New P55A-UD3 mobo with random chirps

[wpcoe]

Since I first fired it up about four hours ago, I randomly get a "chirp" from the speaker -- not really beeps, just one short blip -- a few (maybe 3 or 4?) times an hour.

The mobo manual is a LOT shorter than previous ones I've had, and has NO troubleshooting guide whatsoever, so no explanation of various beep patterns.

[updated:] I live in Thailand and apparently to save paper the multi-language (7 languages) manual bundled with the mobo only includes chapter 1. I just downloaded the full manual from the Gigabyte web site, and the Troubleshooting chapter does list some error beeps, but the only single-beep listed is the "System boots successfully." FYI, the beeps/chirps I hear are about half the length of that system-boot beep.

I've been running CPUID's Hardware Monitor, and temps are generally around 30* C, and the max has been 43-44-45-45. All fans are running normally. No voltage anomalies.

Any idea what my mobo is trying to say?

Should I be worried?

 

[lopri]

Does the system "skip" or "pause" momentarily when the beeps occur?

 

[wpcoe]

No skips or pauses that I notice.

On an impulse I disabled all fan warnings in BIOS. I know that on my previous mobo, HardwareManager would occasionally show 0 as a speed for various fans -- and occasionally I would see 0 flicker as the current value for a fan -- even though the fans themselves didn't actually stop. I figured it was a random signal disruption that HM reported momentarily as 0. I thought maybe this new mobo was catching such a signal disruption and blipping a warning only for the length of the supposed fan stop. That said, I now have HM set via Task Scheduler to run at each Windows start up and have yet to see a 0 for any fan speed.

Today, the beeps seem less frequent, maybe once/twice an hour? Maybe that's due to my BIOS fan-speed-warning adjustment? But, yet I *have* heard the beep. Just less frequently.

Hey, it just beeped. Here's a snap of the HardwareMonitor display that I took as quickly as I could afterward. Anything look out of the ordinary?

 

[wpcoe]

Two more thoughts:

I realize I don't have a high margin of extra supply with the CoolerMaster 460W power supply, but I was strapped for time and it was either that or massive overkill with some unknown-brand 720W supply. I plan to upgrade to a CM 550W or 600W when I have time, but for now my question: Am I running too thin on the power supply? Could the beeps be telling me there are power issues?

Is it possible that the mobo has some "feature" that beeps to alert me when some feature, like Turbo Boost, kicks in? I'm not at home now, but when I thought back over the events, I don't ever recall hearing a beep when I was away from the computer and it was just sitting idle.

 

[wpcoe]

In case there's a snowball's chance in h*ll that someone here can explain the random chirps/beeps, I'm back home now and eliminated two possible causes:

(1) I updated the power supply to 650w
(2) I installed Intel's "TurboBoost Monitor" and I see TurboBoost kick in quite frequently with no beeps accompanying it.

On a Google search I see this random, short beep problem has existed on various Gigabyte (and a few other mfr) mobos. It's annoying!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Chirps while the system is running, are almost always temp or fan alarms in the BIOS. My E2140 machine chirps sometimes while running SoB, if I don't have the A/C running. It gets up to about 76C in CoreTemp with the A/C on. So it hits 80C (my BIOS temp alarm point, IIRC) with the A/C off.

Have you updated to the latest BIOS.

 

[wpcoe]

Yes, I'm running the latest BIOS (F11), but it also chirped on F10. I had disabled all the fan alarms in BIOS and still got about 2 or 3 chirps per hour even with new power supply.

I keep HardwareMonitor open and as soon as it chirps I look to see if anything had spiked, and it all looks normal. Go figure. And, did I mention, it's annoying! ;-)

 

[ehume]

Weird.

And interesting that Gigabyte sells the TPM board in Thailand. The p55a-ud3r is not available in the US, just the -ud3p. Was the -ud3r available in Thailand?

And no, I don't get the chirps myself.

 

[wpcoe]

The shops I went to did not have the -UD3R, only the -UD3P. I don't live in Bangkok, so maybe the shops there might have the -UD3R.

I have no need for TPM, but I bought what they had since I was in a bind with a malfunctioning power supply that burnt (a) an SSD, (b) two HDDs, and (c) damaged my mobo. (Or, at least I *think* it was the power supply.) In any event I was in desperate need of a new computer, and unfortunately the X58 mobos (my first choice) and the I7-920/930 chips were way too expensive. So, home I came with the P55A-UD3R and an i5-760. I was kind of shocked to find an i5-760 so early in Thailand.

 

[snowbound]

Geez this motherboard is still doing this? I had one in January that was doing it as well. See http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,1150.msg5851.html#msg5851 and http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,1150.msg5851.html#msg5851

 

[wpcoe]

Found this on another message board (post was dated 2-22-2010), and it seems to be true. If so, it's an *Intel* problem???

"If you had enabled the CPU temp warning, the beep you heard from the buzzer was caused by this. Intel processor has internal bug with the digital thermal sensor when C3/6/7 enabled, it occasionally generates false value that triggered off the CPU temp warning in ITE chip used on the board. Disable C3/6/7 will override this annoying problem, or just simply disable the CPU temp warning, there's no workarounds posted by Intel so far."​

I disabled the CPU temp warning last night during one of my overclock tweak sessions, and haven't heard a chirp since. I will switch it back on later, since I'm not sure I want to go without knowing my CPU was about to melt down.

 

[wpcoe]

Can this be the cause?

source: http://download.intel.com/design/processor/specupdt/322166.pdf

The technical details are a bit beyond my understanding, but it does deal with the C6 state and improper temp reporting. Perhaps Gigabyte doesn't handle these erroneous reports properly? (At least the mobo doesn't initiate a system shutdown, it only beeps!)

Any comments?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wow, Intel really screwed up. With their new platform right around the corner, I doubt that they will spin another CPU stepping for 1156 to fix this.

 

[wpcoe]

What was amazing to me, was that the item I posted above was just one of more than a hundred problems -- all with "No fix" listed in the index!

And that document only covered i7-800 and i5-700 processors...

 

[Rifter]

Wow that does suck, however since it seems only gigabyte is having this issue it looks like a case of they missed the memo and everyone else didnt. They should be able to fix this with a bios update.

 

[Mark R]

What was amazing to me, was that the item I posted above was just one of more than a hundred problems -- all with "No fix" listed in the index!

All CPUs have errata - and on devices as complex as a modern CPU, 100 bugs is pretty good going.

The thing about this bug, is that it's non-critical and trivial to work around - the document even gives detailed instructions to BIOS programmers how to deal with it.

If a bug is of essentially no relevance, because software can be trivially modified to cope - then there's no point in the CPU being redesigned to fix it (it's expensive to modify a CPU design, and it risks introducing new bugs).

All that is needed is a BIOS update. The fact that this is a gigabyte only problem, suggests that every other manufacturer has read the list of bugs and made the recommended changes to the BIOS - whereas gigabyte has cheaped out and hasn't bothered.

 

[Rifter]

All CPUs have errata - and on devices as complex as a modern CPU, 100 bugs is pretty good going.

The thing about this bug, is that it's non-critical and trivial to work around - the document even gives detailed instructions to BIOS programmers how to deal with it.

If a bug is of essentially no relevance, because software can be trivially modified to cope - then there's no point in the CPU being redesigned to fix it (it's expensive to modify a CPU design, and it risks introducing new bugs).

All that is needed is a BIOS update. The fact that this is a gigabyte only problem, suggests that every other manufacturer has read the list of bugs and made the recommended changes to the BIOS - whereas gigabyte has cheaped out and hasn't bothered.

Thats pretty much what i said just not as detailed. Bottom line is gigabyte dropped the ball on this one. Not really something i would have expected from them as they have always been up there in quality and bios updates, seems like they may be starting to go downhill.

 

[wpcoe]

HALLELUJAH! They fixed it!

Last time I looked, the latest BIOS was F11. Last night I looked, and they are now up to F13, so I downloaded and flashed it.

Been using the computer off and on all day, and not a single chirp!

 

[snowbound]

Geez and it only took them 8+ months to fix it

 

[lopri]

Glad to hear that, though I wouldn't have been as patient as you are.