Dimension 8200 beeps after being turned off for 6 hours

If you haven't accidentally set some auto-wakeup feature in BIOS setup, maybe the battery on the motherboard needs replacing ??

Ron

Thanks for your reply. I think I've figured out a way to check if the battery is giving me problems. I've set the computer clock ahead 6 hours. Now it should start beeping before I go to bed if the problem is related to a wake up feature based on the clock. It should wake me up again at 6:00 tomorrow morning if the battery is running low after 6 hours. If that happens I'll replace the battery.

Norm

zzzzz.....

Just an update on my problem. I set the computer clock ahead 7 hours to see if the beeping was triggered by some task related to the computer clock time. That didn't work and I was once again awakened this morning at 6:00 AM by the computer beeping. So I have just finished replacing the small battery to see if the beeping was some kind of warning that the battery was getting low. Tomorrow morning I'll find out if that was the problem. While I had the computer open I looked for the small speaker on the motherboard that would produce the beeps with the thought of disconnecting it if all else fails, but couldn't find anything that looked like a speaker.

Norm

Norm,
I wouldn't disconnect the speaker even if you find it. Might start causing other error messages to appear.

I'm betting it's just the battery...but I won't go to Vegas with that bet. Post back and let us know if that's the solution. If all else fails, ear plugs! ;)

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 04-05-2006 06:25 PM

Well, it wasn't the battery. The computer, with a new battery installed, woke me up again this morning at 6:00 am. I'm going to try unplugging my power strip tonight and see if it still happens with no power at all to the computer.

A friend suggested checking the "wake-on LAN" setting in the bios and set it to "off". He thought our ISP might be refreshing at 6:00 am and this might be triggering something in my computer. I was able to use F2 to get into the bios on startup ok, then the keyboard stopped responding once I was in the bios screen. So I can't use the arrow keys to scroll through the bios and check the settings.

Another possibility occurred to me. We have a wireless network set up at our house and I wondered if something at a neighbor's house could trigger my computer at 6:00 am over the wireless network.

Instead of turning the computer on this morning, I let the it keep beeping to see what would happen. It stopped after approximately a minute. That's about how long the noise lasted as I turned the computer on the last few mornings. That makes me think that turning the computer on actually didn't affect the noise.

Norm

Sorry it wasn't the battery. Said I wasn't going to Vegas with that bet. :(

If this is USB keyboard, try a different USB port on rear of the tower. Typcially only one rear USB port is active before XP loads. You may have to try all of them to find the active one. Or borrow a PS/2 keyboard.

If your wireless network isn't encryted and password protected, you have more trouble then just having it beep at 6AM! So make sure it's secure, ASAP. If it's your ISP doing something at 6AM and causing 'wake on LAN', then it should happen no matter what time the PC clock says, so might be a way to test that hypothesis.

Is it possible your utility company is switching power grids at 6AM and the momentary power drop is being sensed by the PC as a power failure? Some Dell BIOS have options for what to do on recovery from power failure, so when you do get into BIOS make sure it's set to "do nothing" on recovery from power failure. Turning off the power strip would be a way to test that assumption.

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 04-06-200606:53 PM

My computer woke me up again this morning at 6:00 with a series of beeps. This time I had the powerstrip unplugged from the wall so there was no power at all to the computer except for the small cmos battery inside.

I also found out why my keyboard wouldn't work while I was in bios. I searched the bios forum and found a posting where someone's usb camera card reader caused this problem when it was plugged in. Sure enough, I unplugged my camera card reader and was able to check the bios. My wake up setting is set to off in the bios so I think that's not my problem.

Tonight I'm going to remove the antenna from my wireless card and see if that might solve my problem. The problem is not coming from some setting or task on my computer because I've tried changing the computer clock setting, and it still beeped at 6:00 am. It's not coming through the power cord because I've tried disconnecting that. The only thing left that I can think of is the wireless card.

Maybe the thing is haunted, lol.

Norm

That really is weird. No A/C but it beeps anyway? I don't suppose you have an uninterruptable power supply, do you? How can the WiFi card get power if the PC is unplugged?? Maybe you should pull the whole card out to test that, not just the antenna.

If somebody is managing to get into your network, you better fix that because your system is wide open to hacking, ID theft etc.

Know an exorcist?

Ron

Well, I don't think it's the wireless network. I removed the antenna from the wireless card last night and got a warning that the computer could no longer find my network, which is what I wanted. The rotten thing woke me up again this morning at 6:00. Too bad I'm retired and don't need an alarm clock, it would make a fool proof alarm if I wanted to get up at 6:00.

This morning I went into the bios and changed the time there instead of in windows. I set it for 5:55 and then turned the computer off. I waited for about 15 minutes but it never beeped for me. For some reason it's triggered at 6:00 in the morning no matter what the computer clock says.

Maybe I should try removing the cmos battery and unplugging the power cord to the computer. If it still beeps after that I might be able to get it patented, lol.

I've wondered if others have this same thing happening but don't know it because they are smart enough not to put their computers in the bedroom. It only beeps for about a minute and you would never know it if you weren't near the computer at the time. My wife was up at 6:00 this morning so she sat by her computer from 5:50 to 6:10 but her computer didn't make any noise. Our computers are linked with the wireless cards so it seems that it's not related to the wireless system, but rather something on my particular computer.

I guess in a way it is kind of a comical problem, but I'd sure like to figure out why it's happening. Not only so I can sleep in again, but just because I'm curious as to what's happening to cause it.

Norm

Norm,

This is totally bizzare. Are we sure the sound is coming from the PC and not from some peripheral like a printer that's attached? Are any USB items connected that might have a timer/clock? Or is there an alarm clock in the vicinity that's set for 6AM? Maybe someone trying to make you crazy?

Try this, unplug from the wall, remove the battery and press/hold the ON/OFF button on the tower for ~15 sec to discharge any residual current in the CMOS. Now leave it without battery and unplugged overnight. If you tell me it still beeps, I'll loan you a sledge hammer. ;)

If it doesn't beep, insert the battery and try leaving unplugged one more night.

Ron

Ron,

That's my plan for tonight. I'm going to unplug the power cord, disconnect anything else from the computer, open it up, and pull the battery out. If it beats all logic and still beeps tomorrow morning, it will be open on my desk and I can get up and put my ear to it and pinpoint where the noise is coming from. But I really think I'll be able to sleep in tomorrow.

When I got up and listened carefully to it a couple of mornings ago, the beeping seemed to come from inside the upper area of the computer tower. Maybe that's where the internal speaker is located on the board.

Norm

Ron,

Boy, is my face red. I found my problem and it wasn't the computer. It was....a thermometer.

I have an battery powered indoor-outdoor thermometer at my desk on a shelf just over the computer. Last night I unplugged my power strip, opened up the computer and pulled the battery, and unplugged everything from the computer. Then I unplugged everything on my desk like the phone and the clock. I was looking it over to make sure I didn't miss anything when my eyes lit on the thermometer. I remembered that it also shows date and time along with the tempratures. I dug out the manual for it and found that it also includes an alarm feature, and sure enough, it was on. I must have bumped the button when I reset it for daylight savings. So I finally got to sleep in this morning.

I feel really dumb, but I did learn a lot about my computer in the process anyway.

Thanks for all your suggestions. The last one about unplugging everything actually did lead to me finding the thermometer while I was doing it.

Norm

Norm,
And I was beginning to believe you'd found a way to power your PC without electricity! Think how rich/famous you almost were. :)

Well at least it was a learning experience and you finally found the noise maker. My offer to loan you a sledge hammer is still available.

Ron