One single short beep has always been a sign that everything was working properly (for all my past computers, anyway -- Since 1995 at least). Even now, after fixing the problems in this computer, it now lets out a short beep and boots up normally.

Hrrm, then I have to wonder about my desktop. It boots with no beep whatsoever. Perhaps I disabled it in BIOS?

I'm sure we've all heard of imaginary friends. Well Matir, I believe you have an imaginary computer! Here's my theory: You push the power button to start the computer, the fans start to whiz, but no beep sounds. The computer freezes in this state at which time your imagination kicks in. Because of your extensive computer background, your memory is able to subconsciously fill in all the missing trivials such as the boot sequence, emails, any work you have done, etc, etc. So you merrily continue "computing" along with no thoughts that anything is amiss. Matir, I must take this time to say, as a friend, this would be a good time to Google "shrink".

Man, I am either too bored for my own good, or I need to see a shrink myself.

Good night all.

That is probably the most unusual reply to a LQ post I have ever seen. I suppose the fact that my computer boots about once a month might also help me forget the beep... if it is there

There are absolutly no STANDARDS for motherboard errors, thus everyone will beep differently for different situations. Some computer will run with ram out, others won't even run at all. Some will beep a few times and others will have a beep that is longer. Only your motherboards Documentation will tell you what each error message means.