...or how a PC can play a merry tune
Published on April 1, 2005 By Fuzzy Logic In PC Hardware

I switched my PC on last night to be greeted with a diddley-diddley-diddley-de. My, I thought, what a merry tune my PC is playing, never knew it could do that. My glee at hearing this tuneful melody was tempered seconds later by the sight of a blue screen and susequent boot failure 

So out came the screwdriver and off came the case cover. Out came components one at a time, sometimes followed by a diddley-diddley-diddley-de, sometimes not. As soon as it booted I headed off to BiosCentral to look up the code - not a diddley-diddley-diddley-de in sight, though I did spot a di-di-diddley-di or two  

So I continued with my quest of stripping the PC to its bare bones. Then I added one component at a time, booting after each and listening for the familiar diddley-diddley-diddley-de. After connecting one of my hard drives (backup), my little diddley-diddley-diddley-de reappeared. I disconnected the IDE cable, still a diddley-diddley-diddley-de. I disconnected the power cable, silence! Re-connected the power cable, diddley-diddley-diddley-de...

It seems on closer inspection one of the power pins on the hard drive is damaged. Easy enough to get a new (larger) hard drive. It could have been worse.

So the moral of this story is: if you hear your PC playing  diddley-diddley-diddley-de, don't just sit there humming the tune!   


Comments (Page 2)
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on Apr 04, 2005
The beep codes were useless


And they are, unless you happen to be a real guru...Taking the normal trouble shooting steps to determine the culprits is the way of the rest of us.
After very close examination of the MB that I replaced(with a magnifying glass..LoL) it seems a couple of the sauter joins on the board had cracked, probable due to old age and just "Had Enough" easy fix..but as I told my friend..why bother..scrap it..LoL..it's a Plll MB as it is..pretty old...
For sentimental reasons he has chosen to save it, probably until he learns to deal with the loss..LMAO..ah well.

A different make this time, I've had enough of Maxtor drives


Well fuzzy, I do not know how many other people think so, but I personally prefer *Western Digital Hard Drives... I have used Maxtor, Seagate, and more than a few generics..I have had the very least amount of trouble with WD's..
My opinion is purely based upon personal experience..Western Digitals Win!

Zero.
on Apr 04, 2005

You'd think that by now they could replace that old pizo speaker with a proper speaker and let the computer spell it out in your own language?
  

They have....my MoBo has verbal error codes [though this time I haven't heard them....yet]...

on Apr 04, 2005
How about this one... beep beeeeeep beep............booopbeep...click click click. Thats kinda the sound my old dead laptop makes.Anyone have any ideas? I'd like to get it workin for one of the kids...

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
on Apr 05, 2005
A little Bios Beep guide for the terminally confused:-


Link
on Apr 05, 2005
Same as the one I looked at. Still no diddley-diddley-diddley-de   
on Apr 05, 2005
I guess the tune depends on the manufacturer and version of the BIOS you have. Maybe your BIOS likes your harddrive and sings a merry tune to it.
on Apr 07, 2005
I wouldn't call it a song though... More like an orca with a bad herpes outbreak . I dunno, it quit doing it, and nothing bad ever happened... Weird

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
on Apr 07, 2005
My BIOS always beeps, once at bootup, always has out of the box. Maybe I need to investigate.....
on Apr 07, 2005

Meowy .... a Bios is supposed to beep on post.

Once is healthy.

Any other amount means there is a problem

on Apr 09, 2005
The new comp doesn't

BTW the new comp seems to take FOREVER to finish POST, and I've tried turning off SMART and the boot location order but still am presented with a blank screen for about 10 secs
on Apr 09, 2005
click click click


that sounds like a floppy trying to be booted from.

Maybe running a HD diagnosic test would help.
on Apr 09, 2005

The new comp doesn't

Some MoBos can have the post beeps turned off .... but if it's on there will be just the one...

on Apr 10, 2005
the new comp seems to take FOREVER to finish POST


i just dont get why
on Aug 01, 2005
OK. Now this morning my 6-year old PC started beeping uncontrolably--while in Windows. Any suggestions?
on Aug 01, 2005

The most sensible advice of all is...

DON'T PANIC!

 

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