Computer emits repeating short beeps on boot

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Hi everyone, hope you can help as this is my first post!
I have a 4-year old laptop, Rock Xtreme 770, motherboard M570RU by Clevo. I have been running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit for about a year with no problems. I should also indicate that I am an experienced person, have built systems, and usually can diagnose and solve just about any problem I come across.

I recently did a re-install of Windows and, upon one reboot, the system froze after the boot loader completed (the little grey progress screen that is seen when laptop is turned on), but with no beeping yet. I discovered that, by turning on the boot-time diagnostics option in the BIOS, the system goes through a memory check and, initially, this is accompanied by a very slow trawl (the numbers increase slowly) through about 500MB of the 4GB total memory along with a constant repeated beeping. Once the memory count gets to about 500MB, the beeping stops and the memory count speeds up dramatically to 4096MB. The system then boots normally and everything works as it should.

Naturally, I suspected the memory as the culprit and bought 2 2GB sticks of new memory, but the problem persisted – same result. I then tried just one stick in one and then the other slot – no difference. Then I thought that maybe the system was overheating (the GPU fan didn’t appear to be coming on), but realised the fan only comes on when needed. I checked temps and nothing was unusual or different than before the problem started.

I also checked to see if there were any bad drivers but I’m using the same ones I had before the problem started.

I’m really at a loss as to what to try next and wondered whether anyone has experienced the same sort of problem and knows what the issue is?

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http://www.rockdirect.com/

I think your BIOS is made by Phoenix:
Phoenix ISA/MCA/EISA BIOS Beep Codes

Have you run a thorough memtest86 yet?

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Not yet – I have that in mind but haven’t had the time yet. I discovered something else – if I press F8 repeatedly when I turn on the laptop, the beeping does not occur and the memory check completes quickly, then it boots as normal.
The beep codes for Phoenix Bios do not list continuous short beeps!

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Yeah, I noticed that.
It sounds at least plausible that maybe you BIOS has become damaged or corrupted some how???
I didn’t see any reference to any BIOS updates on the Rock site either.

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It would be very unusual in my experience for that to happen. Rock went into administration a couple of years ago, taken over by Stone Computers – they won’t even give me the benefit of their advice without my re-installing Vista, the original OS that came with the laptop!!!

I sure it is a hardware fault somewhere but once the machine boots, it runs perfectly.

I ran Memtest with absolutely no errors.

Do you think there might be someone else on here who has some ideas?

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Well, I just updated the BIOS to the latest (I contacted Clevo to get it), and it has made no difference.

Strange thing is pressing F8 repeatedly when laptop starts prevents all the beeping, but then I get the post beep as though nothing is wrong!!

I think I’ll just have to live with it and put up with pressing F8 every time.

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Maybe you could give us a bit more detail about your last clean install;
Do you still have “boot-time diagnostics option in the BIOS” turned on?
What do you have your hard drive controler set to in BIOS? (IDE or AHCI?)
What function does pressing F8 normally do upon boot? (bring up boot menu??)
Does the laptop contain a hidden diagnostic partition?

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Just thinking outside of the box here…..when the keyboard gets stuck on boot-up, a machine will often emit a stream of beeps until the keyboard buffer is cleared.

I wonder therefore, if there is a keyboard driver/mapping issue, which is overcome by pressing F8 – thereby short-cutting the boot sequence to load a boot options menu? Is there any option in the BIOS to change keyboard settings? Does the keyboard function correctly on all keys after boot sequence has completed?

Straws – clutched at fair and square !

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What kind of detail do you want for the clean install? I have now turned off boot-tome diagnostics since I can press the F8 key and boot. The hard-drive controller is set to AHCI; F8 normally allows boot into safe mode, but initially pressing it (when computer is turned on) does not bring up the safe mode screen – that only appears if I continue to press the key past initial boot loading. There is no hidden diagnostic partition.

Regarding possible keyboard issues, no BIOS option for keyboard settings (probably the simplest BIOS I have ever seen, in terms of options). The keyboard does function correctly on all keys after boot. However, it is an interesting possibility – I will go into Device Manager and uninstall the keyboard driver and see what happens, although that driver is not loaded until boot.
Thanks for all your ideas – I’ll continue to answer any questions and look at possible ideas/solutions from you guys. I really do appreciate it. There is a firm over here that uses Clevo motherboards for the laptops they supply (PC Specialists) – I think I may email them on the off chance that they’ll be kind enough to say whether they’ve ever encountered anything like it in the past with their customers. Although, considering I didn’t buy the laptop from them, they probably won’t even pay any attention to the email. But, stranger things have happened!!!!!

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OK, I found the problem!!!! Thanks to Tinto Tech – you got me thinking about the keyboard. I put in some search terms, such as “keyboard stuck on boot”, read a few forum messages, one of which said if a key is stuck in the down position, sometimes a continuous beep is heard.

So, I examined all my keys and discovered that one I NEVER use – the zero key on the right-hand keypad (controlled by Numlock) was stuck in the down position. I freed it with a small screwdriver and lo and behold – no more beeping!!!!!!!!!! Just goes to show, sometimes the most niggling problems have a simple solution. Unfortunately, I went and spent £70 on new memory and a GPU fan. However, lesson learned now!!!!

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