Author Topic: A single beep from the motherboard.. and then slowdown (Read 9611 times)

Truz · « **Reply #40 on:** March 16, 2004, 06:36:24 pm »

ok tommorow or thursday i will head out to compusa and get some thermal grease, but the thing is i really dont know where to apply it or how to use it. Where exactly do i apply it and what precautions should i take.

Nailz · « **Reply #41 on:** March 16, 2004, 07:07:08 pm »

Not sure if CompUSA would have it, but they may. Most smaller do it yourself computer shops would carry it though.

So once you get it, first thing is to turn off the computer, make sure you are using a grounding strap (or holding onto the case frame), you will then need to carefully remove the cpu fan, it shold be held to the mobo base by a clip on both sides.

In the center of the processor, there will be a small chip, apply the grease to that chip in a small, thin, even layer, being careful to not get it anywhere else but the chip. Once you do that, put the fan back on, power it up, and give it a shot.

If that doesn't help with your problem, you'll be out a few dollars, but your cpu will thank you for it.....

SirPeale · « **Reply #42 on:** March 16, 2004, 07:20:25 pm »

CompUSA should have thermal grease. Artic Silver or some such.

Remember, when you apply it, apply it SPARINGLY. Make sure it is ONLY on the center chip, and not on the outer components. You should be able to see thru what you've placed on the chip. If you can't, wipe most of it off.

There are many good howto's on the subject.

http://www.brian1.net/computers/grease/
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/How-To/Applying-Thermal-Paste/
http://www.subzeropc.com/article/thermalinterface.htm

Likely there is already some variety of thermal compound on there, likely a thing that kind of looks like chewing gum. Make sure you remove all of it.

Truz · « **Reply #43 on:** March 16, 2004, 09:38:31 pm »

ok i havent gotten the grease yet but i have a question.

I got the fan off and between the fan and the cpu is this big silver metal grate looking thing. What the hell is that. I got it off (it is held in by clips on both sides) so what is this thing and was purpose does it serve. It is pretty big and separated the cpu from the fan. Just out of curiosity what is it?

Truz · « **Reply #44 on:** March 16, 2004, 09:39:25 pm »

oh yea and i checked the compusa website and they have thermal grease in stock in the store closest to me. Hopefully i head over there tomorrow.

saltypenguin · « **Reply #45 on:** March 16, 2004, 10:08:49 pm »

Silver grate thing is most likely a heat sink. It helps with cooling.

Sasquatch! · « **Reply #46 on:** March 16, 2004, 10:12:01 pm »

Quote from: Truz on March 10, 2004, 09:20:17 am

and the ones that might be causing problems are CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT.

Gadzooks! Before you start poking around with hardware, I'd venture to guess that it's Windows' "Accessibility Options" kicking in:
http://www.opendoorworld.com/key-accessibility-1.htm

Go to Control Panel -> Accessibility Options. In the "Keyboard" tab, click the "Settings" button by each of the three shortcuts and UNCHECK "use shortcut".

Nailz · « **Reply #47 on:** March 16, 2004, 11:54:09 pm »

Quote from: Truz on March 16, 2004, 09:38:31 pm

ok i havent gotten the grease yet but i have a question.

I got the fan off and between the fan and the cpu is this big silver metal grate looking thing. What the hell is that. I got it off (it is held in by clips on both sides) so what is this thing and was purpose does it serve. It is pretty big and separated the cpu from the fan. Just out of curiosity what is it?

Salty is right, it's a heatsink...

knuttz · « **Reply #48 on:** March 17, 2004, 03:12:05 am »

I think Sasquatch! is on to something. Check those "Accessibility Options".

Truz · « **Reply #49 on:** March 17, 2004, 08:39:48 am »

sasquatch i already remapped the buttons on the x-arcade to all letter keypresses so that shouldnt even cause the problem. i am not using alt shift or control anymore.

lokki · « **Reply #50 on:** March 17, 2004, 10:10:09 am »

HI,
Not sure what OS you are using (assuming some MS OS).

Is the beeping only happening while you are playing a game? This is to say that while you are sending keyboard commands to mame?
Or if you leave your computer on running a game will it eventually start beeping?
Try leaving it on on one of the more CPU intensive games to make sure that your CPU is overheating.

Could it be maybe a button is sticking and sending the same command over and over?

Also you may want to check your bios and see what the typematic rate is set to.... Bios can be configured to repeat the keys if the key is held long enough....

It does look like a keyboard buffer overflow. Have you tried chaning the buffer size?

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/652/

Truz · « **Reply #51 on:** March 17, 2004, 06:02:54 pm »

ok all of the accessiblity options were already off so thats not the problem.

Also i applied thermal grease and while it did lower the temp by about ten degrees i am still getting the beep from the motherboard.

I tried doing what you said loki but i cannot find the "kbdclass" folder with in the registry. I followed everything up until the service folder and the "kbdclass" folder is not there. There is a "class" folder though. I dont know what the deal is.

Also i am running windows millenium (crap i know).

SirPeale · « **Reply #52 on:** March 17, 2004, 07:01:47 pm »

Try running DOS MAME and see if it does it there.

lokki · « **Reply #53 on:** March 17, 2004, 09:56:37 pm »

That Link I sent was for NT and newer....

I'll look around see if there is anything for ME...

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #54 on:** March 18, 2004, 07:46:20 am »

Quote from: lokki on March 17, 2004, 10:10:09 am

Also you may want to check your bios and see what the typematic rate is set to.... Bios can be configured to repeat the keys if the key is held long enough....

It does look like a keyboard buffer overflow. Have you tried chaning the buffer size?

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/652/

MAME ignores the type-matic rate, though. For example, start Tiger-Heli and hold down the Fire button. The heli will fire about 1-2 times per second, at a constant rate, regardless of the typematic rate setting.

I had no idea you could change the buffer size. That may well help.

lokki · « **Reply #55 on:** March 18, 2004, 11:50:20 am »

Hi,
Well I looked around and I can't find much information on ME. I did find a bunch of stuff on DOS. Which I think is applicable. (I don't have and ME box so I can;t really test this).

DOS and windows 95 (not sure about ME but I want to say it is the same case). has a keyboard buffer of 16 characters.

I found the following tool that will allow you to change the the size of the buffer.

http://www.sweger.com/ansiplus/Features.html

This is a shareware program not sure if it is still supported but it does have support for windows 95.

I'm attaching an old dos program that increases the buffer size. You may want to try it out and see if it does the trick on ME.

Good luck

Truz · « **Reply #56 on:** March 18, 2004, 11:53:51 am »

well last night i thought i had fixed it because i beat the entire game without it beeping and that has never happened before. But today it happened once again.

Ill give that a try lokki

lokki · « **Reply #57 on:** March 18, 2004, 12:40:14 pm »

Hi,
Just noticed that the attachment did not make it thorugh....

I was trying to upload a little utility called 256keys.zip
You should be able to download it form

http://www.bookcase.com/library/software/msdos.util.keyboard.html

Nannuu · « **Reply #58 on:** March 18, 2004, 01:40:57 pm »

This may be the stupidest idea yet since the game appears to work flawlessly. But you may want to download the rom again and give it a try.

Truz · « **Reply #59 on:** March 18, 2004, 01:45:25 pm »

yea nanuu i have already tried that.

Loki i started the first program you gace me and it says that the keyboard buffer is set to 128. What should i change it to?

Also interesting to point out it says that the keyboard typematic rate is set to BIOS. Not sure what that means but the beep that i am getting is from the motherboard hence basically a bios beep. Could this be related to the problm?

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #60 on:** March 18, 2004, 02:06:39 pm »

>Loki i started the first program you gace me and it says that the >keyboard buffer is set to 128. What should i change it to?

One of the utilities wasu called 256 keys, I'd try 256. (You can always set it back).

>Also interesting to point out it says that the keyboard typematic rate >is set to BIOS. Not sure what that means but the beep that i am >getting is from the motherboard hence basically a bios beep. Could >this be related to the problm?

Doubtful - That's the setting that I was saying MAME ignores. You could try going into the BIOS and futzing with it and seeing if it makes any difference.

Truz · « **Reply #61 on:** March 18, 2004, 02:08:54 pm »

well i tried setting the buffer to 256 but it still happened.

Truz · « **Reply #62 on:** March 18, 2004, 02:30:15 pm »

just out of curiosity i ran the benchmark program 3dmark 2001se just to see if my computer could handle it and see if the beeping was related to a heavy work load being placed on the cpu. But the computer ran the program fine and did not produce the beep at all. I guess this rules out the possibility of it being a processor/ overheat problem.

Man this is really annoying that i can figure this out.

lokki · « **Reply #63 on:** March 18, 2004, 02:45:20 pm »

I guess we are back on temperature.
The temperature is not too terribly high.
I do have a question did you buy install motherboard CPU or did you buy pre installed.

Are you testing with the Computer Case on the computer or with the case open?
on some factory manufactured PCs dell/hp/etc the cooling works better with the case closed. (better air flow).

Have you tried leaving the case open and leaving a small fan pointing to your mobo?

Is the heatsink for you cpu dirty? (

lokki · « **Reply #64 on:** March 18, 2004, 02:55:01 pm »

Quote from: Truz on March 18, 2004, 02:30:15 pm

just out of curiosity i ran the benchmark program 3dmark 2001se just to see if my computer could handle it and see if the beeping was related to a heavy work load being placed on the cpu. But the computer ran the program fine and did not produce the beep at all. I guess this rules out the possibility of it being a processor/ overheat problem.

Doesn't really rule out CPU over heating.

If you really want to stress test your CPU to see if it is overheating try running

http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm

Check out stress.txt in there and readme.txt for instructions on doing the stress test.

Also you can try
CPU Stability Test

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7146,00.asp

Truz · « **Reply #65 on:** March 19, 2004, 02:54:06 pm »

well i ran that cpu stability test for a total of 4 hours and 22 minutes and at the end of the test it reported back no errors.

Also i had motherboard monitor running and it showed the temp for the case and cpu at both 89 degrees.

It didnt report any errors so this shouldnt be an overheat problem, what do you think?

Sylentwulf · « **Reply #66 on:** March 19, 2004, 05:35:30 pm »

82 degrees farenheit? That's UNBELEIVABLY LOW.
When my computer is idling with a thermaltake spark 7 heatsink/fan and Arctic Silver Ceramique thermal grease it's around 92 degrees. This is in a custom case with 7 fans going as well

If anywhere in your computer is under 100 degrees, you're fine. Don't worry about any temperates until they hit 115-140 degrees (depending on where what and when)

All temps listed in fahrenheit.

Truz · « **Reply #67 on:** March 19, 2004, 06:44:20 pm »

ok thanks, that is good to know wolf. I wasnt sure what was exceptable and what was to high. Thats good because the highest it was at was 89 farenheit while running the cpu stress test. The highest it ever got in mame was 82.

lokki · « **Reply #68 on:** March 19, 2004, 07:10:09 pm »

Glad It did not report errors but the question is did it beep and slowdown during those 4 hours........?

I don't think it would be heat. But running out of ideas.

Truz · « **Reply #69 on:** March 19, 2004, 07:46:12 pm »

well i did not sit by the computer for the entire four hours but when i was there it did not beep at all.

Yea i really cant understand this and what is causing it?

SirPeale · « **Reply #70 on:** March 19, 2004, 07:46:39 pm »

Have you tried DOS MAME yet?

Truz · « **Reply #71 on:** March 19, 2004, 07:52:24 pm »

do you mean dos mame by itself without mamewah?

right now i am running mame .80 but (the win version) but the problem has happened in mame .79b and mame32 as well.

I went to the mame website and there is not downloads up for the dos version of mame .80, where do i get it from?

SirPeale · « **Reply #72 on:** March 19, 2004, 08:08:52 pm »

Yes, I meant DOS command line MAME. Doesn't matter if it's the latest version or not, just for testing purposes.

Truz · « **Reply #73 on:** March 23, 2004, 05:26:55 pm »

HOLY CRAP!

So i finally got a chance to try out the dos version of mame (the .80b version is up now on the mame site) and i think it may have worked.I did an entire play through the game without it beeping once at all. I give it another test in a few to see if i get it

But more astonishing than this was the way the game looked!!!! WOW!! The windows version of mame made my game look nothing like this. It looks amazing. Whats the deal why does it look so much better i wish i could show you guys the difference it is like night and day. First of all in dos mame it looked like it had scan lines automatically, and it seemed as if it was running the native resolution of the game (it had almost a widescreen effect because the top and bottom were black bars). I guess that is the resolution of the game. But i must say the game looked absolutley amazing. I could not believe my eyes the difference was that much. What do you think is the cause of this. I never messes with the windows mame display settings really (but i never did run it through command line only through mamewah).

Im really cannot believe how good the game looked when running it in the dos command line mame. Why do you guys think this is? When i say this i truly mean that the difference was astonishing.

The difference in picture and clarity has me more excited than the actual beeping problem (which i think dos mame may have fixed as well).

So heres to hoping this has fixed my beeping prob (i will test again and report back). But do any of you know why the game looks amazing now? Thank so much peale, hopefully this has solved my problem.

Truz · « **Reply #74 on:** March 23, 2004, 05:28:29 pm »

Sorry if my post is a little incoherent because of the bad grammar and such, i was really excited about what i had found, hehe

Truz · « **Reply #75 on:** March 23, 2004, 09:17:21 pm »

well i tested it again and I once again did not get the beep from the mb. Looking good so far. Ill test it again tomorrow.

But can anyone explain to me why the picture looks so much better for me in dos mame? The only bad thing was the volume was much lower. But why did i see much better visual results with this version? Also does mamewah work with dos mame?

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #76 on:** March 24, 2004, 06:36:11 am »

Quote from: Truz on March 23, 2004, 09:17:21 pm

well i tested it again and I once again did not get the beep from the mb. Looking good so far. Ill test it again tomorrow.
But can anyone explain to me why the picture looks so much better for me in dos mame?

I haven't used straight DOS MAME since before windows went to command-line MAME. I would bet you could get the same picture out of WinMAME with some tweaking - Figure out what resolution DOS MAME is using and select that for the particular game in Win MAME, turn hardware stretch off so you get the black borders, experiment with the different scanline options, etc.

Quote

The only bad thing was the volume was much lower.

Did you try adjusting it with the tilde menu?

Quote

Also does mamewah work with dos mame?

Yes, according to it's webpage.

I'm more curious why DOS MAME fixed the beeping problem, especially since I assume you were running it under a DOS box with Windows still in the background (not pure DOS mode). Anyone have any ideas?

Truz · « **Reply #77 on:** March 24, 2004, 08:38:10 am »

ahh i forgot about the tilde menu, ill give that a try later when i get back from classes.

Also i was not running this in pure dos. It was out of a dos window in Windows Millenium. Im curious as well, why do you guys think this may have solved my beeping problem. I say may because i still want to give it a couple more tests later today, but i am pretty sure that this probably has solved my problem.

Truz · « **Reply #78 on:** March 24, 2004, 09:02:00 pm »

well did another testing and i think this has solved my problem. WOOHOO!

But when i went to go try out dos mame in mamewah (see if that might cause a problem) i am having trouble. Mamewah sees all my roms and displays all of the artwork but when i go to launch a game the loading box comes up and it locks up there. The whole computer freezes and i have to restart. Its weird, the game wont load and it locks up on the loading box. Whats the deal

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #79 on:** March 25, 2004, 08:35:40 am »

Quote from: Truz on March 24, 2004, 08:38:10 am

Also i was not running this in pure dos. It was out of a dos window in Windows Millenium. Im curious as well, why do you guys think this may have solved my beeping problem.

I have a theory, but that's all it is . . .

Last night I was playing a few games in MAME and it was behaving weird (P1B1 would either not work or would fire repeatedly until I opened the UI menu, then it would work fine. P1B2 was mapped to NONE, even though I don't have any ctrlr.ini files set up this way).

I didn't test it out, but I think this is my problem - I was using a PC joystick, but it died, and it was messing up some games, so I unplugged it, but I didn't change the "joystick 0" line in my mame.ini file, so MAME was still polling the gameport and getting confused.

How this applies to you is: Commandline winMAME stores configuration in the mame.ini file, DOS MAME in the mame.cfg file, and I'm not sure where MAME32 store it.

Presumably, when you installed DOS MAME, you didn't copy all the settings from your mame.ini file, so you didn't pick up the setting that was causing the problem, whatever that is . . .

But it's just a hunch . . .


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