Mobo dead. 5 sec beep/ 5sec off/ 5sec beep sequence

[tart666]

My Shuttle AK31 v3.1 based system stopped working.

Upon power-up there's a 5-second long beep, then 5 seconds of silence, then another 5 second beep and so on. No post.

I removed RAM/ video -- same symptoms
Changed CPU -- same symptops
Cleared CMOS -- same
Unplugged all HD -- same

Does anyone know what this beep sequence means? I cannot find a description of these beeps on any Award Bios pages.

Thanks

 

[Fox2k]

did you try booting with no devices or cards attached except for 1 stick of ram, video, cpu / hsf and PSU?

take it out of your case and try that to see if theres a short

 

[tart666]

did you try booting with no devices or cards attached except for 1 stick of ram, video, cpu / hsf and PSU?

Yep, just did. Same beeps. Will try removing from the case next.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: tart666

did you try booting with no devices or cards attached except for 1 stick of ram, video, cpu / hsf and PSU?

Yep, just did. Same beeps. Will try removing from the case next.

Sounds good. Did you try it with different RAM? And maybe try a different PSU if available.

 

[tart666]

Sounds good. Did you try it with different RAM? And maybe try a different PSU if available.

Yes, yes! I had another stick of Crucial from the same batch I bought a year ago. It fixed it! And of course, this was the last thing I tried.

Let's see how well Crucial's lifetime warranty works now, eh?

Thanks all for your help!
(edited for spelling)

 

[Yvo]

Glad your motherboard didn't die or any other component for that matter.

A note to keep in mind.
If your motherboard is dead it will do absolutely nothing, no beeps. Obviously in this case your motherboard wasn't dead as it was sending out intelligent beeps (5 second on/off, has to be controlled by something) and these beeps were being sent by a diagnostic chip on your motherboard which is connected to your south bridge chip (I believe). Which in turn means your motherboard was alive and well... just being prevented from booting.

So next time don't be alarmed when your system doesn't boot!

 

[tart666]

Glad your motherboard didn't die or any other component for that matter.

Thanks, but looks like the memory did die.

I have two sticks that are exactly the same (in fact I got them on the same order) from Crucial. Only one of them works now. The other causes the beeping.

I guess that's what you get for playing with agressive memory timings.