power supply isn't adequate (how can I tell?)...

Any help would be much appreciated.


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## manixrock (Feb 20, 2009)

I've replaced my video card with another and this time the computer just shut down instantly while booting, like a power outage had occurred, and I had to remove the power cable then reattach it to get it to start again.

I also placed my video card on another computer and I get the same beeps sequence. This has me confused a bit since it seems to be a multiple component failure. What would cause these symptoms? Any experts here?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The 8 short would be a bad video card, the 2 long could be a bad stick of ram, try removing all but 1 stick if it still beeps 2 times swap with another.
What video card did you put in?
Another thought is clear the CMOS.


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## manixrock (Feb 20, 2009)

wrench97 said:


> The 8 short would be a bad video card, the 2 long could be a bad stick of ram, try removing all but 1 stick if it still beeps 2 times swap with another.
> What video card did you put in?
> Another thought is clear the CMOS.


Thanks for the reply. I tested my video card on another computer and indeed it's broken. But this still leaves the question as to why my computer doesn't boot with any other video cards. I tried with 2 other and it just dies then won't power on until I remove then reattach the power supply. Is it component incompatibility or something else?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

the psu needs to put out a min of 18a on the 12v line
what brand and wattage is it


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## manixrock (Feb 20, 2009)

dai said:


> the psu needs to put out a min of 18a on the 12v line
> what brand and wattage is it


I'm not sure what brand it is. On the 12V line it has 17A, so it seems it's not enough. It has run until now like this, although this was probably the cause it failed. What should I do, get a better power source?

However I've just done some other tests on it. It gives the 2-8 beeps even without the video card. I've removed everything, it's just this: the case with power source, motherboard, cpu, and one stick of RAM (which works), I've reset the BIOS and when powering on I still get the beeps. How can I tell which is the faulty part?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

see if you can borrow a psu to test with


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