Strange one this, my desktop PC (couple of years old MSI RS480M2 motherboard, 1mb RAM,AMD Athlon 64 3000+ chip running XP SP2 & all current upgrades etc) was working perfectly, but would occasionaly make a strange buzzing/screeching sound (been doing this for at least 6 months) - this didn't usually seem to affect performance, but about 3 times has caused it to lock up at the same time as it intermittantly makes the noise. Today it started screeching at me & wouldn't stop, still all working tho' but as I couldn't stand the noise rebooted it. On reboot it still made the row which I traced to a device on the MB which says "buzzer" - now call me clever but I figure this may be a warning device of some sort - I haven't got a manual for the MB & after searching for ages eventually found one online - but it doesn't say what the buzzer is for! Not very helpful. I'm thinking it identifies a chip too hot or something??? Cleaned out all the fans & rebooted & it wouldn't boot, gave me a BSOD; at this point I had a brainstorm & cleared the CMOS & it now seems fine, I'm typing on it as we speak, no buzzer screeching & all seems normal.
Does anyone know what the buzzer is for? The system has a temp display on the front, b4 I cleared the fans out was running at about 62 C, now running a steady 45 C.
Should I be expecting a blowup anytime soon or had it just got a bit hot & this is a temp warning buzzer - but why would clearing the cmos shut it up when I'd let it cool right down b4 & it started screaming as soon as I turned it on.
Any Ideas?

isn't the buzzer just the old internal speakers you used to get which were only for making random bleeps on start up and clicks and stuff, and not much else? and for making the crappy music on old 90s games?

don't know why it would start making a noise like that, but surely computers are clever enough to put an error message on screen if theres a problem?

My mobo started incorrectly setting the overheat alarm off (internal speaker continually going WOOwooWOOwooWOOwoo) about 6 months ago now. I just unplugged it, been fine ever since

No this is a tiny little thing about 10mm dia mounted on the MB there's aseparate little speaker for all the usual beeps & squeaks etc.

^ oh yeah! that makes sense

You probably need more than 1Mb of memory

Hehehehehe!!!

Other than that- NO IDEA!!! Good luck...

Yeh, Yeh ok 1Gb RAM - easy mistake

overheating alert?

If you have cleaned out the fans and it is now running cooler that is good.
However the fact you have reset the CMOS means it may not be reporting the temperatures and so no longer alerting any heating problems.

The only way to be sure is to go into the BIOS settings and see what is now set for the temperature reporting.

Do you have a fan controller that selects the fan speed?
I have one of these on my old PC and it sometimes sets off the alarm. If it is set to slow the PC won't start up.