About beep codes

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The MB says it is a M6TBA (cannot find a vendor’s name for it in the book). It uses Award Bios and it is a Pionex brand computer. NT4 SP6. I don’t use this system often but I don’t want to lose what I have. I have made BU copies of my data but have not ever figured out how to make a total bootable BU of the HD even though I probably have the necessary stuff loaded! (nero software, CD burner, network card, even have Ghost2001!! but )

So my problem: When the HD starts from a cold boot, it emits 3 long beeps, long pauses in between the beeps. I can then turn off the system and restart it and it may do the beep process a second time or it may just start up like nothing is the matter with it! Once it is warmed up, I can reboot it no problems. And when it is warmed up, I can also shut it down completely for the 10 second wait and then boot it back up, with no beeping. I have taken a look at the websites with the beep codes and am really not sure what it could be? Any suggestions for items that could be the culprit?

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Seems to be a Biostar mainboard. The beep codes could mean a lot of things, they are not consistent even from the same BIOS vendor. Check first with BIOStar and see if they have any information.

Update the BIOS and see if it corrects the problem. Then try removing all hardware except for the video card and one stick of memory and see if the beeps persist. Move the memory to another slot if it still beeps.

If you go through all those steps and it still acts up, then I would consider a replacement mainboard instead of troubleshooting much further. Even if you determine the source of the beeps, there may be little if anything that you can do about it.

As for a complete bootable backup, since it is NT I would not bother if there is a replacement mainboard in your future. NT does not like having the mainboard changed. As long as you have your data, a complete backup is redundant and you can always rebuild the operating system – a chance to “clean house” if you will.

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Thanks Mark for the reply. I think I would like to make one complete back-up of the system before starting anything with it. I have followed the adventures of Bruce’s post 344793 and am contemplating a purchase of Acronis True Image V7. The only reason I hesitate is that I am a newbie in trying stuff like flashing “BIOS”, etc. and getting a back-up image to work (“Boo” to Ghost 2001 and my experience with trying to use it!). So I am wondering if I can use True Image as successfully and as easily as the group indicates this to be! I am surprised to see that it isn’t that expensive either if I can accomplish what I want to do with it – make a complete image of my NT Box for safe keeping!! I certainly have wasted enough $$ on software that didn’t do as expected!!

BTW, I haven’t shut my system down since getting it to reboot and I won’t either until I get that image completed!! Then I will start the investigation of the ‘beeps’!!

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Make sure all the fans are turning – you might have to wait until the system cools down again and the bearings are sluggish. They should spin freely with a flick of your finger, no vibration, and minimal noise. Some BIOSes alarm on fan failure or on low fan speed. To save money, many manufacturers use cheap sleeve-bearing fans (an argument for home built). Since this board is 3+ years old, I assume the case fans and CPU fans are too.

I tried to find more about your beeps and 3 long is not listed anywhere – is it just 3? Could it be just a bunch of single longs that seem to come in threes? I found your mobo manual and the beeb codes are not listed there either. Beeb codes are handled through the Award BIOS. I found one reference that reported that Award uses the fewest beeb codes (like 2) and uses the display most of the time. It states the only time you will get any beeps is if the video card fails or for a RAM problem. Since you do have a display, I’m leaning towards RAM.

I would give the guts a good cleaning. I would pull and reseat the video card and the memory DIMMs. If you happen to have more than one memory stick, you might try running with just one, see if it still occurs, swapping and eliminating as necessary.

BTW – Shutting down at the powerstrip is not a good thing – but that is mainly due to disk drive corruption (as files are left open or only partially saved) – Windows and most other OSs – mainly those not hardcoded, don’t do well when not shutdown properly. Hardware, however is not affected (except very old HDs that need to be “parked”). Turning on the computer at the power switch is not the best way (the monitor should be turned on first so the video card can sync up to it), but it really does not hurt the PC either – assuming it is not flicked on and off like a kid and a light switch.

In other words – go tell the wife it was not her fault and apologize for blaming her! Then use the PCs age to justify rebuilding your PC with new motherboard, CPU, and memory, and a new HD. You can install your old drive as a second drive – that way you can still access your old data and copy the pertinent stuff to your new drive. It is easier than it sounds and you will have a much better understanding of your PC when done.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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That is a good question about how many beeps there actually are. I was thinking just three long beeps with pauses in between but now that I think about it, I was rattled enough that I just hit the shutdown button so I don’t know if it would have continued or not!! The next time I booted it, it started up normally and I haven’t shut it down since.

I appreciate all of your ideas [and Mark’s and Vikings33 too] and will implement them when I get my “image” made.

I took Viking33’s suggestion about True Image and decided to purchase it. But it seems like I can never just have anything work out easy!! They did not provide the serial number on the invoice!! I kept thinking then that they would include it in the confirmation email but Noooo, it wasn’t there either. And True Image won’t install without a serial number either. So I put in an email request yesterday and only just now received a ” we got your email and we are working on it” response!! Oh well………….and all I wanted to do was make a back up before something major really decided to happen. I do have all of my data (that I can think of that I need) copied over onto CDs but I wanted to start with the investigation.

Continuing saga in Skitterbug’s life………………… actually, I am lucky it isn’t something worse really! Oh, yes, I forgot to say that I actually only have one hard drive in this computer but I have it split into two volumns so maybe that will work for the image making? If I ever get it installed, then I may be back with more questions, if I run into something that stumps me some more! Hope you are all patient!! Thanks for being here!

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[indent]

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…I actually only have one hard drive in this computer but I have it split into two volumns…

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[/indent] You’ll have to pardon me (I hope) for starting a long-winded post here. It seems that I love to talk about backup strategy. To start with I would say that it’s NEVER a good idea to backup to a partition on the same PHYSICAL drive. If that drive gets zapped somehow, you’re dead in the water. There are many who also claim that it ain’t safe to backup to a separate physical drive in the SAME box. Their claim (maybe rightly so) is that something could happen to that box that would render ALL drives unusable. In my case, I use True Image to backup to another machine on my home LAN. The disadvantage to that is that it takes a LONG time for that backup to run. It was pretty similar when I was using Drive Image, before I learned about True Image from Viking. It does work well however, and I just yesterday restored my boot drive from an image on my LAN.

There is however, what I consider a happy medium that you will see in this post. If you have an external bay available where you can install one of the referenced “racks,” you can then buy extra “trays” and have more than one rotating backup drive that you can physically remove and put in a safe place, safely AWAY from the machine in question. I’ve done this, successfully, for more than one person. Hard drive prices are low enough that the investment is not that significant in the long run. Two or more drives and trays would allow you to maintain more than one backup for insurance.

If you want to get into the specifics, post back or feel free to start another thread, if that’s appropriate.

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I gotta second what Al says about the racks and the disks. I’ve twin 40g with 8 or so partitions between them, and one 80g (although you could use a smaller drive if you wanted) in a removable drive rack that I image to. Just about the best thing I’ve ever done. I pull out the rack after I burn the image and store it away from the PC. If something serious happens with the house or the weather, I’m gettin’ out with the kids, my wallet, and my drive!

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I too second Al…

…BUT

In the meantime, for $0.00, you can backup your .pst (mail) files, all your data files (My Documents and subfolders), Password Safe, etc. to your second partition. Of course, that will only offer protection from “File” corruption and not “Disk” corruption. Adding a second drive to the other IDE controller surprisingly offers quit a bit of backup protection.

Complete PC destruction happens. Lightning, floods, theft, etc. So an image in a safe deposit box off-site is smart.

An UPS, instead of (or at least before) a surge protector/power strip, also offers much greater protection for all out destruction from the power line.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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[indent]

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An UPS, instead of (or at least before) a surge protector/power strip, also offers much greater protection for all out destruction from the power line.

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[/indent]Amen to that. I lost a motherboard, RAM and network card in one system and also my DSL modem and router. Both stations were promptly protected by Belkin UPS units. Since that time I have been quite happy, having not lost a shred of data to power outages nor thunderstorms.

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Sad to say, I haven’t invested in a UPS yet as I usually shut down my computers when storms are pending. But……it is something I have given a lot of consideration to doing and would need one to back up two computers and have them shutdown gracefully. What would be the recommendation for the size of the UPS to get this accomplished? Another thought? Should I consider using the UPS for any of my other “toys” that are attached via USB ports or are these okay because of the ‘hopefully’ graceful shutdowns of the systems?

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Skitterbug,

If you go to the APC ( American Power Conversion ) site, it has a product selector guide where you fill in the hardware you want to protect and it will recommend a proper sized unit for you.

Go to UPS SELECTOR

APC has one of the best UPS lines around. You may pay a little more, but it’s generally worth it.

Bob

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Skitterbug,

If you go to the APC ( American Power Conversion ) site, it has a product selector guide where you fill in the hardware you want to protect and it will recommend a proper sized unit for you.

Go to UPS SELECTOR

APC has one of the best UPS lines around. You may pay a little more, but it’s generally worth it.

Bob

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For my own purposes, I looked only for a UPS that supported two things: the CPU itself, and USB communication to it as well. In the event of a power loss, the UPS signals Windows and the computer shuts down. As you do, I am prone to completely unplugging the entire works from the wall socket when lightning is about. However, most modern UPS units include protection for ethernet and phone line connections as well as the power line, makling such steps unnecessary.

I would get an individual UPS for each computer rather than putting the load on one unit.

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Just wanted to clean up one of my issues brought out by this thread and that was the concern of having a UPS for my “toys”.

I looked at Belkin (Jhelfer’s choice perhaps) and I also thought about moving across the pond so I wouldn’t have to get one (JohnGray’s advise – ), but I finally opted for an APC 500 (I had checked out Vicking33’s link). I think it will do the trick. Probably I will just use it for the HD for now! If it gets the monitor – good excuse to buy a fancy new one!! Or…… would it be possible for the monitor to give a path around the UPS to the HD via the cable connection? It’s the HDs that I care about the most, of course!! (I have them backed up but……………)

My only disappointment is that the software that came with it, isn’t as comprehensive as I would have liked. I guess I was used to our school’s UPS system, which was a couple of APC 700s. We had better software that came with the more expensive model. I hadn’t checked out what APC 500 offered, only what it would handle. I saw a very good price (on sale at a discount) and with the thunderstorms rolling around our house lately, I took the plunge. For now though, with the use of the hibernation system, etc., I think I can get it to gracefully shutdown – unless someone else can offer a better suggestion for proper shutdown when on battery backup!?

for any advise about my two questions!! And keep dry and safe from lightening- inside and out!!

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What is the software that came with your UPS? And have you checked APC’s download page to see if there is a different/upgraded/better version than what you have?

For my own purposes, I don’t plug the monitor into the UPS. I just configured the software to shut down Windows after five minutes of battery. Then again, the main reason I do this is because I didn’t evaluate my power needs accurately and the UPS just doesn’t like supporting my big, fat, power-hungry display. Either way, I don’t really need it. Testing it proved that the software shut down the system and that’s all I want it to do. I could really care less about the display, they’re not that expensive and as you noted…it’s a good excuse to get a new one. The display doesn’t house any of my data, which is what really matters.

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Hi WyllyWylly!

Thanks for answering. The software that came with it is PowerChute Personal Edition 1.3. I forgot to mention that I did update from their site with their 1.4 version. I had hoped it would have a bit more ‘punch’, but it doesn’t. I suppose to test this, I need to unplug my UPS and see if I have it set up correctly? Duh on my part, because I hadn’t thought to do that. I will give it a try, during the daytime, so I don’t disturb anyone now! It might be more noise then I should be making!

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Hi Mark and John!

I just took a little bit of time and unplugged the UPS from the power to see if it would shut down properly and it did a nice job of it. I have it set for hibernation after 5 minutes on the battery. It went through the process like a champ and shut down properly! Yeah!

The only other thing that I wondered about, since I don’t have my monitor plugged into the USP, is whether a lightening strike could follow through the power cord of the monitor and then on through the cable to the computer? I don’t know enough about electricity to know if this is a worry or not. I don’t really care about the monitor enough to worry about it, I just don’t want to have an obvious “open avenue” to my HDs. to you or to anyone for pondering this question!!

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Your scenario about lightning is certainly possible. Not likely, but possible. The only real insurance against lightning is to unplug everything from the wall, frankly. Lightning does not care nor respect the wishes of we beings, and will travel over any conductor it finds handy, sometimes leaping across gaps to do so. I would not worry about it much, there’s enough electronics inside a monitor to provide the electricity with plenty of things to do before travelling down the cable to your video card.

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Mark,

I will leave well enough alone for now then and be content that I have done the best that I can do!! Hope your week-end is a good one!

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Mark,

I will leave well enough alone for now then and be content that I have done the best that I can do!! Hope your week-end is a good one!

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Your scenario about lightning is certainly possible. Not likely, but possible. The only real insurance against lightning is to unplug everything from the wall, frankly. Lightning does not care nor respect the wishes of we beings, and will travel over any conductor it finds handy, sometimes leaping across gaps to do so. I would not worry about it much, there’s enough electronics inside a monitor to provide the electricity with plenty of things to do before travelling down the cable to your video card.

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Hi Mark and John!

I just took a little bit of time and unplugged the UPS from the power to see if it would shut down properly and it did a nice job of it. I have it set for hibernation after 5 minutes on the battery. It went through the process like a champ and shut down properly! Yeah!

The only other thing that I wondered about, since I don’t have my monitor plugged into the USP, is whether a lightening strike could follow through the power cord of the monitor and then on through the cable to the computer? I don’t know enough about electricity to know if this is a worry or not. I don’t really care about the monitor enough to worry about it, I just don’t want to have an obvious “open avenue” to my HDs. to you or to anyone for pondering this question!!

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Hi WyllyWylly!

Thanks for answering. The software that came with it is PowerChute Personal Edition 1.3. I forgot to mention that I did update from their site with their 1.4 version. I had hoped it would have a bit more ‘punch’, but it doesn’t. I suppose to test this, I need to unplug my UPS and see if I have it set up correctly? Duh on my part, because I hadn’t thought to do that. I will give it a try, during the daytime, so I don’t disturb anyone now! It might be more noise then I should be making!

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What is the software that came with your UPS? And have you checked APC’s download page to see if there is a different/upgraded/better version than what you have?

For my own purposes, I don’t plug the monitor into the UPS. I just configured the software to shut down Windows after five minutes of battery. Then again, the main reason I do this is because I didn’t evaluate my power needs accurately and the UPS just doesn’t like supporting my big, fat, power-hungry display. Either way, I don’t really need it. Testing it proved that the software shut down the system and that’s all I want it to do. I could really care less about the display, they’re not that expensive and as you noted…it’s a good excuse to get a new one. The display doesn’t house any of my data, which is what really matters.

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Skitterbug declaimed:

> I also thought about moving across the pond so I wouldn’t have to get one (JohnGray’s advice – )

You mean you’ve decided not to? Well, I really am disappointed. We could do with cheering up, now that the warm and sunny weather has come and the grass is growing with unparalleled enthusiasm….

John

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(Edited by skitterbug on 15-May-04 10:03. Edited to add a PS)

Good morning John!! Your afternoon already!!

Do you have a lot of grass to mow? Ours is growing by “leaps and bounds” and we have 2 acres of the stuff with about 60 trees and some bushes scattered about making it more like a “dodge ’em” game then actual mowing!

Question!! Are there .bat programs that would facilitate a better shutdown when on battery backup? And if so, do you just happen to have such a program in your repotraire? I am asking a lot, aren’t I? But me momma always said, “If you don’t ask, you won’t know the answer!”

PS: I just finished flipping through the chapter – “Automating Windows XP” in MS Windows XP Inside Out by Ed Bott and Carl Siechert. I would think creating such a script that I asked for would be way out of line! If such a program is written, it will be one that sells!! When one doesn’t know the work involved, he/she will ask for the impossible. Now that this “one” knows what the task is, I will withdraw my request!! I will work with what I have until something better comes out!

Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to just pick up and move when the mood hit?

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Hi Skitterbug

No, in England, unless we are immensely rich and/or Leif, we have gardens whose size is measured in square yards (perhaps square metres!) rather than acres. The front garden is about five metres by three; the back is L-shaped, but the grass probably covers about 100 square yards. It takes a total of less than an hour to mow, including putting more petrol in the mower.

With regard to your question about “a better shutdown when on battery backup”, I’m not sure what you want. Clearly this is a Dreaded Laptop, is it? I would reckon that Windows Shutdown is a bit of a nightmare already, and if the combination of the BIOS writers and Microsoft can’t get it right, then certainly *I* can’t! If anyone knows of a program that will always cause Windows to shut down reliably, it’s trivial to put it into a BATch file… It may not even need that level of sophistication!

John

PS When should I expect you in the UK??!! (I would take you to a Rebecca concert, if you like!)

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John,
————————————
including putting more petrol in the mower.
————————————
Do you mean to say you have a POWER mower to do that little “postage stamp” lawn? Really, John ! ( fitness program and all that )

After years of sitting in the corner of my garage, I finally got rid of my mower completely. Don’t need it on our “Cape Cod pine needle” lawn.

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Bob

My preferred method would be to tie the back legs of some voracious sheep (sorry, BEwens!) to a horizontal rod, and get them to move forward, wheel-barrow style, eating the grass as they went slowly across the lawn.

Unfortunately. I can’t spare the hours that this would take, nor could I afford the RSPCA legal bills…!

John

PS I suspect that the motor mower is more powerful than that in my car! We breed tough grass here in North Quedgeley…!

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Bob

My preferred method would be to tie the back legs of some voracious sheep (sorry, BEwens!) to a horizontal rod, and get them to move forward, wheel-barrow style, eating the grass as they went slowly across the lawn.

Unfortunately. I can’t spare the hours that this would take, nor could I afford the RSPCA legal bills…!

John

PS I suspect that the motor mower is more powerful than that in my car! We breed tough grass here in North Quedgeley…!

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John,
————————————
including putting more petrol in the mower.
————————————
Do you mean to say you have a POWER mower to do that little “postage stamp” lawn? Really, John ! ( fitness program and all that )

After years of sitting in the corner of my garage, I finally got rid of my mower completely. Don’t need it on our “Cape Cod pine needle” lawn.

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Hi John,

Sounds like mowing grass at your estate wouldn’t take long at all! There is a lot to be said for that – more time for other more interesting things to do. Sometimes I wonder about the sanity of all this yard work.

No, my battery backup is on my trusty Intel Celeron 1.00GHZ, 384 MB Ram, Two HDs, Mini Tower Beast! No dragging it around all over the house. I would like to get a laptop sometime but really can’t justify the expense of it yet. So I was only thinking that once the electric went kaputz, and the UPS took over on this one, perhaps some script would kick in and do a better job of running through the shutdown process. But there are so many variables to each and every system; it would be very hard for someone else to construct such a file without seeing how a person’s system is set up. That is why I realized that what I had asked was a near impossible thing to do. After reading the chapter on the scripting involved, I soon knew that I had overstepped the limit of kindly help offered in our group! Thanks anyway for even thinking about it!

If I ever make it over the pond to the UK, I would be completely happy to see Rebecca in concert!! What a fun night that would be! Thanks for the offer!

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Hi John,

Sounds like mowing grass at your estate wouldn’t take long at all! There is a lot to be said for that – more time for other more interesting things to do. Sometimes I wonder about the sanity of all this yard work.

No, my battery backup is on my trusty Intel Celeron 1.00GHZ, 384 MB Ram, Two HDs, Mini Tower Beast! No dragging it around all over the house. I would like to get a laptop sometime but really can’t justify the expense of it yet. So I was only thinking that once the electric went kaputz, and the UPS took over on this one, perhaps some script would kick in and do a better job of running through the shutdown process. But there are so many variables to each and every system; it would be very hard for someone else to construct such a file without seeing how a person’s system is set up. That is why I realized that what I had asked was a near impossible thing to do. After reading the chapter on the scripting involved, I soon knew that I had overstepped the limit of kindly help offered in our group! Thanks anyway for even thinking about it!

If I ever make it over the pond to the UK, I would be completely happy to see Rebecca in concert!! What a fun night that would be! Thanks for the offer!

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We need to search the Lounge but I’m not sure I remember the name and I sure don’t remember which Lounger posted it. Somewhere there is a program called (I think) Kill It All or maybe it’s Kill All or, heck I don’t remember. I do remember trying it once but it was when I was running Win98. Let’s see what I (we?) can find…..

Edited to add: I remember, so I didn’t search here. It’s called EndItAll from PC Magazine. However, its purpose is to shut down running applications, not the machine, so I don’t think it’s what you need.

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We need to search the Lounge but I’m not sure I remember the name and I sure don’t remember which Lounger posted it. Somewhere there is a program called (I think) Kill It All or maybe it’s Kill All or, heck I don’t remember. I do remember trying it once but it was when I was running Win98. Let’s see what I (we?) can find…..

Edited to add: I remember, so I didn’t search here. It’s called EndItAll from PC Magazine. However, its purpose is to shut down running applications, not the machine, so I don’t think it’s what you need.

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Hi Skitterbug

No, in England, unless we are immensely rich and/or Leif, we have gardens whose size is measured in square yards (perhaps square metres!) rather than acres. The front garden is about five metres by three; the back is L-shaped, but the grass probably covers about 100 square yards. It takes a total of less than an hour to mow, including putting more petrol in the mower.

With regard to your question about “a better shutdown when on battery backup”, I’m not sure what you want. Clearly this is a Dreaded Laptop, is it? I would reckon that Windows Shutdown is a bit of a nightmare already, and if the combination of the BIOS writers and Microsoft can’t get it right, then certainly *I* can’t! If anyone knows of a program that will always cause Windows to shut down reliably, it’s trivial to put it into a BATch file… It may not even need that level of sophistication!

John

PS When should I expect you in the UK??!! (I would take you to a Rebecca concert, if you like!)

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(Edited by skitterbug on 15-May-04 10:03. Edited to add a PS)

Good morning John!! Your afternoon already!!

Do you have a lot of grass to mow? Ours is growing by “leaps and bounds” and we have 2 acres of the stuff with about 60 trees and some bushes scattered about making it more like a “dodge ’em” game then actual mowing!

Question!! Are there .bat programs that would facilitate a better shutdown when on battery backup? And if so, do you just happen to have such a program in your repotraire? I am asking a lot, aren’t I? But me momma always said, “If you don’t ask, you won’t know the answer!”

PS: I just finished flipping through the chapter – “Automating Windows XP” in MS Windows XP Inside Out by Ed Bott and Carl Siechert. I would think creating such a script that I asked for would be way out of line! If such a program is written, it will be one that sells!! When one doesn’t know the work involved, he/she will ask for the impossible. Now that this “one” knows what the task is, I will withdraw my request!! I will work with what I have until something better comes out!

Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to just pick up and move when the mood hit?

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Skitterbug declaimed:

> I also thought about moving across the pond so I wouldn’t have to get one (JohnGray’s advice – )

You mean you’ve decided not to? Well, I really am disappointed. We could do with cheering up, now that the warm and sunny weather has come and the grass is growing with unparalleled enthusiasm….

John

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Just wanted to clean up one of my issues brought out by this thread and that was the concern of having a UPS for my “toys”.

I looked at Belkin (Jhelfer’s choice perhaps) and I also thought about moving across the pond so I wouldn’t have to get one (JohnGray’s advise – ), but I finally opted for an APC 500 (I had checked out Vicking33’s link). I think it will do the trick. Probably I will just use it for the HD for now! If it gets the monitor – good excuse to buy a fancy new one!! Or…… would it be possible for the monitor to give a path around the UPS to the HD via the cable connection? It’s the HDs that I care about the most, of course!! (I have them backed up but……………)

My only disappointment is that the software that came with it, isn’t as comprehensive as I would have liked. I guess I was used to our school’s UPS system, which was a couple of APC 700s. We had better software that came with the more expensive model. I hadn’t checked out what APC 500 offered, only what it would handle. I saw a very good price (on sale at a discount) and with the thunderstorms rolling around our house lately, I took the plunge. For now though, with the use of the hibernation system, etc., I think I can get it to gracefully shutdown – unless someone else can offer a better suggestion for proper shutdown when on battery backup!?

for any advise about my two questions!! And keep dry and safe from lightening- inside and out!!

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For my own purposes, I looked only for a UPS that supported two things: the CPU itself, and USB communication to it as well. In the event of a power loss, the UPS signals Windows and the computer shuts down. As you do, I am prone to completely unplugging the entire works from the wall socket when lightning is about. However, most modern UPS units include protection for ethernet and phone line connections as well as the power line, makling such steps unnecessary.

I would get an individual UPS for each computer rather than putting the load on one unit.

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Edited by bigaldoc to make the link live. Note that the link as originally provided did not work.

We bought a bunch of Belkin Home office 350VAC

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=459926%5B/url%5D

Although Belkin seems to have raised the price on these units (I used to be able to get them for <$25~) they work pretty well for us.

Cleanly shuts down your system when the power goes out. Unfortunately, while the "SOHo" style UPS's will shut down a system when the power goes off, it won't turn it back on when the power resumes. It seems for that functionality, yiou need to pay hundreds for something like a "smart-ups".

Don't put laser printers or air compressors or anything like that draws a lot of amps on your UPS, but there's no reason not to plug other stuff in. You will at least protect your electronics from damage from power sags and spikes.

Jim

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My beeping computer hasn’t beeped since I raised the alarm about it so I guess I will leave well enough alone except to clean out the dust!

I purchased True Image (and finally got the necessary serial # from them) and made my image -split into 650MG so I could burn them to disk. Also made the bootable CD for rescue purposes. I sent my image to my “D” volume with no problems and plan on deleting them since I have BU CDs now. (I also purchased their PartitionExpert and found it to be very easy to use too! Probably need another thread sometime about it!! )

I never did find any pertinent info about the MB from Biostar but I have to agree with Mark, if it quits on me, I may as well move on to newer technology and give up my NT box! And when I do try the “build yourself” project, I like Big Al’s idea of the racks and trays for switching out HDs.

And finally, the UPS devices are now on my short term “to buy” list!! for the links and info about them.

(and to JG – Too bad we all don’t live in the UK – what a party we would have at your house with all those extra $$!!)

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My beeping computer hasn’t beeped since I raised the alarm about it so I guess I will leave well enough alone except to clean out the dust!

I purchased True Image (and finally got the necessary serial # from them) and made my image -split into 650MG so I could burn them to disk. Also made the bootable CD for rescue purposes. I sent my image to my “D” volume with no problems and plan on deleting them since I have BU CDs now. (I also purchased their PartitionExpert and found it to be very easy to use too! Probably need another thread sometime about it!! )

I never did find any pertinent info about the MB from Biostar but I have to agree with Mark, if it quits on me, I may as well move on to newer technology and give up my NT box! And when I do try the “build yourself” project, I like Big Al’s idea of the racks and trays for switching out HDs.

And finally, the UPS devices are now on my short term “to buy” list!! for the links and info about them.

(and to JG – Too bad we all don’t live in the UK – what a party we would have at your house with all those extra $$!!)

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Edited by bigaldoc to make the link live. Note that the link as originally provided did not work.

We bought a bunch of Belkin Home office 350VAC

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=459926%5B/url%5D

Although Belkin seems to have raised the price on these units (I used to be able to get them for <$25~) they work pretty well for us.

Cleanly shuts down your system when the power goes out. Unfortunately, while the "SOHo" style UPS's will shut down a system when the power goes off, it won't turn it back on when the power resumes. It seems for that functionality, yiou need to pay hundreds for something like a "smart-ups".

Don't put laser printers or air compressors or anything like that draws a lot of amps on your UPS, but there's no reason not to plug other stuff in. You will at least protect your electronics from damage from power sags and spikes.

Jim

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Sad to say, I haven’t invested in a UPS yet as I usually shut down my computers when storms are pending. But……it is something I have given a lot of consideration to doing and would need one to back up two computers and have them shutdown gracefully. What would be the recommendation for the size of the UPS to get this accomplished? Another thought? Should I consider using the UPS for any of my other “toys” that are attached via USB ports or are these okay because of the ‘hopefully’ graceful shutdowns of the systems?

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And the sad part is most people don’t use and UPS – and one capable of protecting a PC, LCD monitor, router, and Cable/DSL modem is under a $100 – not much more than a good power strip – and worth it.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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So true, and sadly I had to lose over 300 USD in components before I learned my lesson.

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Mark

Move to the UK!

We rarely get the sort of major lightning/thunderstorms which seem to be prevalent in the US, so very few people have (or need) UPS at home. Our 220V 50 Hz power is fairly clean, too.

AND we will soon get $2 for each of our

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JohnGray said: [indent]

---

Move to the UK!

We rarely get the sort of major lightning/thunderstorms which seem to be prevalent in the US, so very few people have (or need) UPS at home. Our 220V 50 Hz power is fairly clean, too.

---

[/indent] Don’t know about where you live in the UK but I lived for several years in East Anglia. There, commercial and residential power is 240VAC, 50Hz. As a RF communications technician, I paid attention to my power sources. True, thunderstorms are rare but, like everyone else, you still have outages. Squirrels hang on one line and grab another there just like here in Nebraska. Accidents happen. Maintenance happens. Sometimes transformers just blow. We had MANY brown outs – where the voltage “sagged” – especially on the warmer summer days. This low voltage event is a tremendous strain on voltage regulation circuits in the power supply and motherboard. Browns outs can last for several seconds. Powerstrips don’t compensate for these low voltage events. Spikes were common and surges nearly as often. Power strips are pretty good at “clamping” down on instantaneous power spikes, but surges can wreck havoc. And each “event” ages components! Powerstrips are “passive” devices that react to events and do NOT provide true power “regulation”.

An UPS has “active” circuits regulating output by monitoring and adjusting line conditions. It will “step up” sags and “step down” surges. They are not very expensive – you can pay more for a “pretty” power strip!

EVERY time a refrigerator (typically the most power hog in the home) cycles on and off, there are surges and sags, with a few “transient” spikes in between! Don’t forget hairdryers, toasters, microwaves, washers, TVs, etc.

I have two PCs, a 3.06P4HT and an XP3000+, two 17″ LCD monitors, and all my home network equipment on one 1250VA/670W UPS. This gives me over 1/2 hour of use, plenty of time to finish any immediate work and gracefully shutdown. Some new UPSs (yes – that is correct grammar, I checked!) control 2 PCs – I might look into that. It is important to note that I could not have this 2 PC and a single UPS setup with CRT monitors.

XP has native UPS support – but UPSs don’t need software control. I have an UPS on my HDTV and one on my HT receiver too – which nicely protects my speakers!

IMHO, an UPS is cheap insurance and you are foolish if you do not have one on each high value item!

BTW – The fact that England (or East Anglia, anyway) is already at 240VAC may be significant too – since most of the world is on 110 or 220, I bet I am right in assuming that the vast majority of power strips are designed with those voltages in mind – meaning 240 is already 20 volts out from the center of the envelope – not significant for spikes, but may affect surge protection – I’d make sure my strips were made specifically for the UK.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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JohnGray said: [indent]

---

Move to the UK!

We rarely get the sort of major lightning/thunderstorms which seem to be prevalent in the US, so very few people have (or need) UPS at home. Our 220V 50 Hz power is fairly clean, too.

---

[/indent] Don’t know about where you live in the UK but I lived for several years in East Anglia. There, commercial and residential power is 240VAC, 50Hz. As a RF communications technician, I paid attention to my power sources. True, thunderstorms are rare but, like everyone else, you still have outages. Squirrels hang on one line and grab another there just like here in Nebraska. Accidents happen. Maintenance happens. Sometimes transformers just blow. We had MANY brown outs – where the voltage “sagged” – especially on the warmer summer days. This low voltage event is a tremendous strain on voltage regulation circuits in the power supply and motherboard. Browns outs can last for several seconds. Powerstrips don’t compensate for these low voltage events. Spikes were common and surges nearly as often. Power strips are pretty good at “clamping” down on instantaneous power spikes, but surges can wreck havoc. And each “event” ages components! Powerstrips are “passive” devices that react to events and do NOT provide true power “regulation”.

An UPS has “active” circuits regulating output by monitoring and adjusting line conditions. It will “step up” sags and “step down” surges. They are not very expensive – you can pay more for a “pretty” power strip!

EVERY time a refrigerator (typically the most power hog in the home) cycles on and off, there are surges and sags, with a few “transient” spikes in between! Don’t forget hairdryers, toasters, microwaves, washers, TVs, etc.

I have two PCs, a 3.06P4HT and an XP3000+, two 17″ LCD monitors, and all my home network equipment on one 1250VA/670W UPS. This gives me over 1/2 hour of use, plenty of time to finish any immediate work and gracefully shutdown. Some new UPSs (yes – that is correct grammar, I checked!) control 2 PCs – I might look into that. It is important to note that I could not have this 2 PC and a single UPS setup with CRT monitors.

XP has native UPS support – but UPSs don’t need software control. I have an UPS on my HDTV and one on my HT receiver too – which nicely protects my speakers!

IMHO, an UPS is cheap insurance and you are foolish if you do not have one on each high value item!

BTW – The fact that England (or East Anglia, anyway) is already at 240VAC may be significant too – since most of the world is on 110 or 220, I bet I am right in assuming that the vast majority of power strips are designed with those voltages in mind – meaning 240 is already 20 volts out from the center of the envelope – not significant for spikes, but may affect surge protection – I’d make sure my strips were made specifically for the UK.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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Mark

Move to the UK!

We rarely get the sort of major lightning/thunderstorms which seem to be prevalent in the US, so very few people have (or need) UPS at home. Our 220V 50 Hz power is fairly clean, too.

AND we will soon get $2 for each of our

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So true, and sadly I had to lose over 300 USD in components before I learned my lesson.

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And the sad part is most people don’t use and UPS – and one capable of protecting a PC, LCD monitor, router, and Cable/DSL modem is under a $100 – not much more than a good power strip – and worth it.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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[indent]

---

An UPS, instead of (or at least before) a surge protector/power strip, also offers much greater protection for all out destruction from the power line.

---

[/indent]Amen to that. I lost a motherboard, RAM and network card in one system and also my DSL modem and router. Both stations were promptly protected by Belkin UPS units. Since that time I have been quite happy, having not lost a shred of data to power outages nor thunderstorms.

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I too second Al…

…BUT

In the meantime, for $0.00, you can backup your .pst (mail) files, all your data files (My Documents and subfolders), Password Safe, etc. to your second partition. Of course, that will only offer protection from “File” corruption and not “Disk” corruption. Adding a second drive to the other IDE controller surprisingly offers quit a bit of backup protection.

Complete PC destruction happens. Lightning, floods, theft, etc. So an image in a safe deposit box off-site is smart.

An UPS, instead of (or at least before) a surge protector/power strip, also offers much greater protection for all out destruction from the power line.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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I gotta second what Al says about the racks and the disks. I’ve twin 40g with 8 or so partitions between them, and one 80g (although you could use a smaller drive if you wanted) in a removable drive rack that I image to. Just about the best thing I’ve ever done. I pull out the rack after I burn the image and store it away from the PC. If something serious happens with the house or the weather, I’m gettin’ out with the kids, my wallet, and my drive!

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Hi Skitterbug,
Strange, they provide the reg key code in the confirmation email.
But I think you will find they ( then again, with your luck? ) provide very good tech support and will straighten out the code # for you.

The other partition should work out fine.

Bob

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Yeah, Skitterbug, of course Bob is right on. Just for curiosity, I went to my email files to check my purchase of True Image. I don’t know about you, but my transaction was via DigitalRiver and a lot of the text in the purchase confirmation message was a very light gray in color. Is it possible that you missed seeing the serial number down in and among all that gray text?

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Lots of information to digest! And questions to ask!!

Question #1 – If I want to use an internal ‘rack’ for a hard drive, this device will need to be attached in the same manner as a CD drive? Currently, I have a HD, Floppy, a zip jazz, Regular CD drive and a R/W drive. Now I know people may think I am crazy but the reason for all of this was simply experimentation!! So I will need to part with one of these to be able to put in a rack? Am I thinking correctly?

Question #2 – You mentioned backing up your HD over your LAN but it takes some time to do this? I am hardwired networked through a switch (more experimentation with stuff for the fun of it), so for now I could use True Image to backup my HD to my Win XP box? And then I could burn this image to a CD perhaps and have it for posterity?

Answer to the serial number problem: I have been checking back to my online order from time to time hoping that common sense would be for them to supply the serial number there with the download!! Sure enough, I just checked about 15 minutes ago and that is exactly what they did. I am off to see if it will install my software and after that, the fun begins!!

Don’t worry, I will probably be back with a bushel more questions!! Thanks to everyone for all the patience and interesting information!!

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Question #1: The floppy drive doesn’t enter into things. If the Zip Jazz drive is connected to one of your FOUR IDE connections, then yes, something would have to go. The second most important point is that you need an external bay so the tray for the hard drive can be removed. If you’re not inclined to give up either the Jazz drive or one of the two CDs, then it’s a moot point.

Question #2: If I understood what you said, and you have a 2nd computer on a LAN then yes, you’d be doing what I’m doing and may want to cancel question #1. If you make a backup image on a hard drive, I see little benefit in ALSO copying it to a CD, but that’s a matter of preference. You certainly could do so. The real reason I’ve never considered CDs in my backup equation is that it would take too many CDs to do image backups – “almost” as bad as the old floppy disk backup days. Just be aware of the SLOW speed when imaging to a network drive. I have a total of 10-11 gig on all partitions of this machine and it take 3.5 to 4 hours to image it all – across the home network.

Good luck and we’ll be seein’ ya…..

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Just for comparison vs a LAN, I have two image files each about 5~6 megs, one for each drive. Each one takes about 12 minutes to write with Norton Ghost. Probably 30 minutes total after reboot and such. Even so, an already established LAN would be much simpler than adding another drive (and less expensive).

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Question #1: The floppy drive doesn’t enter into things. If the Zip Jazz drive is connected to one of your FOUR IDE connections, then yes, something would have to go. The second most important point is that you need an external bay so the tray for the hard drive can be removed. If you’re not inclined to give up either the Jazz drive or one of the two CDs, then it’s a moot point.

Question #2: If I understood what you said, and you have a 2nd computer on a LAN then yes, you’d be doing what I’m doing and may want to cancel question #1. If you make a backup image on a hard drive, I see little benefit in ALSO copying it to a CD, but that’s a matter of preference. You certainly could do so. The real reason I’ve never considered CDs in my backup equation is that it would take too many CDs to do image backups – “almost” as bad as the old floppy disk backup days. Just be aware of the SLOW speed when imaging to a network drive. I have a total of 10-11 gig on all partitions of this machine and it take 3.5 to 4 hours to image it all – across the home network.

Good luck and we’ll be seein’ ya…..

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Lots of information to digest! And questions to ask!!

Question #1 – If I want to use an internal ‘rack’ for a hard drive, this device will need to be attached in the same manner as a CD drive? Currently, I have a HD, Floppy, a zip jazz, Regular CD drive and a R/W drive. Now I know people may think I am crazy but the reason for all of this was simply experimentation!! So I will need to part with one of these to be able to put in a rack? Am I thinking correctly?

Question #2 – You mentioned backing up your HD over your LAN but it takes some time to do this? I am hardwired networked through a switch (more experimentation with stuff for the fun of it), so for now I could use True Image to backup my HD to my Win XP box? And then I could burn this image to a CD perhaps and have it for posterity?

Answer to the serial number problem: I have been checking back to my online order from time to time hoping that common sense would be for them to supply the serial number there with the download!! Sure enough, I just checked about 15 minutes ago and that is exactly what they did. I am off to see if it will install my software and after that, the fun begins!!

Don’t worry, I will probably be back with a bushel more questions!! Thanks to everyone for all the patience and interesting information!!

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Yeah, Skitterbug, of course Bob is right on. Just for curiosity, I went to my email files to check my purchase of True Image. I don’t know about you, but my transaction was via DigitalRiver and a lot of the text in the purchase confirmation message was a very light gray in color. Is it possible that you missed seeing the serial number down in and among all that gray text?

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Hi Skitterbug,
Strange, they provide the reg key code in the confirmation email.
But I think you will find they ( then again, with your luck? ) provide very good tech support and will straighten out the code # for you.

The other partition should work out fine.

Bob

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That is a good question about how many beeps there actually are. I was thinking just three long beeps with pauses in between but now that I think about it, I was rattled enough that I just hit the shutdown button so I don’t know if it would have continued or not!! The next time I booted it, it started up normally and I haven’t shut it down since.

I appreciate all of your ideas [and Mark’s and Vikings33 too] and will implement them when I get my “image” made.

I took Viking33’s suggestion about True Image and decided to purchase it. But it seems like I can never just have anything work out easy!! They did not provide the serial number on the invoice!! I kept thinking then that they would include it in the confirmation email but Noooo, it wasn’t there either. And True Image won’t install without a serial number either. So I put in an email request yesterday and only just now received a ” we got your email and we are working on it” response!! Oh well………….and all I wanted to do was make a back up before something major really decided to happen. I do have all of my data (that I can think of that I need) copied over onto CDs but I wanted to start with the investigation.

Continuing saga in Skitterbug’s life………………… actually, I am lucky it isn’t something worse really! Oh, yes, I forgot to say that I actually only have one hard drive in this computer but I have it split into two volumns so maybe that will work for the image making? If I ever get it installed, then I may be back with more questions, if I run into something that stumps me some more! Hope you are all patient!! Thanks for being here!

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Make sure all the fans are turning – you might have to wait until the system cools down again and the bearings are sluggish. They should spin freely with a flick of your finger, no vibration, and minimal noise. Some BIOSes alarm on fan failure or on low fan speed. To save money, many manufacturers use cheap sleeve-bearing fans (an argument for home built). Since this board is 3+ years old, I assume the case fans and CPU fans are too.

I tried to find more about your beeps and 3 long is not listed anywhere – is it just 3? Could it be just a bunch of single longs that seem to come in threes? I found your mobo manual and the beeb codes are not listed there either. Beeb codes are handled through the Award BIOS. I found one reference that reported that Award uses the fewest beeb codes (like 2) and uses the display most of the time. It states the only time you will get any beeps is if the video card fails or for a RAM problem. Since you do have a display, I’m leaning towards RAM.

I would give the guts a good cleaning. I would pull and reseat the video card and the memory DIMMs. If you happen to have more than one memory stick, you might try running with just one, see if it still occurs, swapping and eliminating as necessary.

BTW – Shutting down at the powerstrip is not a good thing – but that is mainly due to disk drive corruption (as files are left open or only partially saved) – Windows and most other OSs – mainly those not hardcoded, don’t do well when not shutdown properly. Hardware, however is not affected (except very old HDs that need to be “parked”). Turning on the computer at the power switch is not the best way (the monitor should be turned on first so the video card can sync up to it), but it really does not hurt the PC either – assuming it is not flicked on and off like a kid and a light switch.

In other words – go tell the wife it was not her fault and apologize for blaming her! Then use the PCs age to justify rebuilding your PC with new motherboard, CPU, and memory, and a new HD. You can install your old drive as a second drive – that way you can still access your old data and copy the pertinent stuff to your new drive. It is easier than it sounds and you will have a much better understanding of your PC when done.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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Skitterbug,

True Image VERSION 7 is very easy to use and more user friendly than Version 6. My only question is, do you have another HD to send your Image TO, or do you just have a CD burner? It’s much easier to image to another HD. The only problem I would see with CD’s is that you may need to burn a few to make the complete image, depending on how much data you have to send to the image.
With Ver 7 you can image a complete drive, restore it, clone it to another HD or just restore individual files from an existing image.

Bob

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Skitterbug,

True Image VERSION 7 is very easy to use and more user friendly than Version 6. My only question is, do you have another HD to send your Image TO, or do you just have a CD burner? It’s much easier to image to another HD. The only problem I would see with CD’s is that you may need to burn a few to make the complete image, depending on how much data you have to send to the image.
With Ver 7 you can image a complete drive, restore it, clone it to another HD or just restore individual files from an existing image.

Bob

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Thanks Mark for the reply. I think I would like to make one complete back-up of the system before starting anything with it. I have followed the adventures of Bruce’s post 344793 and am contemplating a purchase of Acronis True Image V7. The only reason I hesitate is that I am a newbie in trying stuff like flashing “BIOS”, etc. and getting a back-up image to work (“Boo” to Ghost 2001 and my experience with trying to use it!). So I am wondering if I can use True Image as successfully and as easily as the group indicates this to be! I am surprised to see that it isn’t that expensive either if I can accomplish what I want to do with it – make a complete image of my NT Box for safe keeping!! I certainly have wasted enough $$ on software that didn’t do as expected!!

BTW, I haven’t shut my system down since getting it to reboot and I won’t either until I get that image completed!! Then I will start the investigation of the ‘beeps’!!

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Seems to be a Biostar mainboard. The beep codes could mean a lot of things, they are not consistent even from the same BIOS vendor. Check first with BIOStar and see if they have any information.

Update the BIOS and see if it corrects the problem. Then try removing all hardware except for the video card and one stick of memory and see if the beeps persist. Move the memory to another slot if it still beeps.

If you go through all those steps and it still acts up, then I would consider a replacement mainboard instead of troubleshooting much further. Even if you determine the source of the beeps, there may be little if anything that you can do about it.

As for a complete bootable backup, since it is NT I would not bother if there is a replacement mainboard in your future. NT does not like having the mainboard changed. As long as you have your data, a complete backup is redundant and you can always rebuild the operating system – a chance to “clean house” if you will.

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