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56 Chapter 4
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.
Boot Block Beep Codes
POST BIOS Beep Codes
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.
Number of Beeps Description
1 No media present. Insert diskette in floppy drive A:
2 ‘AMIBOOT.ROM’ file not found in root directory of diskette in A:
3 Insert next diskette if multiple diskettes are used for recovery
4 Flash Programming successful
5 Floppy read error
7 No Flash EPROM detected
10 Flash Erase error
11 Flash Program error
12 ‘AMIBOOT.ROM’ file size error
13 BIOS ROM image mismatch (file layout does not match image present in flash
device)
Number of Beeps Description
1 Memory refresh timer error.
3 Base memory read/write test error
6 Keyboard controller BAT command field
7 General exception error (processor exception interrupt error)
8 Display memory error (system video adapter)