Chapter 4
47
Beep Codes
Beep codes are used by the BIOS to indicate a serious or fatal error to the end user. Beep codes are used
when an error occurs before the system video has been initialized. Beep codes will be generated by the
system board speaker, commonly referred to as the PC speaker.
AMIBIOS displays the checkpoints in the bottom right corner of the screen during POST. This display method
is limited, since it only displays checkpoints that occur after the video card has been activated.
Not all computers using AMIBIOS enable this feature. In most cases, a checkpoint card is the best tool for
viewing AMIBIOS checkpoints.
Beep Symptom
Cause and Description
One short beep
System is ready.
System is OK.
Continuous one long beep
Memory not installed or memory error.
One long beep and two short beeps then
repeat.
VGA not installed or VGA error.
Graphics card error/not installed, graphics card memory
error or graphics card BIOS checksum error.
One long beep then two short beep
BIOS damaged.
BIOS is damaged, BIOS POST jumps to Boot Block to
execute the default procedures.
Two short beeps
CMOS damaged.
CMOS checksum error or CMOS battery loss occurs.
