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Possibly related: Beep ×11? Computer beep when booting

Note: The machine originally beeped 11 times when powered on; with hard drives disconnected it does not.

I have a computer with an Asrock 970 Extreme3 motherboard. When powered on, there is no display output and keyboard input seems to have no effect. The ACPI reset button seems to have no effect either. Swapping RAM slots has no effect. The CPU has not been touched since the machine was built, as far as I can remember. The connectivity LEDs in the on-board ethernet port do not light; but on the switch they are connected to the connectivity lights do light up when power is connected (before power on).

For background, this computer is a Xen Dom0 host handling a number of tasks in my parent's attic, built a number of years ago. It previously had this problem but functioned well enough once started. It was rarely shut down, except by power failures.

I say 'seemingly' in the first paragraph as the computer is/was functional before shutdown today. When it previously had this problem it did come back to life somehow. Embarrassingly, I can't remember how! As best I can remember I got stuck with beeps and had to leave it for something else- I came back the next day or some hours later and it was responding. Either that, or something very trivial (eg keyboard input, network cable reseating) revealed that it was in fact responsive.

If the hard drives are connected, I hear a sequence of 11 beeps:

11 short - Cache Memory error: Specifically, the L2 cache is bad.

(source: https://kb.iu.edu/d/afzy. Other pages have the same information, but likely came from the same source)

The 970 Extreme3 has an AMI UEFI (source), but it doesn't make a lot of sense for hard drives to cause an L2 cache beep code. I suspect it may in fact be a hard drive beeping, as it sounds like there is a read-head seek sound accompanying the beeps.

Is there any way to troubleshoot this beyond replacing the CPU, power supply, and/or motherboard? AM3 socket processors are not trivially cheap, nor would a motherboard supporting sufficient storage (9+ drives) be!

In the interim, I have a 'host up' monitor script, borrowed from Johnny on U&L, in case it spontaneously comes back up as it did before

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  • You figure what the beeps mean, then resolve the problem, which you diagnosed
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 15:46
  • @Ramhound how do I resolve an L2 cache problem? (assuming that is what it is)
    – bertieb
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 15:47
  • L2 Cache is located on the CPU that means the CapU is dead or the pins are bent
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 15:54
  • @Ramhound Okay; is there any way to get past that without replacing the CPU? The machine did this beeping before but still worked- I just cannot recall how!
    – bertieb
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 16:30
  • Verify the 11 beeps means a L2 Cache, if so, it's unlikely you had this exact error before. If you have not been removing the CPU from its socket then it's not a bent pin
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 16:50

1 Answer 1

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Change the motherboard

In this case, the motherboard was faulty. What was confusing the issue was:

  • the beeps, which did in fact come from a hard drive
  • that the computer previously worked before being powered down, albeit being temperamental in startup

However, replacing the motherboard let the computer POST, and indeed boot up.

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