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I have an ASRock z87, with 1 stick of 8GB ram, GTX 770 GPU, a corsair hx750 PSU and an i5 3.4ghz processor, all of which are connected properly. Every time I boot from replugging my PSU in, it boots shuts off then restarts and does the 3 beeps over an over again. Otherwise just using the power button gives the 3 beeps over and over again with no restart. There is a red light that is constantly on its called BIOS_A_LED1.

I've booted without my GPU, reseated my RAM to each of the slots to no avail. Any ideas?

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  • Look up what that BIOS LED indicates.
    – cutrightjm
    Jan 15, 2014 at 1:13
  • @ekaj oh it just indicates which bios is active atm Jan 15, 2014 at 1:18

1 Answer 1

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The actual meaning depends on which BIOS the AsRock uses, but three beeps seems to be clearly a memory error. If your BIOS is AMI, then it's a base 64K memory error; if it's an AWARD BIOS, then it's a general memory error. If it were an IBM BIOS, it would be a keyboard error, but that's ancient history by now.

For reference: Beep codes

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  • Hmm, whats the difference between 64k and general memory error? Does this mean my RAM went bad? Does it matter if I boot it without RAM and the same code happens? Jan 15, 2014 at 1:27
  • Thank you, it was a bad stick of ram, I replaced it and its not making anymore beeping Jan 15, 2014 at 2:17
  • For the original Intel x86 architecture, the first 64K of memory was special, which is why the beep codes have a special code for it. These days, you just swap the entire stick (as you did). Glad it was that easy. Jan 15, 2014 at 7:03
  • Hi, i'm experiencing the same issue and have 2 x 4GB sticks of RAM. I tried just switching between 1 stick as well as different slots. Could the 3 beeps mean the slots on my motherboard are bad?
    – phteven
    Oct 1, 2015 at 23:23
  • It could be the motherboard, or it could be that both sticks of RAM were damaged by something like a power surge or static shock - they're connected together on a lot of pins, so anything that damages one could damage both. At this point, you'll need either more components or more tools to isolate the problem. Oct 5, 2015 at 18:45

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