BIOS Beep Code

What is a BIOS Beep Code?

When you power on a computer the BIOS immediately takes control of the computer and performs the P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test). At the end of the POST the computer will play an audible 'BEEP' through either the PC's internal speaker of through speakers attached to the sound card (if you have a built-in sound chip). If the POST completed successfully without detecting any problems with then system will play a single short beep to let you know the test is complete and the computer will continue to startup and load the operating system.

If during the POST the BIOS detects a problem it will normally display a visual error message on the monitor explaining what the problem is. However, if a problem is detected before the BIOS initializes the video card, or a video card is not present or not detected then the BIOS will play several 'BEEPS' through the speaker to let you know there is a problem. Depending on the type of the BIOS you have the BIOS may play beeps in a specific pattern to indicate what the problem is, or play the same beep a number of times indicating the problem. It is very important that you pay close attention to the number and/or pattern of the beeps your computer plays on startup.

Below is a Tip n Tricks table of the most common AMI, Phoenix and Award BIOS beep codes.

AMI (American Megatrends International) BIOS Beep Codes.

AMI BIOS uses beeps of the same length and pitch. The error is displayed as a number of beeps. For example, 4 beeps indicated a timer failure.

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Award BIOS Beep Codes

Award BIOS uses beeps of varying duration. A long beep will typically last for 2 seconds while a short beep will last only 1 second. Award BIOS also uses beeps of different frequency to indicate critical errors. If an Award BIOS detects that the CPU is overheating it may play a high pitched repeating beep while the computer is running.

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Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes

Phoenix BIOS uses beep code patterns to indicate problems. In the table below the '-' indicates a brief pause between beeps. Example: 1 - 1 - 2 would sound like BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

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XP Tips n Tricks

WINDOWS TIPS COLLECTION

Display legal notice on startup:
Wanna tell your friends about the do's and dont's in your computer when they login in your absence. Well you can do it pretty easily by displaying a legal notice at system start up.REGEDIT[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]"legalnoticecaption"="enter your notice caption""legalnoticetext"="enter your legal notice text"

Automatic Administrator Login:
Well here's the trick which you can use to prove that Windows XP is not at all secure as multi-user operating system. Hacking the system registry from any account having access to system registry puts you in to the administrator account.REGEDIT 4[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]"AutoAdminLogon"="1"

No Shutdown:
Wanna play with your friends by removing the shutdown option from start menu in their computer.Just hack it down !!!RegeditHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer"NoClose"="DWORD:1"

Menu Delays:
Another minor and easy tweak to remove any delay from menus sliding out. For this you will need to use regedit (open regedit by going to Start -> Run..., then typing 'regedit' and pressing enter). The key you need to change is located in HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. The actual key is called MenuShowDelay - all you have to do is change the value to 0. Remember, you will have to re-boot your computer for this tweak to take effect.

Automatically Kill Programs At Shutdown:
Don't you hate it when, while trying to shut down, you get message boxes telling you that a program is still running? Making it so that Windows automatically kills applications running is a snap. Simply navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop directory in the Registry, then alter the key AutoEndTasks to the value 1.

Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer
Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don’t want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screen saver. To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer: Right-click the desktop. Point to New, and then click Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following: rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation Click Next. Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose any name you like. Click Finish.

You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll). To change the icon: Right click the shortcut and then select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button. In the Look for icons in this file text box, type: Shell32.dll. Click OK. Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.

Speed up Internet Explorer 6 Favorites:
For some reason, the Favorites menu in IE 6 seems to slow down dramatically sometimes--I've noticed this happens when you install Tweak UI 1.33, for example, and when you use the preview tip to speed up the Start menu. But here's a fix for the problem that does work, though it's unclear why: Just open a command line window (Start button -> Run -> cmd) and type sfc, then hit ENTER. This command line runs the System File Checker, which performs a number of services, all of which are completely unrelated to IE 6. But there you go: It works.

Aspi
WinXP does not come with an Aspi layer. So far almost 90% of the problems with WinXP and CD burning software are Aspi layer problems. After installing WinXP, before installing any CD burning software do a few things first: 1. Open up "My computer" and right click on the CD Recorder. If your CD recorder was detected as a CD recorder there will be a tab called "Recording". On this tab uncheck ALL of the boxes. apply or OK out of it and close my computer. 2. Next install the standard Aspi layer for NT. Reboot when asked. That's is. after the reboot you can install any of the currently working CD recording applications with no problems. If using CD Creator do not install direct CD or Take two as they are currently incompatible but Roxio has promised a fix as soon as XP is released.

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Dell Diagnostics

How to: Run Dell Diagnostics on a C6XX and D6XX Laptop.
This post will assist determining whether a hard drive hardware failure exits when troubleshooting laptops. This is not a definitive indication of a good hard drive, but if an error is indicated as described below, the hard drive is definitely defective.

Tips n Tricks to run Dell diagnostics as follows:

1. Turn on the laptop.

2. At the Dell splash screen, depress when prompted in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The system displays “Preparing one-time boot menu”.

3. At the next screen, arrow down to “Diagnostics” and press .

4. Pre-boot System Assessment starts and typically completes in less than 5 minutes. One user input is required (enter “Y” to indicate video tests passed).

5. Hard drive failures are characterized by “DST Short Status Test” failures. Note the error code.

6. If the system assessment completes without errors, a message will typically be displayed that “no diagnostic utility partition found”. Either enter “C” to cancel and then any key to reboot or simply turn off the system

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Explorer.exe

Missing Desktop Icons & Taskbar

INFORMATION
Windows Explorer manages the Windows Graphical Shell including the Start menu, taskbar, desktop, and File Manager. By removing this process the graphical interface for Windows will disappear. This program is important for the stable and secure running of your computer and should not be terminated.

Missing can occur before or after the boot process. 'explorer.exe' file may be deleted or corrupted in both scenario. This post mainly focused on missing icons and taskbar after the boot process.

Few Tips n Tricks to solve the issue

i) Restore explorer.exe file manually. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del. Go to Application TAB and select ‘New Task’. Type explorer.exe and click OK to restore manually

ii)This issue may occur if the Norton CleanSweep program was installed. Pls refer http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314867

iii) You can also try 'system restore' to a date before you had the explorer.exe problem. If it was long ago, you might not want to do it because it looses all the data saved after the restore point chosen.

If you don't have the taskbar, use Task Manager
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL. File>New Task (Run). Type C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\rstrui.exe

OR if you have taskbar, Start>Programs>Accessories>System tool>System retore

iv) Copy the 'explorer.exe' file from 'C:/WINDOWS' folder from any working/healthy(eg., your friend's)computer and paste it in your 'C:/WINDOWS' directory and Restart your system

v) To restore windows ability to gain access to explorer.exe and iexplore .exe please remove the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File
Execution Options\explorer.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File
Execution Options\iexplorer.exe

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Have You Seen Scribus?

Scribus is an award winning open source page layout program! Open source means the authors of the program have released the source code on their site so that other programmers can add, make changes and further develop the application! This is great news for those of us who are struggling to get quality page layout software without coughing up the hundreds of dollars for InDesign or Quark Express! FREE IS GOOD! It runs on Windows/OS X/Linux and even OS/2! If you haven't given it a show, please check it out! Get Scribus here!

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Griffin's PowerMate - Sweet Gadgety Goodness!

This...is the sweetest gadget I've ever laid my hands on. Griffin just makes the coolest products ever. It's almost as if Apple gave them some pointers on design here. This particular gem is called the Powermate. It is a highly polished, heavy aluminum glowing USB dial/knob that can be tailored to any applications for many different uses. Photoshop users can zoom in and out of photos by turning the dial, movie producers can whisk back and forth between frames and clips in movie editing suites, DJ's can control pitch in their favourite music production software and Listeners can change the volume or mute their music the the flick of a wrist. Niiice.

What's more, this thing is pure sweetness. It's glowing blue base pulses when your computer goes to sleep. Do you need anymore reason to buy this? Available in charcoal (gunmetal) color and steel natural aluminum color. Mine's on it's way!

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Cueator 3.0 - Genius!

For those of you who know what it's like to download a file in .Bin format only to find the cue file corrupted, this little gem will make you happy. Although the process of creating a .cue file isn't rocket science, this little program takes your .bin file and creates a .cue file to match it and drops it in the same directory allowing you to go ahead and burn that image to disc with no problems! Nice....Even better, it's free!

GET CUEATOR 3.0!!

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