I'm sitting in front of my 2011 15" MBP with OS X 10.7.5, just reading stuff in my web browser, and suddenly I heard 3 quick beeps. Anyone know what that means? I did a google search and some people get 3 beeps when they start up and have a hardware problem, or when they get a kernel panic. But everything still seems to be running fine on my MBP, so just wondering why it beeped 3 times?
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What do 3 beeps mean?
- Thread starter slapple
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It could be a RAM problem. Either one of the RAM chips are fried, or one of 'em isn't installed properly.
Happened to an early-2008 MBP of mine before.
RAM is possible, I suppose.
But, as you say, the error beeps for bad memory would occur while you are booting up.
Normal system operation, and nothing else happens except for three isolated beeps? I think that's a software issue, maybe you were pressing random keys on the keyboard, and you pressed 3 keys that had no function at that moment. You may get beeps at that time.
If you get that again, note the time, and check in your system.log (in the Console) for odd events reported at that time.
If it gets more common, and no events in software can be blamed, then I have heard weird beeps from a failing hard drive, BUT you would likely be having other problems, too.
But, as you say, the error beeps for bad memory would occur while you are booting up.
Normal system operation, and nothing else happens except for three isolated beeps? I think that's a software issue, maybe you were pressing random keys on the keyboard, and you pressed 3 keys that had no function at that moment. You may get beeps at that time.
If you get that again, note the time, and check in your system.log (in the Console) for odd events reported at that time.
If it gets more common, and no events in software can be blamed, then I have heard weird beeps from a failing hard drive, BUT you would likely be having other problems, too.
