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I have an HTPC that I built back in September of 2013 with the following specs:

Overall it's been a decent living room PC and ran fine up until last night. I couldn't get it to wake up so I hard reset it and now I get a series of 3 short beeps, followed by 3 short beeps, then the power light blinks and this continues forever.

Here is a very short video of the issue: https://vine.co/v/Oqpx32lTqni

I've tried:

  • cleaning all the dust out of the PC, fans, heatsinks, grills
  • pulling the RAM and booting (this would cause 3 long beeps)
  • trying the RAM in different slots, one at a time
  • clearing the CMOS
  • connecting a PS2 keyboard
  • disconnecting HDMI and using DVI
  • disconnecting DVI and using VGA

I haven't found many similar cases of these beep codes, most people seem to be getting the 3 long beeps for RAM errors. According to biosflash.com these short beeps could be one of the following:

  • 3x short beeps: Base 64K RAM failure
  • 6x short beeps: Keyboard controller Gate A20 error

Unfortunately I don't know what either of those would be caused by. I'm leaning towards motherboard, but I suppose it could possibly be RAM or CPU too. I think I have some different RAM that will work so I'm going to try that tonight. I don't have a spare LGA1155 CPU.

I've tried to contact ASRock support but haven't heard from them yet and don't expect them to be all that helpful.

Does anyone have a better idea what it might be? Or run into this before?

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    3 short beeps would be the CPU; 6 short beeps would be the motherboard. If the hardware is under warranty I would go that route, do both the CPU and motherboard, that way your covered. – Ramhound Oct 16 '14 at 15:56
  • @Ramhound where is that info from? I couldn't find anything helpful about these beep-codes on ASRock's site – travis Oct 16 '14 at 16:15
  • Where is this information from? 17 years dealing with computers. The 64K RAM is the Cache on the CPU and the keyboard controller would be on the motherboard.. – Ramhound Oct 16 '14 at 16:29
  • @Ramhound ah ok, I thought maybe you've had experience with this motherboard firsthand with the same issue. (or found someone else who has) – travis Oct 16 '14 at 16:38
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    A motherboard is a motherboard. You deal with one you have basically seen them all. You wanted help I provided my thoughts based on my significant amount of experience. – Ramhound Oct 16 '14 at 16:40
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@Ramhound was right, after going through very basic troubleshooting with ASRock, they RMA'd it. I got the replacement in last week and it's been running for a few days now without any issue.

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  • I have the same issue, the same beeps. Only one DDR3 of 4GB. I will come back with a comment when I finish the investigation. – Andrei Rînea Aug 1 '15 at 14:31
  • @AndreiRinea if it's under warranty you should contact the manufacturer for a replacement. I've had no issues since. – travis Aug 3 '15 at 22:11

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