Acer beeps 3 times - take bios battery out and works for one boot only then same problem

3

1

I have a Acer T180 AMD Athlon 64 x2

When I try and turn it on it just beeps 3 times and pauses before doing 3 beeps again.

If you take the bios battery out and put straight back in it boots up fine - for one boot. Shut it down and the same problem occurs.

Any ideas how I go about solving this I have tried different memory so far.

Andrew

Posted 2011-05-11T20:56:58.087

Reputation: 143

Answers

5

Hmm. Two sets of three beeps followed by a single beep means either the cmos battery or cmos ram is dead.

Two sets of three beeps followed by a single beep means you have a cmos configuration error.

Both of these are typically fixed by replacing the cmos battery. What you describe is an unlisted error code, just two sets of three so that's somewhat unusual. I'd say replace the battery, but keep in mind that's little more than an educated guess.

Blomkvist

Posted 2011-05-11T20:56:58.087

Reputation: 2 379

2isn't going to hurt anything to replace it. I do agree that it sounds like the CMOS battery is the problem. – Simurr – 2011-05-11T21:24:12.977

http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/phoenixbeep.htm# <- this computer used a Phoenix BIOS which has the beep codes in the site mentioned. Looks like a battery issue. You might also try loading the default (factory default) CMOS settings in the BIOS. – Doltknuckle – 2011-05-11T21:33:54.943

Tried defaults and changing settings around but didnt help. Will try and get a new battery for it. Are they a standard size? – Andrew – 2011-05-11T22:45:46.753

You should have a lithium coin (the ones that look like a watch battery) and, I can't recall off the top of my head, but I think it's just a CR2032 which are really common. Looking at top of the battery will tell you. – Blomkvist – 2011-05-12T00:32:14.420

I did exactly that when I got home. New battery has fixed the problem :D – Andrew – 2011-05-13T07:31:20.793