Incessant buzz / beep from PC speaker during Acronis TrueImage 2014 backups?
Hi!
My PC’s speaker started beeping loudly while doing backups. It will start out OK, then after a few minutes, it starts making a few beeps – actually more of a loud buzz, each one of which lasts for about 1 second. After a while though it often becomes continuous – and very annoying!
I’m certain that it is coming from the little speaker attached to the motherboard that beeps when you boot (not the main speakers) because the sounds stops immediately if I pull off the connector to the motherboard. Also, the noise stops almost immediately when I press ‘Cancel’ to stop a backup.
The backups do eventually succeed and verify, and the log shows no errors, but this seem to be running slowly. (So just unplugging the speaker is not a good option.)
Software:
- Win 8.0-64 bit with all the latest updates.
- Acronis TrueImage 2014 (latest build-6688, freshly uninstalled and reinstalled)
- Avast anti-virus, Comodo firewall, and SUPERAntiSpyware installed (but problem still occurs if I disable all three.)
Hardware:
- Gigabyte EX38-DS4 motherboard (BIOS set to AHCI mode, and Intel’s SATA drivers installed. NOT using RAID.)
- C: drive is a Samsung 840 SSD
- Also three Western Digital ‘Black’ server class SATA hard drives of various sizes.
• I uninstalled and reinstalled True Image 2014, created new tasks, and new backups. It seemed to be OK for a few days, then the problem came right back.
• I’ve ruled out the common things – the motherboard is not overheating, SMART does not report any disk errors, chkdsk doesn’t report an errors either.
• I tried an incremental backup, and it only beeped once, but it is a big problem when doing full backup. I’m guessing this may be related to certain files or folders…?
• I’ve tried different source and destination discs, but it still happens.
• UPDATE: At first, I thought that the noise did not occur while doing a backup using a TI 2014 rescue disk, but I tried a couple more times and found that it did beep sporadically, just not as much. Same with the TI 2013 rescue disk.
• I didn’t find any errors under C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs
• I didn’t find anything interesting in the Windows event logs. I also ran ProcMon, but didn’t see anything obvious going bad.
Thanks in advance for any help! I’m running out of ideas, and Google hasn’t turned anything up.
I appreciate your help!
>> You do understand that any buzzing or beeping you are hearing while using the software is purely coincidence. The program doesn't have any mechanism for playing sound.
It certainly could be something TI relies upon (e.g. a driver or the BIOS) rather than TI’s service itself. I do know that the sound stops promptly when I cancel the backup-so there is a strong correlation with the backup operation. (And I've never hear this any other time Windows is running.)
BTW - I also tried “net stop beep” in an admin command prompt to disable the beep service. It said the service could not be stopped, so I typed “sc config beep start= disabled” and rebooted. But the noise still repro’ed.
>> I assume its connected to the F_Panel connector?
Right, the F_Panel connector. This is the little speaker that the BIOS uses to beep out POST codes when you boot. I can put my ear right up against it to confirm, and the sound also stops when I unplug it. I turned off the external speakers to avoid confusion. (I even used a stethoscope at one point to make sure it wasn't one of the drives!)
>> How about recording this and putting it up on You Tube with a link.
Great idea. Here it is: http://youtu.be/70v-oKnpyS8
It seems to be very low level – probably just a software loop toggling a hardware bit to make a square wave, not a .WAV file playing.
Ich denke das es eine CPU Temparaturwarnung ist. Ich würde den CPU Kühler reinigen und im Bios das Profil für die Lüftersteuerung verändern.
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I think it's a CPU temparature warning. I would clean the CPU cooler and change the profile for the fan controller in the BIOS.
Hi,
Thank you for the replies. I have been watching the temperatures using a temperature monitoring app (Open hardware monitor), and the temps seem to be fine. Good idea though.
**** Important new clue ****
I did more testing with the TI Bootable Rescue Media. I backed up the disc containing C: twice with each of three different versions. Results:
-- TI 2014 Rescue Disk: Beeped sporadically, but less than when running from within Windows.
-- TI 2013 Rescue Disk: Same as TI 2014 Rescue Disk
-- TI 2010 Rescue Disk: **NO BEEPING!** (tested last when the PC would have been the warmest)
-- TI 8: Too old, doesn't seem to support modern, large drives so I couldn't test it.
Conclusion...The problem does not appear to be related to my Windows installation or drivers since the rescue disks repro I too. Maybe a problem with my partition table? But something appears to have changed between TI 2010 and now.
AR,
I'm going to show this to some friends (GURU's) on the Gigabyte forums where I am also a member. MVP G.Uphoff's suggestion is certainly worth trying. Hardware issue, but sure is strange.
A constant buzz of the built in motherboard speaker is a symptom of an overheating condition. Most often it is related to CPU over temperature. The reason this happens when Acronis is running a backup is because of the higher use of CPU cycles during such process. This could also be a symptom of the chipset over heating as well but that is far less likely. Using a temp monitor program is a good idea however to really see true results is questionable. The condition which causes the buzz would need be duplicated and some monitors do not read output correctly from the motherboard as well.
You mention that when this condition first begins it starts as beeps. If you would have a look at your motherboard manual or the manufacturer website you should be able to locate beep codes that may give you a starting point from which to figure out the issue. A google search may and can offer good results here as well.
Although no solution is offered here hopefully some direction is offered to remedy your problem.
It does appear to be temp related. I'll clean the fan/heatsink, and re-do the Artic Silver thermal compound if necessary, and see if that fixes it.
I watched the temps as the beeps started in TI, CPU core 1 spiked at 74 degrees C, up from an idle temp of around 45. Intel's spec for the E8400 CPU is 72 degrees C for Tcase. (http://ark.intel.com/products/33910/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E8400-6M-…) I'm not sure how accurate the reading is, but the core temp did appear to spike when the beeping occurred.
What surprised and fooled me is that the temp dropped like a rock almost immediately when I canceled the backup. That would explain why the beeps stopped abruptly, and why the temp seemed fine when I checked it right after stopping the beeping.
Thanks very much for all the good help!
AR,
Got a reply. Guys at the Gigabyte forums said the same. Temp related. They suggested disabling thermal monitoring in BIOS and/or changing to one of the other 3 monitoring profiles if available. All in line with what others here said. Available settings might depend on which BIOS rev you are running. I'd investigate everyone's suggestions, BIOS settings, replacing thermal paste. Good luck.
SOLVED!
For anyone searching for a solution to the same problem...
I removed the fan/heat-sink, vacuumed it, and blew it out with compressed air. Then I cleaned up and reapplied the thermal compound. Now the CPU core temps max out at 58 degrees C instead of 72 when I backup even though both cores are pegged at 100% utilization the whole time. And that solved the beeping!
I learned that different CPU models have very different max temp specs. For Intel processors, go to this web site and enter your CPU model in the search box to find its spec for the max "Tcase" temperature: http://ark.intel.com/
Windows itself doesn't seem to track temps, but I found the free, open-source "Open Hardware Monitor" to be perfect for the job-and very easy to use. Note that it will report temps for several different things. You will be looking for the temps of the CPU cores.
I don't know how accurate the measurements are, but if it looks like you're getting close to the max, then it may be a good time to do some preventative maintenance on your fan/heat-sink.
Thanks again!