ColonelKernel
Thread Starter
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2001
- Messages
- 5
I need help interpreting some beeps I get at start up after my computer received a shock through the sound card.
When I start up my computer, I hear four beeps: Two at the same pitch, a pause, and then two more beeps, descending in pitch. The computer then hangs up. I can still hear the humming of the fans. When I insert an emergency boot disk, I still hear the first two beeps, but not the second two and the computer still hangs up.
What do these beeps mean? The way the last two beeps descend in pitch sounds foreboding. I'm assuming that the motherboard is gone, but I'm praying that the hard drives are still okay.
I mainly need help interpretting the four beeps, but here is how the sound card received the shock in the first place.
First, my set up -
I used an audio patchbay to hook the stereo OUTs and INs from my computer, a digital multi-track recorder, a stereo and a guitar amp all together.
Somehow, occasionally, I was getting shocked (near 120v), but I never understood why and it never seemed to affect the sound quality. The patchbay has no power source or ground.
The computer was plugged in to one outlet and everything else was plugged into another outlet on the other side of the room. My house has a history of odd wiring issues and the fact that different outlets were used could have completed a circuit.
What happened -
I was talking to a friend on the phone when I was adding the stereo outs from a VCR to the set up and one of the VCR OUT cables touched a Stereo IN cable and there was a bright, magnesium-like spark and I got shocked. I told my friend what just happened and that I'd been getting shocked for a while. He had majored in audio engineering and said to unplug everything, saying that audio signals do not carry enough voltage to shock me like that.
I didn't listen. Because everything had been working fine and I really wanted to record some audio from a TV show in a few minutes, I went ahead with it. I hung up the phone and moved the patch cable from the VCR OUT to the Computer IN and there was another small flash and puff of smoke from within the patchbay.
At this point, I noticed that my computer had no audio what-so-ever. I decided to reboot and while starting up, the computer said it detected new hardware, "New Floppy Drive found. Installing driver software." And then when I tried to play an audio file, I got a message that it wasn't supported.
Now, I knew for certain that something was really messed up and I shut the computer down and unplugged everything from the patchbay. I went out for a bit and when I got back I decided to try the computer again and that's when I got the four beeps.
HELP!!?!?!?!?!?
When I start up my computer, I hear four beeps: Two at the same pitch, a pause, and then two more beeps, descending in pitch. The computer then hangs up. I can still hear the humming of the fans. When I insert an emergency boot disk, I still hear the first two beeps, but not the second two and the computer still hangs up.
What do these beeps mean? The way the last two beeps descend in pitch sounds foreboding. I'm assuming that the motherboard is gone, but I'm praying that the hard drives are still okay.
I mainly need help interpretting the four beeps, but here is how the sound card received the shock in the first place.
First, my set up -
I used an audio patchbay to hook the stereo OUTs and INs from my computer, a digital multi-track recorder, a stereo and a guitar amp all together.
Somehow, occasionally, I was getting shocked (near 120v), but I never understood why and it never seemed to affect the sound quality. The patchbay has no power source or ground.
The computer was plugged in to one outlet and everything else was plugged into another outlet on the other side of the room. My house has a history of odd wiring issues and the fact that different outlets were used could have completed a circuit.
What happened -
I was talking to a friend on the phone when I was adding the stereo outs from a VCR to the set up and one of the VCR OUT cables touched a Stereo IN cable and there was a bright, magnesium-like spark and I got shocked. I told my friend what just happened and that I'd been getting shocked for a while. He had majored in audio engineering and said to unplug everything, saying that audio signals do not carry enough voltage to shock me like that.
I didn't listen. Because everything had been working fine and I really wanted to record some audio from a TV show in a few minutes, I went ahead with it. I hung up the phone and moved the patch cable from the VCR OUT to the Computer IN and there was another small flash and puff of smoke from within the patchbay.
At this point, I noticed that my computer had no audio what-so-ever. I decided to reboot and while starting up, the computer said it detected new hardware, "New Floppy Drive found. Installing driver software." And then when I tried to play an audio file, I got a message that it wasn't supported.
Now, I knew for certain that something was really messed up and I shut the computer down and unplugged everything from the patchbay. I went out for a bit and when I got back I decided to try the computer again and that's when I got the four beeps.
HELP!!?!?!?!?!?
