The Start-up Beep on PC's

[Nz17]

I know this is a small thing, but I really miss the startup beeps which PC's used to make after a successful BIOS POST. It was like the happy short sound that let you know everything was A-OK. Today's silent startups are fast, but I miss the *beep*.

[Flojomojo]

The solution is pretty simple -- get a Mac.
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/apple-mac-startup-sound/

[Jorpho]

Don't they still beep? I thought they did.

I have especially fond memories of my first 286, whose fan would let out a distinctive little whine when it started up; then the hard drive would rattle audibly, then the 5.25" drive and 3.5" drives would each buzz twice (with their own distinctive frequencies), and then the computer would beep. Now even hard drives barely make any noise.

[Tanooki]

I don't think much of them have beeped in awhile. The last desktop I owned was from around 2007 (still have it stored away) and it doesn't beep and none of my laptops since have either. I do kind of miss it because those error codes are handy if you're in trouble because the modern stuff will just crap out and hide it behind some annoying splash screen by the computer maker.

[RP2A03]

I don't think much of them have beeped in awhile. The last desktop I owned was from around 2007 (still have it stored away) and it doesn't beep and none of my laptops since have either. I do kind of miss it because those error codes are handy if you're in trouble because the modern stuff will just crap out and hide it behind some annoying splash screen by the computer maker.

Don't they still have diagnostic lights?

[Tanooki]

Not entirely sure. There may be some flashing code if you can dig up a motherboard manual somewhere, but it's something big box pcs would never tell anyone nor would they on laptops. Even what I have which was a do it yourself but company assembled thing didn't have anything I saw about it.

[RP2A03]

Not entirely sure. There may be some flashing code if you can dig up a motherboard manual somewhere, but it's something big box pcs would never tell anyone nor would they on laptops. Even what I have which was a do it yourself but company assembled thing didn't have anything I saw about it.

Interesting. I have an old Coppermine PIII that both beeps and has diagnostic lights, a newer and still in daily use Athlon something or another from 2009 that beeps but has no diagnostic lights, and a recently built Devil's Canyon that does not beep (although I have yet to get around to installing an onboard speaker) but has a diagnostic display.

[Gamevet]

You guys don't build PCs I take it. Most of the newer boards have lights next to each component to let you know which item is causing problems.

My main PC doesn't beep. It boots really fast, but before it does, the fans kicking up speed is my indicator that all is well.

[Graham Mitchell]

My motherboard is about 4 years old and it beeps when it starts up. And there's tons of lights! Gaming motherboards are cool.

[Tanooki]

I haven't hand built a desktop in many years and the laptop I bought the parts and configured it, but had the company assemble it so I'd get a 3yr warranty for everything out of it.

[SparTonberry]

I don't think much of them have beeped in awhile. The last desktop I owned was from around 2007 (still have it stored away) and it doesn't beep and none of my laptops since have either. I do kind of miss it because those error codes are handy if you're in trouble because the modern stuff will just crap out and hide it behind some annoying splash screen by the computer maker.

Do they still include options in the BIOS to show the technical information boot screen than the "pretty" company logo one?

[Tanooki]

Yeah it should, my asus I handed off to the wife as a newer PC to use had this. I've had no reason to pop into this newer laptops BIOS so far but I bet it's there. It immediately goes once on to a swirling circle with the company name which has a dragon like creature on it for a moment covering up that boot gibberish before Win 10 pops up.

[JSoup]

I hadn't actually thought about it in a while, but updates for both my computers yielded no beeps on restart.
Didn't even notice it being a thing that was removed.

[Koop]

My most recent motherboard came with a little speaker to plug into the motherboard, so I'd say it depends on what vendor you go with. Not sure if such a speaker could be added to any mobo though.

[Niku-Sama]

You guys don't build PCs I take it. Most of the newer boards have lights next to each component to let you know which item is causing problems.

My main PC doesn't beep. It boots really fast, but before it does, the fans kicking up speed is my indicator that all is well.

The gigabyte am3+ board i just bought has no leds next to components like this.
Also it beeps.

Infact most of the mother boards i looked at had no such thing. You sure these leds your talking about aren't just for looks?

My old am2 mobo beeped and had a pair of built in 7 segment leds for post codes. That mother board beeped alot. My wife's computer beeps to and it's about 6 months old now

[Gamevet]

The gigabyte am3+ board i just bought has no leds next to components like this.
Also it beeps.

Infact most of the mother boards i looked at had no such thing. You sure these leds your talking about aren't just for looks?

My old am2 mobo beeped and had a pair of built in 7 segment leds for post codes. That mother board beeped alot. My wife's computer beeps to and it's about 6 months old now

No, they are not there just for looks. The last couple of Asus boards I've used for builds had lights that would indicate what component was failing, or did not pass.

[Niku-Sama]

ah that's probably why, I don't ever buy asus ever since my P2 board (that's Pentium 2 not phenom) died a month after purchase and they wouldn't warranty it out.
after that it was left overs and odds and ends through the slots and 370s till I landed on socket a for a while and was the first person in my group to break 1 Ghz on a 850Mhz duron using a gigabyte board

[Tanooki]

I feel the same about ASUS now, no longer trust them and I used to a lot. After having one bad laptop (even replaced) where sleep mode causes it to glitch on the processor itself (1 core goes to 100% stuck) causing the system to crawl until a hard power off/restart, and then how the Nexus 7 I have they made likes to flake out and do stupid crap (not rotate, turn off randomly, gets a bit hot) I'm done with them.

I'm half tempted to pop out the 7 year old PC, but don't have a good way to check it just to see if it beeped but I'm lazy. :)

[Gamevet]

My 2009 HP media PC has a really cheap Asustek board. I've swapped out the CPU on it several times, and it's still running to this day. I believe that cheap board does have beeping.


I've never had issues with Asus boards; they're well built. When I fried my 4790k (1.65 volt RAM killed it) I killed my Asus Z87-WS board along with it. I had a refurbished board within a week of shipping out my fried board.

My Z68 board was a beat to hell one that I'd bought in the demo pile at Fry's. The board was slightly warped from being thrown all around the site, and there were bent pins in the socket. I fixed the bent pins, mounted my 2500k and it fired right up. It overclocked my CPU well (great power delivery) and finally died (2 years later) after its 3rd move to another case. It was quite a warrior and only costed me about $15.

My old LGA 775 board was from XFX. It was okay, but it was a bitch to keep stable over-clocks on and when it failed a good OC about 6 months later, it wouldn't even post with the same settings. It was a pretty unreliable board, but it did have an LED display to show what had failed.