I have this old (4-5 YR) clone machine which runs OK but it gives no POST beep. It has an internal speaker connected to the motherboard speaker jack. Also, external speakers off the sound card work OK as well. I have no idea how much this machine has been modified/abused. Is there a BIOS setting or DOS-based driver, etc that makes internal speakers work? Thanx.

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Speaker is controlled by the BIOS and no manufacturer that I know of makes a direct 
option in the BIOS to turn it off and on.  Some BIOS' will have a setting for silent 
boot which will turn off visual and audio information when booting so check for that 
in the BIOS.  It's possible that the driver circuit/amplifier on the motherboard 
is damaged and won't work at all (or the speaker is damaged).  Windows will use the 
system speaker for various alerts if no sound card is installed, so if you disable 
the sound card and you still get no beep alerts then the motherboard or the speaker 
could be damaged..

If you can do basic or other types of programming and know the address of the speaker, 
you can write a small utility (or find one on the web) to test the speaker to see 
if it works otherwise, but not an easy way to use, or test it if you aren't experienced 
in the deeper part of programming and Windows control.







On Monday, March 31, 2008 at 4:35 am, Jeno wrote:

>I have this old (4-5 YR) clone machine which runs OK but it gives no POST beep. 
It 

>has an internal speaker connected to the motherboard speaker jack. Also, external 

>speakers off the sound card work OK as well. I have no idea how much this machine 

>has been modified/abused. Is there a BIOS setting or DOS-based driver, etc that 
makes 

>internal speakers work? Thanx. 

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Find one on the web? Write one?

Yesirree, here it is.

Go into DOS. (You don't have to boot to DOS.)

Enter QBASIC
The QBASIC interpreter will start.

Type BEEP
Type PRINT "Did it beep?"
That will be a 2 line program.

Press F5
That will run the Basic program.

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dhm wrote:
|Go into DOS. (You don't have to boot to DOS.)
|Enter QBASIC
|
|Type BEEP
|Type PRINT "Did it beep?"
|Press F5


Nice try--but no cigar.
Turn down the volume on your amplified speakers and see what you get.
(Hint: Windoze takes over all hardware calls.)

If you want to do this, you have to be in Real DOS(tm).
...and IIRC, QBASIC isn't part of a default W98 install.
(Anyway, *I* installed it seperately.)


This trick can be also be done quite simply from a batch file.
(The file should be created in an ASCII-compliant text editor;
Windoze fonts show you those stupid, useless squares for too many things.)

The 1st line is:
@ECHO OFF

The 2nd line is:
CLS

To make the 3rd line:
ECHO{hit the spacebar once}
Make sure NumLock is engaged.
Hold down the Alt key and on the Numerical keypad enter 0 0 7
then release the Alt key.
Do a carriage return so that ECHO{space}and that character (a block with a dot)
are the only things on that line. 
cache of http://www.physics.utah.edu/~wiencke/elab/ascii/ascii.html

The 4th line is:
ECHO  Did it ding?

Note: Carriage returns (blank lines) after the last line of text
are not advised in batch files.


This must also be executed from Real DOS(tm) to sound the internal speaker.


To create the file from a Command Prompt:
ECHO @ECHO OFF > C:\Ding.bat
ECHO CLS >> C:\Ding.bat
ECHO ECHO ^G >> C:\Ding.bat
ECHO ECHO Did it ding? >> C:\Ding.bat

Notice that all except the 1st line have TWO greater than signs.
The ^G is what shows up on the command line when you do Alt 0 0 7.

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OK, I can test the speaker and *it doesn't work properly on 98SE*. At bootup bios make it sound right. Same computer running Windows 2000 make the speaker sound right. On 98SE the speaker makes only very mute and brief like tap sounds. I need to test a program that makes frequent use of the speaker, on 98SE. Whats going wrong?

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|OK, I can test the speaker and *it doesn't work properly on 98SE*.
| Rick Trelles
|
It's NOT something installed *by default* under Windoze.

|At bootup[,] [BIOS] make[s] it sound right.
|
*That* is POST--not Windoze; not even DOS.
You're still running firmware at that point.

|Same computer running Windows 2000 make[s] the speaker sound right. 
|
Any box that does, has a proper device driver installed.

|On 98SE the speaker makes only very mute and brief like tap sounds. 
|
In Larry Osterman's article linked below, look for "8253"
(an Intel support chip from ~1979).
These days, that function is part of the Southbridge. 
cache of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southbridge_(computing)#Functionality
++interrupt.controller

See also "square wave" on Larry Osterman's page.

|I need to test a program that makes frequent use of the speaker, on 98SE.
|
If *you* are *writing* a program,
I suggest that you access THE AUDIO SUBSYSTEM instead (i.e. "THE SOUND CARD").

If you *must* actually access the 2" toy speaker in the box:
(The only other thing that I can think of that *does* is the dial-up process.) 
cache of http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman//2005/11/04/489135.aspx
++BEEP.SYS++The.Beep.API

The solution isn't in the article body, but is in the comments (kb/q138857).

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