Strange sound from speakers when crashing

[Guthrie]

System shuts down, or locks up, there's still video on the monitors, but nothing works, then this really strange sound comes from the speakers. It's a fluttering sound, exactly like putting the edge of a playing card or piece of paper in a fan. It's definitely coming from the speakers, not from something actually in the fan.

I've googled error codes and it says a repeating beep may be the motherboard or memory. However, this doesn't sound like any error code I've ever heard. It's not beeps, but fluttering.

The local repair guy is as stumped as I am.

P4, MSI motherboard, 1GB RAM, XP Pro.

It worked fine for a year, normally running 24/7 and updating software and running virus scans overnight unattended. Recently it's been dead in the morning a couple of times, but it has always rebooted no problem.

Strange problems started about a month ago. Some keys on the keyboard stopped working, but moving the keyboard to another computer works fine, then bringing it back to the original it works fine. Sometimes the mouse locks up, but the keyboard works. Sometimes the mouse, and the USB keypad works, but the keyboard doesn't.

Sometimes it boots then hangs up on the Windows screen. Sometimes it gets past that screen then hangs up after clicking on the user screen.

A few days ago, after several unsuccessful boot attempts, it wouldn't turn on at all. I let it sit a couple of hours then it turned on and ran fine.

All the fans are working, all the voltage levels are correct, the processor temperature was 89 degrees F.

It's had all manner of virus and trojan scans, by me and the repair shop, and since it's used for poker only, and I never surf the net or use any suspect software on it, the chance of a virus or trojan is remote anyway.

Any suggestions before I start ripping out and replacing components? Like I said, it's my poker computer, so it's cheaper to replace any part of it rather than have it lock up again with four tourneys open.

[Meech]

Sounds like hardware. That beeping is most likely just the audio card stuck when it locks.

I originally thought it might be a driver issue, but with all that other wierd [censored] happening -- probably hardware.

Half assed guess as to which part is failing, in order of preference is...

Memory - Motherboard - Hard Drive - something else.

Try a chkdsk too.

Software is not totally out of the question either. You can try reloading the OS, but this sounds more like hardware.

Anything peculiar in your event log?

[Guthrie]

Nothing odd in the event log, and nothing at all at the time of the last shut down.

I've run chkdsk, no problems.

The fluttering probably is the sound card. That definitely makes sense.

I have it running now with PT set to import hands. I'll leave it running for a day or two and see if it shuts down again.

Then I'll try reinstalling the OS.

I have a new P4 cpu and another copy of XP Pro laying around so I may just build a new system and get back to playing poker and deal with this one later.

[BiPolar_Nut]

you could pull the sound card out for a few-day test run as well if you suspect it.