Ok...so, a few hours ago, I'm surfing the intarweb, careless as can be. I log on to CK, see that pev posted something new in the GW forum, click the topic and...get a BSOD.

I assume that pev's topic wasn't anything like a super-duper killer virus script (or whatever), so I'm not blaming anyone but my pc, don't worry.

So: I reboot manually...and my pc starts to give me long beeps, over and over again. No boot. Reboot again, again not boot but not even beeps. Then reboot, it boots windows...i'm in windows for a while, try to acces Trend Micro (never know), BSOD.

Same crap, long beeps, no beeps, even a really fast series of beeps. Then it boots the "loading" screen and freezes, then finally windows itself. I decide to install latest graphics drivers (and rebooted two or three times) and everything seems to be ok for now. I'm also looking at the latest chipset and BIOS versions, not installed anything yet.

Btw, this is the BSOD I got:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

0x0000000A (and the other codes, i'll spare you those)

So, I haven't done anything special lately in terms of updating drivers or something. I have absoloutely no clue what might/could have happened, but clearly it's not very good. Beeping failures to boot = evil! All input is welcome from the more techy knowledgeable ones.

Installed anything lately? I usually get such BSOD's when I've got Google Earth installed, and that's not rocket science really, so it can be quite trivial.
It does sound a bit like broken hardware too. When it does boot into Windows, do you run save mode?

Je ne sais pas mon amis.

Just pray it doent happen again.

I got series of beeps too and there was some strange connection between one crash of ICQ and further blocking of whole OS during the load of kX (set of drivers for Creative SB Live!) on startup. Got to deinstall the bastard in order to be able to start Win. gah...

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

is driver related I believe. Do a reinstall of all drivers.

However...

0x0000000A

Sounds like a memory allocation.

I got the same two errors when my ram was kaput. Run memtest to check your ram.

http://www.memtest86.com/

It works by making a bootable floppy or CD image (whichever) and boots straight in to a diagnostic tool.

if you're getting boot beeps, that means the computer is failing hardware checks on bootup. IE, hardware failure. BSODs can be caused by hardware, drivers, or software. However, beeping on system startup (before even getting a display, much less booting windows) is hardware failure. Well, that or your BIOS is fucked, but the chance of that is pretty small.

I got beeping once when I left Windows' login screen alone for a ~3 minutes. The mech was offline, the hardware was absolutely alone (no rats inside the box) and one manual reset had to stop it.

Now that was weird.

Mmm...ok, thanks for the input. I guess I'm looking at hardware failure then. Strangely enough, the box has been running just fine since I last booted it (a few hours ago), including multitasking msn and GW and whatnot.

I'll be interesting to see what happens when I boot it tomorrow morning, after leaving it alone for a night. But, I suppose I should expect the worst. Meh, I got a guarantee on the hardware -I think it still is valid, not 100% sure- but it still sucks that I might be pc-less for a while.

I better get that old wreck of mine up and running for the necessary applications and internet acces. Bah, bah, bah.

Morituri te salutant

well, who knows, maybe something was skitzing for no apparent reason. You may not have any more issues. Maybe it was a loose power cable or IDE cable, or a RAM stick or something. That'll do it as much as a blown/failing capacitor and isn't anywhere near as permanent.

Ok, so I got another one. My bro was playing some CS on my rig and it suddenly BSOD'ed on his ass. No text this time.

Then it BSOD's right before booting into windows again, and afterwards it even failed to pass the initial Asus mobo welcome screen. Simply beeped everytime tho.

After the 4th and 5th try the opening screen got some weird "line" with characters in it at the bottom tho...so, I'm thinking graphics card? Especially cos it failed to boot after the crash and does now, 40 minutes later.

Sigh. I better go download the essential windows xp SP2 updates and burn them on a cd in case of meltdown.

Have you opened the case yet? Maybe you can figure out what component is fucked because of it's temperature (after you switched off the power off course).

Nope, haven't tried that yet...prolly a good idea tho. I'll run memtest in a day or two as well, just to make sure.

Haven't had the slightest problem since rebooting after the BSOD during CS, but then i haven't ran any heavy programs since, just IE, msn, word, and downloading crap. Mehahuha.

Ok, update: I haven't done anything heavy on the ol' machine the past weekend (games etc) and guess what, no crashes. I was planning on taking a look inside today but I postponed that cos turns out I have to finish something for uni tonight first.

However, I did check the BIOS beeping codes, which informed me that an endless series of long beeps or an irregular pace usually indicates a problem with the memory or graphics card (memory). That much we had established already really, but good to see it kinda confirmed.

I also took a flashlight to inspect my fans more closely and guess what: both my back case fan AND my power supply fan aren't working. From what i could see my chipset fan, gfx card fan and CPU fan are still working fine. So, wtf? Clearly this could be the reason for the overheating, and it ties in with no crashing when not playing games and the pc failing to boot immedeately after a crash etc.

Just to make sure they weren't just on some crazy-ass "only start working when it's necessary" mode I fired up GW (a game I usually notice a serious increase in fan activity in), hoping to see the fans fire up...but nada. My big sexy copper CPU fan started working a little harder but the back case fan and power supply fan still were at a standstill.

So...I assume that two seperate fans not working is not just a mechanical defect, but rather some fucked up regulatory stuff.

Input is always appreciated Should I go into my BIOS and look around for anything disabled, or just try to flash to the latest version altogether? I wouldn't know what else than bad BIOS settings could cause this kinda of problem. But then, I don't even know where my soap comes from.

your fans will probably be plugged into your motherbaord. I'd crack the case and try switching around fan connectors. Either the connection is loose/gone, the connector it's on died, or the fan died. Hopefully the fan died...if the fan connectors on the motherboard are dying, then that motherboard may not have long to live.

Roger...i'll try that tomorrow. This better works.