# Computer shutdown and is making a beeping noise



## baitbucket (Feb 7, 2004)

Okay never had this one happen. 
I just recently replaced the mother board and power supply on my system. 
My processor is an AMD Athlon XP3200. The mother board is an ABIT KW7. The power supply is an Antec SP500. Windows XP pro. 

So its all been running smooth for about 3 weeks up until Friday night. I like to leave my system up and running, just letting it go into stand bye mode. I do shut it down at least once every couple of days. Well all of a sudden Friday night I come in from being outside and I hear this noise that sounds like an alarm going off. Rather reminded me of how a fog horn is blown. I follow it to the computer room where I find my system had no life but only making this alarm noise. I pulled the plug and felt the system. It felt warm but not that hot. I let it sit for an hour and I fired it back up and everything was fine. For safety sake I shut it down for the night. On Saturday morning I fired it up and things were fine. But come Saturday night I heard the alarm noise again and sure enough it was doing the Fog Horn alarm noise again with no other signs of life. I shut it down for the night.

I'm on it now and all the fans are running just fine. No system glitches either.

Is the processor over heating and just shutting down?? Thats my only guess. Not sure where to start or how and what to check.

Thoughts anyone??

Thanks
Baitbucket


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## magtech (Mar 26, 2006)

Yes, Sounds like the chip is overheating and shutting down I would check the cpu fan and make sure in the bios your fans are not set to scale back when the machine is in sleep mode I am guessing that the cpu fan is slowing down and the chip is getting to hot, you can also pull the fan off the cpu and reset the fan with some new thermal paste, make sure you use a thin layer you dont need much. give those a try and see what happens

good luck


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

The siren is most likely the processor overheating and that's why it shut down.
You need to monitor cpu and system temps and fan speeds because I would bet either the heat synch and fan are not exactly snapped tight, or you don't have an even layer fo grease between heat synch and cpu. This will do it for you
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/1871-sensorsview.html
Then tell us what you see....


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## baitbucket (Feb 7, 2004)

magtech
thanks for your reply. Can you direct me to where I would look in the Bios to see if the Fan is scaling back.

Rich-M
thanks also. I downloaded and installed the program. Very cool. 
My system shutdown right after I downloaded the program so I waited about 30 Minutes and turned it back on. Here are the temps it showed after I turned it back on
CPU 53 C / 128 f
SYS 44c / 100 f
AUX 62c / 144f
HDO 41c / 106f

CPU Fan 4219
SYS Fan 2411 and it changes all the way to 2446
AUX Fan 2617

After some time using it the temps of course are on their way up.

CPU is 55c/131
SYS 45/113
Aux 64/148
HDO 43/110


Is there someplace I can go to find out what my temps should be for the system to run optimal?

Thanks
Baitbucket


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

Those temps are actually quite normal for an Athlon XP system.
Let's watch it to see if that suddenly changes. I have a system like that with a 2900 Barton that will run as yours and all of a sudden jump to 70 and over for no reason I can see. If yours never does that then we will have to look elsewhere but that has to be what the siren means...although I remember once seeing a video card do that, but not asleep.


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## skikaz (May 6, 2006)

If you're using a surge protector, try removing it for testing the pc. The 500w psu you got might be flakey or a bit picky. asic chips can cause the siren/singing if the psu is not stable.


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

Why are we thinking about pulling the surge protector? This would not cause the CPU to overheat if that is what is happening. If the alarm sound is like that of a European police siren or something similar, then it is usually a CPU overheat alarm. It would be good to check to make sure your cpu fan doesnt shut down or throttle back too far when the system goes into standby. Since this is the only time it seems to happen. If the system runns normally at all other times except when it goes into stanby this is where youwant to look for problems.


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## baitbucket (Feb 7, 2004)

dustyjay
I think you hit the noise that I'm hearing on the nose. The first two times the system shutdown is when it was in standbye. Then this morning right as I was just finishing downloading the Program that Rich-M mentioned it shutdown. 

I worked on the system for awhile this morning and did see the temp rise which I posted. It is hot here weather wise today and I dont have the air on in the house yet so I opted to shutdown the system. Funny thing when I went and clicked on shutdown the system completely shutdown and the warning alarms went off. Another thing that also happened was I went to type one last email before shutting down and some of the keys on my keyboard would type double letters not matching either. Like I would hit the key C and it would type CN. Thats a new problem. 

Does anyone know where in the Bios I can find out if the fans are powering down while in standbye?

Thanks again for all Replies
Baitbucket


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

Check in power options in Control panel first.


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## baitbucket (Feb 7, 2004)

Well I'm not to sure what I was checking for in power option but I have mine set as always on. Not sure what all the schemes do. Whats the difference between the Home/office and always on? the monitor shuts off after 15 minutes and the hard disk at 30.


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## baitbucket (Feb 7, 2004)

Okay I had my system running for 1 hour and I was on and off of it. I decided to go ahead and shut it down. The temperature was at 55c / 131f. At just an idle it seems to be at 53c/128f. So as soon as I click on Turn off the alarm went off and the system shut down. Thats the second time it did that when I went to shut it down. There was mention of maybe the Video card? I forgot what brand. Next time I turn on the system I will see if I can find what make I have.


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## baitbucket (Feb 7, 2004)

Well I'm now thinking it might be the Video card. I was on the system for a good time yesterday and the temp stayed right around 53c/128f. But when I again went to shut it down I clicked on the turn Off and the system immediately shutdown and the Alarm went off. 
Is there anyway to test the video card to see if this is indeed the problem? 
Or any other thoughts on the problem

Thanks
Baitbucket


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

Not really without trying another one, unless you have onboard video you could switch to that.


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