What Does Four Beeps Mean When Starting a Computer?

If you have ever turned on your computer and it began beeping at you, do not ignore it. Your computer is trying to tell you something important. The different sequence of beeps is trying to tell you what is wrong with your computer. These beeps are distinctive and often come with some issue that has developed with the hardware of your system. If you hear four beeps when you start up your computer, it could mean that your system timer has failed.

If your system timer has failed, this means that a series of timers on your motherboard have begun to fail or have failed completely. These timers control various functions on your motherboard. Without them, your computer does not know how to time certain actions when interacting with the different components on the motherboard. Chances are your computer will not fully boot and if it does, it will shut down shortly after. In most cases, this means motherboard failure is imminent. At this point, you should make sure to turn your computer off, unplug it and seek professional help. Do not continue to turn on your computer as you can cause more harm to your system and potentially lose everything on your hard drive.

When the motherboard begins to fail, it can be caused by any number of things. When system timers go, they can often be replaced in desktop units depending on how old the computer is. If you have a notebook, it may be harder to replace these timers because of how small a notebook motherboard is. Take your computer to a repair shop and have a professional take a look at it. They can tell you what your next steps will be. Sometimes it is affordable to replace a motherboard and do the repair work, in other cases it may be cheaper to just buy a new computer all together.