Computer beeps every 30 minutes

I have recently installed the full 64 bit version of Windows 7 on to my home PC. Everything has gone smoothly for the first week or so but yesterday a strange problem started happening. Every 30 minutes(on the dot!) the speaker on my motherboard will give two, short beeps. This has been going on for a day now and is getting very annoying; the problem never happened when I was running on XP and only began with the upgrade to 7.

The only additional software that has been running at the time of the beeps has been IE and avast, both of which I have tried disabling the sound with no results. I have also opened the task manager and checked to see if any processes have spiked in CPU usage at the time of the beeps... didn't get any results here either.

Any ideas and help is much appreciated!

EDIT: furthermore, it happens in a fresh boot of safe mode too. Also, I have looked through the event viewer and nothing is being logged during the beeps.

Well, firstly lets get you some relief, make your way to Device Manager. Click view on the top and click on show hidden devices. Expand system devices and disable system speaker.

If the beeps persist, it is not your OS causing them and probably inicate a BIOS fault. If you are OCing the board try lowering the settings and be sure to check if there are any thermal events in the BIOS log if it keeps them.

In your [if you have one] Motherboard Manual there should be beep error codes that describe what the problems are. If you disable system speaker you may have an error and never know about it.

Check the MB Manual.

The thing is, if you disable the system speaker in windows, it disables Windows ability to use the speaker. Windows does not have specific beep codes. The BIOS has specific beep codes and regardless if you disable it in windows, the BIOS still has access to it and will continue to create beeps, if it is in fact a BIOS/Hardware issue.

In any case, review your event logs.

Also, if this is a Dell, see if it is OMCI compatable install the driver for it, this allows the BIOS to relay events to windows to report visually what the error may be (I.e.. Chassis intrusion, thermal event, etc..)

Thanks for the responses thus far, I tried the above response that uses the device manager to disable the speaker yet I still hear two beeps every 30 minutes. I find this really weird because I can predict exactly when it will beep by looking at the clock. I turned off the computer and cleaned out the fans and heat sink area so I don't think it is heat or dust.

I looked through event logs and couldn't find anything.... the computer is a gateway that I've had for several years now without an issue. I'm not overclocking or putting too much strain on it. Lastly, I don't have access to a motherboard manual as this is a prebuilt computer.

Thanks again for the replies.

edit: thanks to gateways support center I can say that this is the motherboard that I have: http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERB...5553sp26.shtml

Hrmm.. Try grabbing a Linux live CD and running that and see if you still get the beeps. Or, if you dont have any CDs or dont want to try the linux boot CD, try booting the BIOS and seeing if it beeps while there, may have to leave it at the bios for 30+ min.

Make sure you have a TV available near the PC because this may take awhile ;-)

Just tried it 2 minutes ago and it does the beeping while in the bios! I'm not sure what the problem could be...

Try resetting BIOS to defaults, if that does not work, try taking out the CMOS battery for 10 min, let it reset then try again. If it still does it, you may need to order a replacement board, or if it is under warranty call gateway.

Before calling GW, try replacing your CMOS battery with a fresh one.

Reset the settings, replaced the cmos battery and still a beep... uggg. Replacing the mobo isn't really an option though because it isn't under warrenty anymore

You could probably find a cheap Socket 939 board on ebay or the like. Getting it to fit in the GW chassis would be the problem ;-)