[Novalug] Re: Novalug Digest, Vol 16, Issue 27

[Roger W. Broseus]

Jay,

I'm guessing the beeps may not be coming from the bios. FYI info about 
about bios beep codes:
    http://www.amptron.com/html/bios.beepcodes.html
(scroogle is ur frin - searched for "bios beep codes" - this helped me 
once in diagnosing a problem at boot)

Fishing for possibilities, since you are running SuSE, you probably have 
a KDE interface and I recall seeing a configuration gui for sounds or 
something of the sort to see when beeps get issued by/for various 
programs / notifications / etc. You might take a look at that as an aid 
to deciphering the mystery.

Roger W. Broseus - Linux User
    Email: RogerB at bronord.com
    Web Site: www.bronord.com

novalug-request at calypso.tux.org wrote:
(
note the [snip]s)
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:04:47 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Jay Hart" <jhart at kevla.org>
> Subject: [Novalug] perplexing hardware problem
> To: ma-linux at calypso.tux.org, novalug at calypso.tux.org
> Message-ID: <59205.192.168.1.20.1202663087.squirrel at email.kevla.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Scenario: Computer fully powered, running fine, no apparent problems. First
> using OpenSuse 10.2, then 10.3.
>
> Symptom: For about a year now my computer will give two quick beeps, via the
> onboard speaker, when running normally.
>
> Suspected Problem / Diagnostics / Troubleshooting efforts:
>
> I suspected some sort of high temp spike in the CPU was causing this, so I let
> the CPU run in idle state for several hours in BIOS mode and came to the
> conclusion that normal state CPU temp was around 50-51C, so I set the alarm at
> 55C figuring this would trigger the two beeps.
>
> I then installed gkrellm to monitor the temp real-time, and if I happened to
> be using my computer during a two-beep event, I could quickly see what the CPU
> temp was.  I've been running gkrellm for about 2-3 months, but it wasn't until
> yesterday that I actually saw the temp at 55C or higher when a two-beep event
> occurred. The temp was 55C very briefly, then returned to normal.
>
> So, this led me to further believe that the two events were related, I would
> get a two-beep event, when CPU temp was 55C or higher.
>
> So last night I wrote a very simple perl script that would basically print out
> the value of a number after incrementing.  Script below:
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl
> print "start loading";
> $a = 0;
> $b = 0;
> while ($a < 2000000) {
>   $b = $a += 1;
>   print "$b\n";
> }
>
> I figured this would spike CPU utilization so that the temp would increase and
> I could watch gkrellm, and when the temp approached 55C, I should get my
> two-beeps.
>
> When I ran this script, the temp increased from a steady state value of
> 50-51C, to 56-57C, BUT, I got no beeps.  Tried it three times, same response,
> basically no beeps produced. Increased the count to 4 millions, to give the
> CPU some steady state time at the higher workload, with same results.
>
> So, now I'm not sure if this issue is temperature related.
>
> I don't like hardware mysteries, so now think I should look at other causes.
>
> If I slow down the CPU fan, all I get is one long continuous beep, so I don't
> think its this component.
>
> I've never had any kernel panics, or anything like that, so I don't suspect a
> memory problem.  Oh, I've changed out video cards, both using the same AGP
> slot, so I don't think its video card specifically related.
>
> Any suggestions????
>
> TIA,
>
> Jay Hart