PC speaker beeping like siren...

[alienationware]

You ever have a dehumidifier, and it beeps whenever the water tank is full?

My PC (AMD XP1800+) once in a while beeps like a siren thru the little speaker attached to/inside the computer case.

What does this mean? Is the CPU overheating, or something? Is this a fire hazard?

 

[cohen]

When does it do it?

 

[The_Other_One]

It's probably either a heat or voltage issue. If you know the brand of your motherboard, check if there's any monitoring software avaliable for your motherboard. If not, something like PCWizard should tell you what you need to know. That or check in your bios.

 

[StrangleHold]

Usually beeping that makes you want to go stand in your yard is a CPU overheating alarm.

 

[TrainTrackHack]

^ Especially in case of (older?) AMD machines (Happened to me quite a few times on my K6-2 machine). Dusting the case, fans, heatsink should do the trick.

 

[bragr]

Error

Its called POST'ing. Essentially the diagnostic functions of your mobo have found something wrong and are telling you that by beeping. Look in the manufacture docs for what the beeps mean (the tend to use a crude Morse code.) I know that some ASUS board will display a visual POST if you hit TAB during the BIOS splash screen. Again check your docs to see if your board supports this or what the key is for your board.