What does this beep code mean?

Question

When I wanted to start my laptop today (an Acer Aspire 8920G), the laptop started beeping. I know this beeping is a POST error code, but I can not figure out which one it is. The motherboard of the laptop is manufactured by Phoenix, so I looked up these POST codes: http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/phoenixbeep.htm

The beeping is in the form 1-1-1-1 (short beeps, repeating and even without ending), but this code is not mentioned by the manufacturer. Does anybody know what could be the problem?

I don't know if it is relevant, but since a couple of months the CMOS battery was degrading. The laptop couldn't keep track of the time. Maybe a failing CMOS battery could be the problem?

Solution 1

Do you get the same beep code if you boot without the memory sticks ? Have you tried taking out the HDD and CD drives and booting without those too ?

If the HDD has developed a short circuit somewhere or the electrics have died, it will cause issues.

Solution 2

From the Aspire 8920 Series Service Guide :

Battery critical LOW
In this situation BIOS will issue 4 short beeps then shut down system, no message will show

So I think that your battery is dead or dying. Try a replacement battery and see if it helps.

As you have tried booting without the battery and had the same problem, the never-ending 1-1 beeps are probably something else.

The other power-related item is the Power Supply Unit, although with a bad PSU there would be no POST at all. If you can hear the fan(s) working then it's not the PSU.

This leaves probably only the motherboard or the RAM, as for an error on a peripheral you would get a message on the screen. This is of course only a guess; only a professional with the right tools and replacement parts can correctly diagnose such a problem.

The most you can do yourself is clean up really well the motherboard and all contacts and visually inspect all circuits and capacitors. Take out the RAM, clean the contacts, and reseat. If you have more RAM sticks than the minimum for your motherboard, try only putting back that minimum in the right configuration and rotate if the problem occurs.

I don't know the age of your laptop, but as the Acer Aspire 8920 was released in 2008 it might not be worthwhile to pay for a professional.

Comments

[Doktoro Reichard]

From experience with desktop PC's a degraded CMOS battery isn't a real stopper... Short beeps usually indicate that something somewhere is very wrong (i.e. graphics board not connected, CPU overheating, no disk available, etc)

[K7AAY]

acer.custhelp.com/app/chat/pre_chat_launch for Acer chat support may be your best choice since that five year old machine's been sunsetted and no longer appears on their support website. However, you can check a few things things quickly: 1] power supply voltage? (Should match what's printed on the supply +/- 0.5V) 2] USB output voltage on and off the power supply? (5.0VDC) 3] Remove and reseat the memory sticks.

[Jaspack]

How can I control the power supply voltage and the USB output voltage?For the moment I can not access the bios. I have already removed and reseated the memory sticks.

[Lawrence]

Do you get the same beep code if you boot without the memory sticks ? Have you tried taking out the HDD and CD drives and booting without those too ?

[Jaspack]

I have done this, but I always kept the HDDs in because I didn't think it would be possible for HDD's to produce such beeping noises. When I took out the HDD's the system booted normally from the cd. I still find it strange that a broken hdd prevents the bios from loading. Thank you for your help. If you provide me an answer I will accept it.

[Carl B]

@Jaspack - So you solved the problem? It was the hard drive?

[Jaspack]

Indeed it was the hard drive, the laptop works just fine now.

[Jaspack]

I tried to boot the laptop without the battery (with the AC adapter), but the laptop produces the same error code. The error code is also repeated, it produces the short beeps, but continuously until I power down the unit.

[harrymc]

See my edit above.

[Jaspack]

Thank you for the information. As I stated earlier in a comment (see above), I have tried to boot the laptop without RAM, CD Drive or HDDs and restarted it with another part until I got the beeping noise. It turns out that the HDD is broken and was producing the beeping noise (instead of the well known clicking sound). I did not expect an hdd to make this kind of noise, so I didn't pay much attention to it up to now. Nonetheless, thank you for the good information.

[harrymc]

I find it incredible myself. The problem probably occurred when the BIOS tried to identify the disk (if it was on auto-detect). Your BIOS might have an update, but my advice is "don't fix it if it ain't broke".

[Jaspack]

as mentioned before, it was indeed the hdd, thanks for the advice

[Jaspack]

FYI: after googling further on this issue, i found out that the problems are caused by the read/write heads in the hdd being stuck to the platters. For anyone with the same problem and the correct tools, this can be an easy fix, you can open the hdd and get the heads from the platters manually.