Just setup a TH7II-RAID, what is this beeping?

Got a new TH7II-RAID board real cheap, but it's an old one; came with the -37 BIOs dated 7-2001. I updated to the latest Mr. Natural 7F BIOs and now my 2.26 is recognized OK. At least I can boot at 142/4x RDRAM on this board.

But everytime I clear the BIOS I get this high/low beep. I'm pretty sure it's coming from the on-board alarm, not the speaker on the case.

I have the board vidpinned to 1.7 volts, but I am running default settings on my 2.26b now: 133 fsb and 1.5 volts, and it still beeps.

My video card works fine and I can even boot into the Win98 OS of the P4B266 board I had in my case previously.

What's the scoop?

Other questions:

1. Occasionally I get a cold boot problem where the screen stays black when I turn the machine on. If I press the reset button it starts up OK. I thought the latest BIOs are supposed to fix this problem?

2. I have the board vidpinned to 1.7. In the BIOS, I see settings from 1.5 up to 1.9. So do the settings below 1.7 work??? On Asus boards, you cannot access any settings below what you vidpin.

1. That sounds like your overvoltage alarm. Go into your bios and turn off the alarm for it. I had the same problem before.

2. As far as the cold boot problem, try the 7d bios. Supposedly that fixes it. If it doesn't, try the 39c.

3. Whatever settings it is offering you are legitimate, ie 1.5-1.9. You can select any of them without any problems.


One other thing you can do for that alarm if my first suggestion doesn't work is just unplug the speaker from the motherboard, then you don't have to worry about any alarms ever again.

Thanks for the reply, Needitcooler. I just talked to Abit and they said it is a fan header problem. I do have the fan on my Alpha connected to a header but I notice I didn't see any fan speeds in the BIOS.

I have to check the connection or disable the header in the BIOS. I think the alarm going off is that buzzer on the board itself. Can that be disabled?

The cold boot problem doesn't happen all the time. I have to check it out further tonight once I get a proper OS installed.

Man, it's really nice to be able to drop below what you vidpin!

Rather than try to disable the buzzer, just unplug your HS fan and plug it directly into one of the PS cables. Then go into your bios and disable the alarm that corresponds to that header. I have been down your road, and at this point I don't have any fans plugged into the MB, and I have turned off most of the alarms in the bios.

Yeah, that's what I did Needitcooler. I switched to an Alpha 8942 anyway so I have a standard 4-pin plug on the Sunon 80 mm fan.

I have a P4T-E and working P4T533 also so what's my verdict on the TH7II? Very positive so far.

Negatives? The board runs hot! My Sunflower was running up to 57 C. An Alpha 8942 and fan on the RDRAM drops temps to 45 C stress. My board undervolts the vcore by .2 volts! I have to vidpin to 1.8 and set 1.95 volts to get a true 1.75 vcore. Also the BIOs temp is too high. At 40 C (digital probe on CPU) the BIOs says 61 C. So at a true 57 C the board was seeing over 70 C so I was experiencing P4 throttling. The Alpha has helped curb the problem.

Positives? I am fortunate to have a good board. I am using the Mr. Natural 7F BIOs and all is good. It will post at 142/4x but my PC800-45 maxes out at 140 anyway. I was mistaken about the cold boot issue and have no problem with it now. Once a CPU is given the right voltage, the TH7II is more stable than my Asus boards. The vcore voltage fluctuates less than the Asus, and I don't get a periodic illegal op with one of my TSRs in Win98 like I get with the Asus boards. I can do about 1-2 mhz better on overclocks too.

I am running a 'junk' 2.26b at 166/3x. Get 3500 bandwidth. I need a home for a 2.26b that does 175 fsb so I intend to use the TH7II, as my P4T533 (sigh) now has a problem running 3x mode.