MSI K8N Neo4-F: 1 long beep, 2 short

Balfa · 03-12-2009 6:13am #1

My wife was using her PC fine last night, and this morning she turned it on and it gave one long beep followed immediately immediately by two very short beeps and the screen stayed dark. The hard disk whirred away like it's probably loading normally to the windows desktop.

I read in various places (such as here: http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/awardbeep.htm) that this signals a problem with the display adapter. She's using an eVGA 7600GT.

I've removed everything I can, so that the only things connected to the motherboard are the PSU, CPU, just one stick* of DDR1 RAM, vid card and the case led/switch/beeper connectors.

Her vid card works in my PC
I put my vid card in hers (it's an 8800GT and I'm not even sure her PSU has enough juice for it) and it resulted in the same 1 long, 2 short beeps.
I've tried my monitor on her vid card in her PC and on my vid card in her PC. Always 1 long, 2 short.
I've reseated her vid card about 10 times, and she still gets the 1 long, 2 short. Same thing with no vid card at all.

If I take all the RAM out, I get the infinitely repeating long beep, so it seems the motherboard is recognising that problem as it should. And I've actually tried various configurations of the four DDR1 DIMMs, always resulting in the 1 long, 2 short. it doesn't seem to be the issue.

I'm thinking it sounds like some part of the motherboard's graphics subsystem, whether it be the PCI slot itself, the northbridge, etc., is broken.

Can anyone suggest anything else? Or am I stuck with buying a new motherboard? And since there are no more socket 939 motherboards with 184-pin DDR1 slots, a new CPU and new RAM as well?

marco_polo · 03-12-2009 1:46pm

You could try your PSU in her machine, although in all honesty it doesn't look good for the motherboard.

Bob_Harris · 03-12-2009 2:11pm

Try clear the cmos

If you have / download the motherboard manual, it should show you how to do it.

There might be a jumper or you can just take out the battery for a few minutes.

Balfa · 03-12-2009 2:52pm

Thanks, guys. I was considering the PSU. It's just a real pain in the bum

Though if it saves me over $100... hmm.

I'll definitely try clearing the CMOS. Thanks for that, Bob.

marco_polo · 03-12-2009 5:29pm

Balfa wrote: »

Thanks, guys. I was considering the PSU. It's just a real pain in the bum Though if it saves me over $100... hmm.

I'll definitely try clearing the CMOS. Thanks for that, Bob.

Yeah I was proposing it more as a last shot in the dark without too much hope that it is the problem.

MSI K8N Neo4-F: 1 long beep, 2 short

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