system alarm

[White_Eskimo]

Taking a stab in the dark.. the unit is over heating...?

LOL. yeah it sounds to me that the computer is over heating. My comp is suppose to make a siren sound when it overheats (but i have never witnessed it). Anyways, i would first check to make sure that there arent any funky alarms set on the computer. (maybe his mom doesnt want him to play for over 30 minutes so it makes a siren). Also, what applications do you run when it starts to make the alarm sound? I dont know what the problem is, but because it is summer time and because it is hot i think that the computer is overheating. Take it in, replace the fan(s) and get your hardware checked to make sure it doesnt fry.

[punchthebaby]

Overheating, imporoper component communication, these are all good thoughts bout what might be going on. A bit more background: Th internal PC speaker on pretty much every PC manufactured before the Pentium II (with MMX!) would make one of a few different sounds for certain types of erros. Most of those computers' BIOS had a "Beep on Error" option that is fairly easy to shut off. Also, there is the overheating alarm on newer computers, which is really the only use that those poor old internal pc speakers seem to get nowadays. What is of possible concern is the fact that the computer is running windows Me and it's overheating or error-ing out. That's the kind of thing that might not be fixed with a restore, as i've heard reports of Windows Me just refusing to work properly on legacy hardware. any confirmations on this?

keep us posted, synaptic;

xo

[r8devil]

Personal experience tells me its most probably the setting for the temperature alarm for the CPU. I had the same thing happens to a friends PC. After checking everything and trying all sorts of settings we realised that in the BIOS setup, there was an option that enabled the the alarm to warn if the CPU temperature reached a certain level. We also realised that the temperature set where the alarm would go off was very low so that after normal use for less than 1/2 hr this temp was being reached and the alarm was going off. Its exactly as you described like a siren. Same a like a few of the others mentioned.

Unlikely to be someother error with booting due to problems with mobo or cards or peripherals as these would be beeping - long or short depends on the error. Unlikely t be program also as newer systems wouldnt be using the PC speaker and would most likely be using the sound card output.

wat u need to do would be to check the bios settng for the temp level and set it at something more reasonable or if its already on the high side then u should look into getting extra cooling for the system eg additional fans or something more efficient.

Hope this helps.