HP VECTRA VL800 - Manual (Page 58)

3 Troubleshooting Your HP PC
Pre-Boot Diagnostics
58
Pre-Boot Diagnostics
When your PC starts up, the BIOS performs Pre-Boot Diagnostics and a
Power-on Self Test (POST) to test your hardware configuration for any
problems. If a problem is detected during the POST, an error is displayed on
your PC’s monitor.
If, however, your PC is unable to display an error message (for example,
when you graphics controller has failed), the Pre-Boot Diagnostics will emit
an audio signal.
The Pre-Boot Diagnostics emits an audio sequence with two kinds of
sounds. The first is an unusual series of tones that indicate an anomaly has
been detected. This series of sounds also contains an electronic signal that
can be sent through a telephone line to an authorized helpdesk or HP
Support, if necessary. This signal cannot be interpreted by the human ear.
However, it can be decoded by helpdesk equipment to extract the PC model
and serial number.
The second type of sound is a series of long beeps that indicate a particular
error. If you hear a series of beeps, you should count them as this will help
you detect the cause of the problem.
Please note that Memory (code 3), Video Card (code 4), and PnP/PCI (code
5) errors will only be detected after a 15-second timeout.
If You Miss the Beep Code
If you miss the beep code, turn off the PC by pressing the on/off power
button for five seconds or more, then listen for the signal again.
Number
of Beeps
Meaning
1 Processor absent, not correctly connected or ZIP socket not closed
2 Power supply is in protected mode
3 No memory, bad memory modules, incompatible memory module
4 Graphics card problem
5 PnP/PCI initialization problem
6 Corrupted BIOS. You need to activate crisis recovery procedure
7 Defective system board