Beeps But No System Failure

[RobertX]

Robert, make one screenshot again, but now expand items (click + sign) for mainboard and cpu. i want to know your dell mainboard temperature and cpu temperature, also fan speed (if supported by hwmonitor).

I have no idea how to display mainboard temperature, so I will expand everything.

Holding down too many keys at once on some keyboards could cause a beep from the internal speaker on old computers.
maaaybe? Or was that a w95 thing

No, it beeps by itself; maybe it's a Windows 1.0 thing.

[theSEMAR]

well, look like your mainboard chipset is not supported to showing mainboard/system and cpu temperature, also not supported showing fans rpm using hwmonitor. no worries, it's fine (i tried too in my pentium 3 mainboard and hwmonitor showing less info than yours).

but again, i still suspect that might be an overheating (FYI, my HDD never go up more than 40°C). if you can open the case, open it. if you have room fan, try to face it to opened case.

you can also look/see CPU fan, whether the rotation is normal or not, or maybe not even rotating (normal fan is more than 2000 rpm). or as an alternative, if you can go into BIOS at boot up, find an item "Hardware Health Monitor" or similiar. usually bios has fan speed monitoring.

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 521 supporting HT Technology 1M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB
this CPU has TCASE 67.7°C but has no Thermal Monitoring Technologies.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/...z-fsb.html

also, RipSHA1 clue is possible too.
you're not type at your keyboard, but your keyboard has a key that presses itself (usually occurs in broken laptop keyboard, but that possible too in pc keyboard).

[RobertX]

Thanks a lot, theSEMAR, now I'm more paranoid than ever.

But do you know what? The design of the case is that there are only two fans: one on the power supply and one blowing out of the case which has an opening. There are no heatsink fans blowing into the CPU, only a heatsink metal.

[theSEMAR]

wut?

i thought only Pentium 1 is the last series without a CPU fan (i have 1 here).
but, i add a cheap fan at that fanless-cpu-heatsink and wired it with HDD power cable, maybe you can do the same thing..

---

EDIT:
also, if you can look into that old two fans shaft, give small amount of lubricant for both.

[RobertX]

Well, it is a Dell machine, not a gaming rig.

There are no plugs on the motherboard where I can add a fan. Here's the design:

This is how you take the CPU heatsink apart (and, yes, I did add heatsink fluid in spite of the fact that there are no heatsink fans):



EDIT: Like I said, I'll run this into the ground while getting a new computer this Christmas. "Batista" deserves that much.

[theSEMAR]

now i remembered my HP vectra VL with pentium 2.
this machine has similiar design with your PC. only two fans, one at PSU and one blowing to fanless-cpu-heatsink.

i give lubricant to that two ageing fans, so both fan still has fast spin and my PC still run fine without problem.
i also added fan to that machine, not for cpu heatsink but for it's 20GB ATA HDD.

[RobertX]

OK, thank you, theSEMAR, in one hour, you converted me from being paranoid to suicidal.

In all seriousness, I'll investigate the leads you gave me.

Is WD-40 a lubricant?

[theSEMAR]

no need to buy new lubricants.
if in your warehouse or anyplaces near you, there is leftover/used motor/car lubricant, it can be used.
i use used-motorcycle-engine-oil for my cpu fans.

[RobertX]

Motor oil for CPU fans?!?

Egads!

[theSEMAR]

yea sure, motor oil

i hope my suggestions can help solve your beebs problem.