Three beeps on startup

The consecutive beeps has to do with the RAM either being bad or seated incorrectly.

Try reseating both sticks or testing one at a time to see which one, if any, is bad.

Then are you sure it's three beeps? The reason I ask is that error code only refers to the memory being seated improperly and/or being bad.

Yes. That does not make any sense whatsoever.

I'm out of ideas as there are no more.

Could it be caused by the SATA drive being NTFS formatted?

brainwave89 said:

Thank you imaketouchtheme.

The beeps only occur when I insert the SATA drive and restart the computer. When I replace it with the SSD drive it boots w/o any beeps. I've inserted the SATA drive at least on three separate occasions.

This would suggest that the RAM is not the issue.

Click to expand...

Still doesn't hurt to try it.

Similar: MBP & three beeps after SSD/SL install

I had MicroCenter install the drive without issue using a OWC DataDoubler in the optical bay. I know the newer MBPs have a 6GBPS controller for the optical bay but my SSD--a 128GB Kingston V100+ (SNVP325S2128GB)--is 3 GBPS so it wouldn't make a difference. Besides, I wanted to keep the SMS for my 750GB WD HD.

The SSD is readable and writeable in Snow Leopard (10.6.7), booted from my standard HD. The only way I could install OS X on it was via Target Disk Mode using my wife's 2008 MBP, which completed without error.

I have tried holding the Option key on startup and selecting the SSD, as well as booting into the standard HD installation and setting the SSD as the Startup Disk in System Preferences. Neither works.

The SSD was formatted with one Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID partition.

I have tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM to no avail. I have also tried resetting SMC.

Any ideas?

Power On Self-Test Beep Definition - Part 2

3 beeps = no good banks

Click to expand...

RAM is good.

I have read the article on beeps, indicating 3 beeps = RAM issue. I reseated the RAM and it made no difference. The system works fine when booted via standard HD and both DIMMs are detected in About This Mac, for a total of 8 GB.

Well, since the system boots fine with the SSD, the problem is with the SATA NTFS hard drive. Have you tried reformatting it?

brainwave89 said:

I a month old MBP with a bto SSD. When I removed the SSD drive and placed a SATA drive that is NTFS formatted I hear three beeps and the screen stays frozen. I cannot boot from my Snow Leopard DVD.

Click to expand...

If you're using the SATA drive as your internal drive, it must be formatted HFS+ (Mac OS Extended).

I believe NTFS isn't supported by OSX? When you put in the OS disc when you restart hold the option or C key when rebooting it will take a little time bc it loads onto ram and not HD once the setup comes up find the disk utility and select the HD erase it with format journaled or extended journaled that SHOULD solve your problem because if the ram wasn't working properly you couldnt run with SSD

Hey brainwave89

Did you solve your problem?
I'm having the exact same issue.

No faulty RAM and 3 beeps when I boot from Snow Leopard DVD.

Feeling a bit stuck.

Is the problem solved?

Hi

I have the exact same problem.

Its a brand new MBP with 8 gb and Vertex SSD. When its connected, I hear 3 beeps. Is the disk damaged? It works only with the original disk. No memory problem.

Best Regards
Kristoffer Engh

I got mine finally working

[Solved]

Had the same problem (using a Vertex III like kristoffer.engh).
However I had an external HDD with a Time Machine backup of my first hard drive on it (the process should probably work the same for install CD though).

Problem Root:
The new drive was not formatted to Extended Journaled.

Fix:
1.) I loaded to ram upon booting (by holding option key).

2.) Held option-key down as i clicked on my drive where Time Machine Backup
was. (at this point you can click the install CD while holding option
instead).

3.) Used Disk Utility to erase and format my new drive to Extended Journaled.

4.) Closed Disk Utility.

5.) Install OSX from menu.

6.) Done

My Time Machine backup size was too big for me to restore onto my new drive, but It did have OSX Lion Install option so I went with that.
Hope this helps some of you out there having the same problem.