Computer beeps at startup..

Hey, I have a brand new Inspiron 518 (I know its a desktop, but no-one reads that forum and this question isnt really desktop specific).

Anyways, when I hit the power button it emits a single beep about a second after, according to dells manual this indicates an error, but the computer runs fine and I dont see anything in event viewer. I read somewhere that a single beep indicates a succesful bios check, where-as the manual says it indicates a failed bios checksum.

Anyone know anything about this?


-Thanx

P.S., as usual I am hearing occasional hard drive noises, I noticed the desktop is in "balanced mode" for some reason, could the power profile be "parking" the heads after a while of use?

 

Actually one short beep on power on generally means a passed POST. You're probably fine.

 

Lol thanx I hope so. I actually found the error section of event viewer, and for a 5 day old computer there ALOT of warnings, but alot are "print spooler" and I think thats cause I installed a printer with the wrong drivers, I disconnected the printer anyways..

I also see some "Distributed COM" error events...err...?

Also seem to be some "servicing" errors, something about updates...

 

I wouldnt mind some more info on this beep thing, ive seen the question asked in one or two other places for an Inspirion 530 with no definitive answer..

 

Like Hep! stated: If it's just a short single beep, it's normal. Just the machine saying 'Everything is A-OK. I'll continue to boot the OS'. Now if it was a long beep or a multitude of beeps, there'd be a problem somewhere.

 

Here's a list of all the various bios manufacturers POST beep codes:
http://www.technick.net/public/code/cp_dpage.php?aiocp_dp=guide_beep_codes

It's worth noting that often in the bios you can turn on/off "post test beep" or "power on beep" or somesuch, which is a single beep saying "I'm alive!".

Despite most of the list i posted having an actual error code for 1 beep, if everything works it's almost certainly just the "i'm alive" beep, rather then a dram error or somesuch.

I've only run into other codes a few times (i built/fixed computers for a living in the late 90's), and only one of those actually got anywhere with booting. Generally if there is a post error something is quite dead and it's beeping because the screen won't light to give you the code in text.



Now that i've spewed a mini-essay here that says pretty much the same thing as the above people, i'm going to eat breakfast.

 

Lol thanx..I just dont know which 'bios' I have lol..

Whatever Ill try to assume its normal, im just one of those pessimistic types..

Oh BTW, the reason I got worried originally is cause I read in the instruction manual which actually gave a table of what beep codes mean that "one beep" means a "bios checksum failure" which is what freaked me out originally, but I saw at least 2 other people in Dell Community Forums with similar computers that also beep once at startup, so either we are the 3 stooges or Dell doesnt describe/know its own beep codes...

Then again Dell doesn't make the hardware, so they might be mis-informed..