Weird beeping from my PC - no case speaker!

[dgevert]

As far as I can tell, this beep isn't affecting anything - my computer runs perfectly. It's not a startup beep...every so often while my computer is running, my computer gives off a little, short beep. My cooling is okay on everything - my AMD 64 3200+ gets up to 45 C on load, and my video card (eVGA 6800GT) runs at 70 C at load (that's the highest temperature I've seen) which seems to be normal for the nVidia 6800 GPU. I haven't had any stability issues at all. The beeping persists even when my speakers are off, so it's not something being channeled through the sound card. It also doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing with the computer. Beeping is random...a few minutes ago, it was beeping about every 20 seconds, but I haven't heard a beep for a while now. Even though I don't *have* a case speaker, I do have the "PC Speaker" muted in the volume control applet. The beeping doesn't seem to correlate to any specific activity or program running on my PC, either.

My hardware is:

NZXT case, lightly modded (blowhole + exhaust fan in top, 2 intake fans, and 3 exhaust fans, UV cold cathodes)
Generic 350W powersupply
Gigabyte GA-K8NS motherboard - most recent drivers
AMD 64 3200+ CPU with retail cooler
1 GB PC3200 DDR400 Corsair ValuRAM
eVGA 6800 GT 256 MB - nVidia 66.93
Asus 16X DVD-ROM
200GB Seagate SATA HDD
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 1 Gamer - most recent drivers
Windows XP Pro

The only thing that doesn't work on this PC is the HDD LED.

I can't figure it out...it's not a big issue, but this beeping is annoying and it's frustrating me because I can't see any reason for my computer to be doing it.

 

[alzan]

If you check your user manual for the mobo, you'll probably find it does have a small speaker on the mobo itself. It's there for relaying BIOS beep codes for troubleshooting problems.
As to why it's beeping randomly, not sure. You could have a BIOS setting too aggressive, AGP settings, memory timings, etc. You could try setting your BIOS to setup defaults and see if the beeping goes away.
If your front-panel switches (HDD LED, et al) are connected to the mobo individually, try turning the HDD LED connector around and see if it works. Also, don't know if it's true for this mobo, but I have seen some mobos where there was a second set of pins for the HDD LED connector. Check your manual/mobo layout diagram.

alzan

 

[dgevert]

Thanks for the tip, I shall try that.

The mystery of the HDD LED not working has now been solved, heh...apparently, my motherboard activates the LED if there is activity detected on the primary IDE channel...well, obviously, since I use a SATA hard drive, there wasn't any...but here's the thing. I just installed my new DVD burner, on the primary channel...and instantly my HDD LED is lighting up - it's just doing it whenever the DVD burner's LED activates.

LOL...

Well now I know who to talk to about perhaps fixing that!

[edit - correction]

For some reason the motherboard is activating the LED when the secondary channel is active, not the primary as I thought before. Maybe there's a BIOS setting or something to look into.

 

[alzan]

The LED lights when the secondary channel is active? Wierd. What's on your secondary channel?

 

[dgevert]

My DVD burner.

Actually, I'm thinking of using the HDD LED as the power LED, and just wiring up the lighted gizmo (see NZXT's site if you're not familiar with my case, I have a Guardian) to be powered by a regular molex, and install a switch to turn it off when I want to, like if I want to sleep. My computer and my bed are in the same room, and the glowing robot eye that is used for power indication lights up half my room, heh.