Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Beep codes

A:

Whenever a recoverable error occurs during the power-on self test (POST), the BIOS displays an error message describing the problem. The BIOS also issues a beep code,a series of long and short tones, during POST if a configuration failure occurs.

If POST completes normally, the BIOS issues one short beep before passing control to the operating system.

Beeps 80h Code Description
1-2-2-3 16h BIOS ROM checksum
1-3-1-1 20h Test DRAM refresh
1-3-1-3 22h Test keyboard controller
1-3-3-1 28h Autosize DRAM
1-3-3-2 29h Initialize POST memory manager
1-3-3-3 2Ah Clear 512 KB base RAM
1-3-4-1 2Ch RAM failure on address line nnnn
1-3-4-3 2Eh RAM failure on data bits nnnn of low byte memory bus
1-4-1-1 30h RAM failure on data bits nnnn of high byte memory bus
2-1-2-2 45h POST device initialization
2-1-2-3 46h Check ROM copyright notice
2-2-3-1 58h Test for unexpected interrupts
2-2-4-1 5Ch Test RAM between 512 and 640 KB
1-2 98h Search for option ROMs
nnnn=hexadecimal numbers

Note: If the BIOS detects error 2Ch; 2Eh; or 30h, base 512 KB RAM error, it displays an additional word-bitmap (xxxx) indicating the address line or bits that failed. For example, 2C 0002 means address line 1 (bit one set) has failed. 2E 1020 means data bits 12 and 5 (bits 12 and 5 set) have failed in the lower 16 bits. The BIOS also sends the bitmap to the port-80h light-emitting diode (LED) display. It first displays the check print code, followed by a delay, the high-order byte, another delay, and then the low-order byte of the error. It repeats this sequence continuously.