h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

yes, but visual observation doesn;t really tell you the difference between a fan running at 2000rpm and one running at 3,500rpm. Worth checking what the BIOS says is the CPU temp and what it says the MB temp is (if you have those sensors).

True... any recommendations for software I could download?

can you tell what make your motherboard is? Many manufacturers have their own tailored ones. Depends if it is obvious on the mb or if it is an unlabelled generic one.

Otherwise I'd just scan the tucows website and go on recommendation (with usual caveats about downloading software and running it on your computer!). I use Asus's utilities on mine and they're pretty good, stopped me have a having from my old duron chip!

although if the MB has those sensors then it is highly likely that the BIOS has a page reporting the values. Hence do a shutdown and check the bios when it goes into beep mode.

Speedfan is free and tells you the readings of any heat sensors plus fan speeds.

Certainly overheat warnings are the only thing I've experienced which would do this. I suppose some sort of malicious software could do the same, but I have no idea why someone would make something like that.

You can set overheat warnings and a shutdown temperature in the bios. But, if it does turn out to be the problem, open up your computer and clean the dust out of all the heat sinks for an instant massive temperature drop.

Incidentally, many CPUs do run more efficiently (less heat, less power) at idle. Multi-core processors can turn individual cores off, other proceesors can reduce the frequency (and the voltage with it) or turn down the clock multiplier.

Ok, fun bit... It's an HP workstation (with a motherboard manufactured by HP) - the diagnostics software doesn't include motherboard monitoring software and the HP website doesn't seem to have any either.

Inside the machine was blasted with compressed air this morning, not a speck of dust in sight.

Speedfan downloaded and run...

Getting

The following readings...

Fan 1: 2629 rpm
Fan 2: 0
Fan 3: 0
Fan 4: 2265 rpm

I'm assuming Fans 1 & 4 are the chassis and processor fans

Temperatures
Temp1: 53°C
Temp2: 0
Temp3: 36°C
Temp4: 0
HD0: 27°C

Again, I'm assuming Temp1 is the processor and Temp3 is the motherboard

Would those figures seem about right to you or are they too hot?

Ok, found http://www.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/sb/CS-007999.htm#Specifications

Which seems to show that the thing's well within tolerances.

which intel processor?

It's a PIV 3 GHz

Now running Adaware to see if anything's hidden in the system that might be doing this

(Sophos Antivirus is running constantly and hasn't picked anything up)

Those seem like decent temperatures, so I doubt its an overheating problem.

The heat alarm setting will be somewhere in the BIOS, if you compare those temperatures to that and allow say +5 degrees variation you should be able to tell for sure on this count.

ing computers

Beeps long after the system has been running for a while can sometimes be traced to RAM

Sometimes it can be as simple as carefully* removing, and re-inserting the RAM modules

*disconnect power to box, wear grounding strap etc..

To check the RAM internals, use memtest, which can diagnose most weak/failing RAM http://www.memtest.org/

It can be run from a bootable CD, floppy, or USB

You might want to look at insert security rescue kit. It includes memtest, and other useful tools
http://www.inside-security.de/insert_en.html

Got it... I hope...

What do you think the effect would be if you managed to pick up a naughty manual ISP dialing programme on a computer without a modem connected to the net via an Ethernet LAN, two firewalls a router and a broadband modem?

your computer beeps?

heh, that could well do it I guess!

On the other hand I would say your CPU is running hot if that is the 'idle' temp reported. The P4 specs for a 478 pin (which I guess yours is being a 3Ghz) at
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/sb/CS-007999.htm
says
X < = 32 or less Lower Set Point: Fan speed constant at lowest fan speed. Recommended temperature for nominal operating environment.
Y = 38 Recommended maximum internal chassis temperature for boxed Intel Pentium 4 processor-based systems.
X > = 40 Higher Set Point: Fan speed constant at highest fan speed.

seems to indicate that anything above 40 is considered hot and fan set to max.

But I could be reading that wrong, it ain;t that clear and it doesn;t seem to be your problem and I ain;t got time atm to delve deeper! And it depends on the ambient room/case temp as well.

D**n!!!!!

Guess what - It still bleeps at me - even after removing the malware (and I've run adaware & spybot since) guess it ain't that.

You say it happens at the same time every day - try changing the system clock (eg through right-clicking on the time in Windows) and seeing if it makes a difference to when it happens. Then put the system time back to normal and instead fiddle with the hardware clock (easily changed while in the BIOS) to see if that makes a difference. That should hopefully indicate whether the problem is hardware- or software-based.

Oh and "Temp1: 53°C" - you might want to check that your processor isn't overclocking - just compare the CPU speed setting in the BIOS with the actual rating of your processor - this can be found by typing 'dxdiag' into Start-->Run and looking at the entry for the processor on the first page.

Here's my :

53°C seems fine to me if it really is measuring the CPU temperature, and not just the temperature somewhere inside the case. Fast modern chips can run at >100°C and I don't see why the P4 should be any different.

If you want to make sure, use a test programme to run the thing flat out and see if it makes any difference. We use BurnInTest, which you can download free on trial from here. IIRC it might also help with temperature monitoring.

http://www.passmark.com

This is just speculation, but I had a PC once that beeped occasionally when the supply voltage dipped. Perhaps someone somewhere is turning on a pump, air conditioner or something at the same time every day, and your PC's power supply is registering a temporary failure of the incoming supply. If it's a very short dip then the PSU would smooth it out and it wouldn't affect the DC side.

It could also be a glitch in the LAN connection, though I don't see why that should happen at the same time every day.

Fiddling with the clocks should indicate whether it's an outside factor.

I had a similiar problem with my HP computer (Intel processor) except the alarm was like a police siren. It would go off at random and then switch off after a minute or so. I suspected a heat problem and, on inspection of the processor fan, I noticed a very thin layer of dust over it. A vacuum cleaner nozzle over it for a few seconds solved the problem. It has worked fine since then.