continuous system speaker from booting on

[Ray Parrish]

Tobias Verbeke wrote:
> Hi Jason,
>
> Jason Crain wrote:
>   
>> Tobias Verbeke wrote:
>>     
>>> I'm running Jaunty alpha (up to date)
>>> on a Compal JHL90 laptop and since
>>> some days I live with the system
>>> speaker producing one continuous beep
>>> from boot time till I shut down.
>>>
>>> Can I provide logs for someone to shed
>>> light on this strange phenomenon ?
>>>   
>>>       
>> Does it also do that outside of Ubuntu, like while running memtest86?
>>     
>
> No, it doesn't do this while running memtest86.
>
> One error message I was able to read during boot was
> something along
>
> Unable to open /etc/udev/rules.d
>
> Thanks for your reply. Best,
> Tobias
>
>   
Ok, I forwarded your problem to my electronics technician Uncle, and 
here is his reply to my query about your problem.

The problem sounds like it could be hardware - and in a laptop, that can 
be hard to fix.  I don't know if he is sure the tone is coming from the 
sound system speakers or the beeper on the mainboard - but I also am not 
sure laptops use a beeper anymore since the sound system is integrated 
on the mainboard and could provide the beep code warnings (from post 
errors) through that system.  The continuous tone beep code on most 
system BIOS' means a power supply problem - no warnings at all usually 
signifies a dead CPU/mainboard problem.  Errors that serious do not 
allow even a display, thus the beep codes.

If the usual volume control display is available with the Compaq 
laptop/Linux combo, he could bring that up and try muting or reducing 
the volume of each sound source individually.  If the source is just one 
input, troubleshoot that input (synthesizer or MIDI source problems 
could be software), Mike or Line inputs might mean something is 
connected that is receiving crosstalk from the sound system output - not 
likely since the tone frequency or volume would change with any movement 
that affected the input cables or devices.  If no individual input 
reduces or quiets the tone, then the master volume and mute buttons will 
probably not help either, indicating a problem in the sound chip (a 
surface mount component on the mainboard).  Open filter capacitors 
around the sound chip could allow a low frequency sound due to feedback 
via the power supply busses (called motorboating) and might be obvious 
from the swelled appearance of the capacitors.

I hope his answer can shed some light on the problem.

Later, Ray Parrish

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