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Inspiron 570 continuous beep on boot and freeze during POST
HI
Long time no see, friends.
My beloved I570 is acting up, probably some sort of Alzheimer or similar.
Here is what happened, will try to be short.
Initially I was using PCIE SATA card to attach 4 more HDDs to the system, then SATA card died (already second in this PC), so I decided to remove all extra HDDs sitting in the case.
Did all standard precautions, including grounding etc. In order to remove HDDs I had to clear MOBO of a lot of cables and remove GPU. Long story short, after I put everything back together and attempted to boot up, I got long continuous beep and WIN7 sliding bar freezes almost at the end, no further activity, just a long beep. BIOS was not accessible as well.
So, I removed GPU, pull out MOBO 24 pin PSU cable, removed CMOS battery, did multiple 30 sec press and hold power button thing, left everything dead completely for about 30 minutes - completely reset system clock and all BIOS settings to default. Also, swap RAM (I have 2 sticks in slots 3 and 4) places. Put everything back, fired up, went to BIOS and fixed everything, DONE, rebooted and everything went back to normal.
Multiple restarts were OK, did also a few cold reboots with some minutes apart - all seems to be normal. Turn it off for a day or so.
Now problem is back again, like nothing happened.
Please, help if someone actually can. I checked multiple thread here and all over the WEB. My keyboard is clean, RAM was resettled, all connectors are firmly attached. This doesn't make any sense.
My last resort would be changing CMOS battery, will do it today later, when I purchase new CR2032 batteries. I also noticed that CMOS battery slot doesn't hold battery tight, battery is a bit loose, moving a bit in the slot, could it be also a problem?
So, what else can kill boot up if it was running well after restarts, but would not POST and produce continuous beep after been disconnected (turned off) for a prolonged period of time.
Any other ideas?
Thanks in advance, as usual.
robert p
9.4K Posts
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October 10th, 2016 08:00
Hi kisianik,
Thanks for posting.
The single beep indicates a possible system board or BIOS ROM failure. The most reliable method to repair this would be to replace the motherboard. If you're under warranty, please contact Tech Support to troubleshoot over the phone. If you're not covered by warranty, you may wish to replace it yourself or have a computer repair shop near you do it.
kisianik
893 Posts
0
October 10th, 2016 18:00
Thanks, but no thanks.
This basically mean that this is it.
OK, what happens so far.
New battery did not change anything and I was ready to say good buy to Inspiron, but I decided to do last attempt with minimum attached devices.
I left inside only 1 RAM stick (in module 4), bootable SSD, simple keyboard and simple mouse, and attached only one (usually running 2) monitor to VGA slot.
Pressed power button, next got CMOS Checksum Error 2a, but this time keyboard F2 responded and I was able to load BIOS, changed settings, and was able to load Win7.
Rebooted and the same result - CMOS Checksum Bad Error 2a.
What is next?
Should I attempt to reflash BIOS with current A05 version or last one A06? I am already created bootable CD with A05...
Basically, now WIN 7 is loading only through BIOS step and with minimal attached devices.
Any valuable help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT. My BIOS is AMI v 02.63.
kisianik
893 Posts
0
October 10th, 2016 21:00
I am back.
This is crazy. Problem solved, very weird.
Once one exits the BIOS, there are 2 options to do so, press ESC next Save OK or press F10, OK and automatic reboot.
For what ever reason I was using ESC before, and now used F10 option and everything is OK with minimal devices.
Will attach everything back tonight and report back tomorrow.
kisianik
893 Posts
0
October 11th, 2016 11:00
Closing post
Everything seems to be back to normal. I analyzed my steps and it is still weird.
So, first of all, how it all started - I removed bunch of unnecessary devices from inside and continuous beep glitch has started. I could not activate F2 or F12, beeping started before I could open BIOS, keyboard was working.
First I did is to remove CMOS battery and MOBO 24 pin power cable, left system overnight (also press and hold power button for 30 sec) to drain all residual electricity.
It did not help. So, next I created BIOS bootable CD with my current BIOS. At the same time, I removed all hardware from PC, left only essential for PC to boot up, and I attached basic keyboard and mouse (no drivers needed). After the insertion, boot went past Dell logo and I got CMOS CheckSum Error [2a], however at this time F2 and F12 were still unresponsive. I did reboot multiple times trying to understand what is next, then miracle happened - F2 activated and I could open BIOS (and change default setting to mine).
When saving setting, it is important to follow exactly what it is recommend - Press F10 to save not ESC (what I did and my agony prolonged for another day)..
After this I basically loaded all my harware back into the PC and everything is working as before.
So, for now everything is perfect.
I apologize for distracting PMs I sent to a few Rockstar members of this Forum asking for help, but I was very close to ditch my Inspiron to garbage and I did not see any constructive and helpful advises helping to understand my issue.
Thanks everyone for the attention.
Good luck to all of us here.
I am out.
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
43.7K Posts
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October 11th, 2016 12:00
Ah-ha...user error, but at least you got it sorted. :emotion-4:
Will all that tinkering, did you actually install a fresh motherboard battery or did you just pull and reinstall the old one?
I suspect the old battery may be weak and having trouble holding BIOS settings so you got all the checksum errors. You might consider a new battery, assuming you haven't done that, and in the mood to tinker some more...
kisianik
893 Posts
0
October 11th, 2016 21:00
HI Ron
The weirdest part is that new battery (I actually tried that) did not help and I placed the old one back, which is not so old, around 3 years or so, not the original one, I think. What helped is the insertion of BIOS bootable CD. CD did not open, but somehow it helped to pass Dell logo point and brought to Cheksum error page, after a few attempts (rebooting with BIOS flash CD inserted) to use a keyboard, suddenly F2 activated, user error was after this.
Actually, I remember now, that sometime ago I had similar experience with another Dell PC, cannot recall the nature of the problem, but I remember creating or just using some type of bootable CD, which did not work, but some other options activated after PC started reading CD.
It looked something like this - PC started loading files from bootable CD or DVD, then it freezed, a few attempts activated the next step, then everything went smooth. Sound weird, I know. so this is second similar situation.
Considering how this MOBO was abused, mean overclocked, I know that the end will eventually come earlier than with regular PC, but not this time, yet. If similar situation will happened again, I will replace CMOS battery for sure, but now - no way (i have to remove GPU to do this).
I am keeping this PC as a backup one, and point of entry for whatever dangerous, plus it is stable Win7.
I am planning to do clean install of Win10 on my newer, self build, 4790K PC when everything sorted out as I need DX12, which is the only reason to upgrade for me. Win 8.1 with ClassicShell is a perfect solution, actually ClassicShell also works with Win10, making it looks like Win7, much more convenient (I use it on my Win10 HP laptop).
Anyway, thanks Ron for coming, really appreciated.