Why is Computer Beeping?

Why is Computer Beeping?

People might have come across beeps some time while using an old computer. Beeps might occur if there are any problems with power, BIOS, CPU, memory and video. In order to trace any problem existing with the above mentioned components in the system, the computer will carry out power-on self testing (POST). POST is used to check if any disorder lies with any computer part. Only if there is no problem with any of these components can the computer get booted successfully and initialize the operating system. Otherwise, beeps will occur indicating some disability in booting the system.
The errors that occur when we boot the system will be difficult to be debugged. In order to minimize the problem, it is necessary to count the number of beeps and the sequence of their occurrence. When we boot the computer, on the top of the first screen is displayed the type of BIOS (basic input output system) available in that system. Based on the presence of BIOS types like Award, Phoenix and AMI the beep sequence and number indicate the various kinds of errors in each of the types. For instance one beep followed by two followed by another two in Award type of BIOS indicate that it is a video error and the video screen could not be initialized properly by BIOS. Any other types of beeps in the Award type BIOS might be due to the RAM problem.
In Phoenix type BIOS, RAM failure is said to have occurred when the sequence of the beeps are like 1-3-4-1, 1-3-4-3. If the beep sequence is 1-2-2-3 then the problem might be due to BIOS ROM Checksum error. In AMI type of BIOS, five beeps indicate the error with the processor, eleven beeps indicate the bad cache memory, three beeps indicate base 64K memory failure and six beeps indicate 8042 ‘šgate A20failure and so on. Repeated long beeps indicate memory problem. The errors vary for different sequences of beeps and many more reasons exist for different number of beeps.