How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network's WEP Password with BackTrack

This article i s to Educate you for you Security



You already know that if you want to lock down your Wi-Fi network, you should opt for WPA encryption because WEP is easy to crack. But did you know how easy? Take a look. Today we're going to run down, step-by-step, how to crack a Wi-Fi network with WEP security turned on. But first, a word: Knowledge is power, but power doesn't mean you should be a jerk, or do anything illegal. Knowing how to pick a lock doesn't make you a thief. Consider this post educational, or a proof-of-concept intellectual exercise. Dozens of tutorials on how to crack WEP are already all over the internet using this method. Seriously—Google it. This ain't what you'd call "news." But what is surprising is that someone like me, with minimal networking experience, can get this done with free software and a cheap Wi-Fi adapter. Here's how it goes.

What You'll Need

Unless you're a computer security and networking ninja, chances are you don't have all the tools on hand to get this job done. Here's what you'll need:

• A compatible wireless adapter—This is the biggest requirement. You'll need a wireless adapter that's capable of packet injection, and chances are the one in your computer is not. After consulting with my friendly neighborhood security expert, I purchased an Alfa AWUS050NH USB adapter, pictured here, and it set me back about $50 on Amazon. The guy in this video below is using a $12 model he bought on Ebay (and is even selling his router of choice). You won't go wrong with the Alfa, but do your research. There are plenty of resources on getting aircrack-compatible adapters out there.
• A BackTrack 3 Live CD. We already took you on a full screenshot tour of how to install and use BackTrack 3, the Linux Live CD that lets you do all sorts of security testing and tasks. Download yourself a copy of the CD and burn it, or load it up in VMware to get started. (I tried the BackTrack 4 pre-release, and it didn't work as well as BT3. Do yourself a favor and stick with BackTrack 3 for now.)
• A nearby WEP-enabled Wi-Fi network. The signal should be strong and ideally people are using it, connecting and disconnecting their devices from it. The more use it gets while you collect the data you need to run your crack, the better your chances of success.
• Patience with the command line. This is an ten-step process that requires typing in long, arcane commands and waiting around for your Wi-Fi card to collect data in order to crack the password. Like the doctor said to the short person, be a little patient.

Crack That WEP

To crack WEP, you'll need to launch Konsole, BackTrack's built-in command line. It's right there on the taskbar in the lower left corner, second button to the right. Now, the commands. First run the following to get a list of your network interfaces:

airmon-ng

The only one I've got there is labeled ra0. Yours may be different; take note of the label and write it down. From here on in, substitute it in everywhere a command includes (interface). Now, run the following four commands. See the output that I got for them in the screenshot below.

airmon-ng stop (interface)
ifconfig (interface) down
macchanger --mac 00:11:22:33:44:55 (interface)
airmon-ng start (interface)

If you don't get the same results from these commands as pictured here, most likely your network adapter won't work with this particular crack. If you do, you've successfully "faked" a new MAC address on your network interface, 00:11:22:33:44:55.
Now it's time to pick your network. Run:

airodump-ng (interface)

To see a list of wireless networks around you. When you see the one you want, hit Ctrl+C to stop the list. Highlight the row pertaining to the network of interest, and take note of two things: its BSSID and its channel (in the column labeled CH), as pictured below. Obviously the network you want to crack should have WEP encryption (in the ENC) column, not WPA or anything else. Like I said, hit Ctrl+C to stop this listing. (I had to do this once or twice to find the network I was looking for.) Once you've got it, highlight the BSSID and copy it to your clipboard for reuse in the upcoming commands.
Now we're going to watch what's going on with that network you chose and capture that information to a file. Run:

airodump-ng -c (channel) -w (file name) --bssid (bssid) (interface)

Where (channel) is your network's channel, and (bssid) is the BSSID you just copied to clipboard. You can use the Shift+Insert key combination to paste it into the command. Enter anything descriptive for (file name). I chose "yoyo," which is the network's name I'm cracking.

You'll get output like what's in the window in the background pictured below. Leave that one be. Open a new Konsole window in the foreground, and enter this command:

aireplay-ng -1 0 -a (bssid) -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 -e (essid) (interface)

Here the ESSID is the access point's SSID name, which in my case is yoyo. What you want to get after this command is the reassuring "Association successful" message with that smiley face. You're almost there. Now it's time for:

aireplay-ng -3 -b (bssid) -h 00:11:22:33:44:55 (interface)

Here we're creating router traffic to capture more throughput faster to speed up our crack. After a few minutes, that front window will start going crazy with read/write packets. (Also, I was unable to surf the web with the yoyo network on a separate computer while this was going on.) Here's the part where you might have to grab yourself a cup of coffee or take a walk. Basically you want to wait until enough data has been collected to run your crack. Watch the number in the "#Data" column—you want it to go above 10,000. (Pictured below it's only at 854.) Depending on the power of your network (mine is inexplicably low at -32 in that screenshot, even though the yoyo AP was in the same room as my adapter), this process could take some time. Wait until that #Data goes over 10k, though—because the crack won't work if it doesn't. In fact, you may need more than 10k, though that seems to be a working threshold for many.

Once you've collected enough data, it's the moment of truth. Launch a third Konsole window and run the following to crack that data you've collected:

aircrack-ng -b (bssid) (file name-01.cap)

Here the filename should be whatever you entered above for (file name). You can browse to your Home directory to see it; it's the one with .cap as the extension. If you didn't get enough data, aircrack will fail and tell you to try again with more. If it succeeds, it will look like this: The WEP key appears next to "KEY FOUND." Drop the colons and enter it to log onto the network.

Problems Along the Way

With this article I set out to prove that cracking WEP is a relatively "easy" process for someone determined and willing to get the hardware and software going. I still think that's true, but unlike the guy in the video below, I had several difficulties along the way. In fact, you'll notice that the last screenshot up there doesn't look like the others—it's because it's not mine. Even though the AP which I was cracking was my own and in the same room as my Alfa, the power reading on the signal was always around -30, and so the data collection was very slow, and BackTrack would consistently crash before it was complete. After about half a dozen attempts (and trying BackTrack on both my Mac and PC, as a live CD and a virtual machine), I still haven't captured enough data for aircrack to decrypt the key. So while this process is easy in theory, your mileage may vary depending on your hardware, proximity to the AP point, and the way the planets are aligned. Oh yeah, and if you're on deadline—Murphy's Law almost guarantees it won't work if you're on deadline.

Write Your Own Name in Place of Start MenuThis is a featured page

It's Very Simple you can do this in two simple Steps
Step 1 -
Modify Explorer.exe File In order to make the changes, the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows needs to be edited. Since explorer.exe is a binary file it requires a special editor. For purposes of this article I have used Resource Hacker. Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems. get this from http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/ftp/tools/ResHack.zip The first step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive where it will be safe. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe. The category we are going to be using is "String Table". Expand it by clicking the plus sign then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable. We’re going to modify item 578, currently showing the word “start” just as it displays on the current Start button. There is no magic here. Just double click on the word “start” so that it’s highlighted, making sure the quotation marks are not part of the highlight. They need to remain in place, surrounding the new text that you’ll type. Go ahead and type your new entry. In my case I used Click Me! You’ll notice that after the new text string has been entered the Compile Script button that was grayed out is now active. I won’t get into what’s involved in compiling a script, but suffice it to say it’s going to make this exercise worthwhile. Click Compile Script and then save the altered file using the Save As command on the File Menu. Do not use the Save command – Make sure to use the Save As command and choose a name for the file. Save the newly named file to C:\Windows.


Step 2 – Modify the Registry !!!make a backup of your registry before making changes!!! Now that the modified explorer.exe has been created it’s necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. If you don’t know how to access the registry I’m not sure this article is for you, but just in case it’s a temporary memory lapse, go to Start (soon to be something else) Run and type regedit in the Open field. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon In the right pane, double click the "Shell" entry to open the Edit String dialog box. In Value data: line, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer.exe file. Click OK. Close Registry Editor and either log off the system and log back in, or reboot the entire system if that’s your preference. If all went as planned you should see your new Start button with the revised text.[/b]

How to Keep Your Computer Up to Date

An important part of owning a personal computer is keeping your software up-to-date. Security patches, upgrades, and hotfixes need to be installed to make your computer safer while connected to the Internet. When using a computer running Microsoft Windows, this checklist can include windows, antivirus, antispyware, and firewall updates. However, for most computer users this can seem like a daunting task and I hardly ever work on a customer's computer without finding at least one missing needed update concerning hardware or software.

The Basic Updates

Windows Updates

At the very least, you should keep your computer up-to-date with the latest Windows security patches and updates for your operating system. Microsoft has made it fairly easy to keep everything updated by including an automatic updates feature in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Although its not always advised to install Windows updates when they are immediately released, it is a good idea to install these updates shortly after they are released. In most cases, Windows updates are created to fix security holes and vunerabilities in Windows that can be exploited by hackers to take over your computer or use it to send spam or viruses. If you don't have Windows set to automatically update, you can visit the following website to check your computer for these updates and download them.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Antivirus Updates

Keeping your antivirus software up-to-date is also an important step in keeping your computer running properly while connected to the Internet. I run across many computers that have antivirus software installed, but the virus signatures have not been updated in several months or even years. Your antivirus software is only as good as the last virus signature update you have installed. If a virus was discovered yesterday, and you havent updated your antivirus product today, then you are susceptible to being infected by that particular virus.

I have written step-by-step instructions for updating the virus signatures for Norton, McAfee, and Trend Micro antivirus products. Most free antivirus programs such as AVAST, AVG, and Anti-Vir check for updates on a daily basis as long as your computer is connected to the Internet.

Anti-Spyware Updates

Whether you are running Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search and Destroy, Windows Defender, Webroot SpySweeper, or another antispyware product, you need to update the software regularly for it to be effective. Just like antivirus software, software to remove adware and spyware can't remove problems if it doesnt have that program in its database. Unfortunately, many of these programs don't update themselves automatically. When you open your antispyware program look for a button or tab to update the adware database and do this on a regular monthly basis before scanning your system.

Firewall Updates

Most firewall programs will prompt you that there is a newer version to download. Its always a good idea to download these updates when they become available.

Other Updates

What about the other programs installed on your computer, do they need to be updated to remain secure? The easy answer is yes, however most of these other programs don't automatically tell you when a new version is available. The average computer user usually doesn't have the time or the patience to check all these other installed programs and update them. However, a couple utilities have come to the rescue and provide fairly in-depth checks for insecure or outdated software.

FileHippo.com's Update Checker

FileHippo.com, a software download website, released a small program to download and run on your computer that will check your machine for unpatched, outdated, and insecure versions of installed software. The program checks video drivers, software updates for java and flash, adobe acrobat reader, chat programs, and more. If Update Checker finds a problem, it will provide the name of the program as well as a link to download the latest version of the outdated software. The program gets its updates based on the software available on the FileHippo.com's website. So although its not an absolutely complete list of updates its very close. Follow the steps below to download Update Checker and run it.

1) Click on the following link to download FileHippo's Update Checker to your desktop or Visit the Update Checker web page to read more.

http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/FHSetup.exe

or for the standalone version without an installer click below

http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/UpdateChecker.exe

2) Once the Update Checker is saved to your desktop, find the UpdateChecker.EXE file and double-click on it to start scanning or run UpdateChecker from your All Programs menu.

3) After the scan is completed, you'll be presented with a screen similar to the one shown below. Download and install any updates you wish by clicking on the link provided in the Update Checker report.

Possible errors when installing Update Checker

When you try to install Update Checker, you may receive the application error "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application. The message is shown below:

Update Checker requires Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 to be installed. If it is not, you will likely receive the error message shown above. To resolve this, download and install Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0 before running Update Checker. Click on the following link to download Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0:

Download Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0

How to Check What Version of .Net Framework is Installed

If you are wondering what version of Microsoft .Net Framework is installed on your computer, you can download the following program to check your system

http://www.tmgdevelopment.co.uk/versioncheck.htm

Secunia's Online Software Inspector

Secunia, a well known security company, has created an online checker for outdated and insecure software on your computer. Although they don't require you to download a program, the site does require java to be installed to operate properly. You can visit their Online Software Inspector by visiting the link below.

http://www.secunia.com/software_inspector/

If you don't have Java installed or would rather just install a program to check your system for updates, Secunia has released a beta version of Personal Software Inspector.

Secunia's Personal Software Inspector

According to their website:

"The Secunia PSI detects installed software and categorises your software as either Insecure, End-of-Life, or Up-To-Date. Effectively enabling you to focus your attention on software installations where more secure versions are available from the vendors."

Personal Software Inspector detects and advises on problems with more than 4,700 applications and also provides links to updates for the affected programs. PSI installs in your Startup group to monitor your applications each time your computer boots. You can read more about PSI or download it by clicking on this link:

https://psi.secunia.com/

In many cases, these old and outdated versions that PSI finds can be removed from your computer by using the Add or Remove Programs section in Control Panel. Installing a newer version of a program (for instance Java) will leave the old version still intact and you'll have to go to Add or Remove Programs to remove the old version.

Old versions of Adobe Flash Player can sometimes be difficult to find and remove. Adobe has created an uninstaller to find a remove Flash Player. For the uninstaller and more information on why the flash player may not install click here.

FileHippo's Update Checker and Secunia's Software Inspector evaluate your installed programs based on different databases, so each finds a comparable although not identical list of outdated applications. For this reason, it may be a good idea to run both programs at first on your computer, and then settle on which one you like better.

While Secunia's Personal Software Inspector focuses on insecure and "end of life" software, FileHippo's Update Checker will check for updated versions of software as well as some hardware.In either case, these programs should become part of your monthly checklist when updating your computer and protecting yourself from threats from the outside world.

Hardware and Device Driver Updates

What about hardware updates? While software updates keep your computer from being infected or otherwise compromised, hardware updates can solve issues from computer lockups, screen freezes, and printing problems among other problems. There is a cool utility from a company called RadarSync that checks your computer against currently 90,000 updates. The free version allows you to scan your computer and shows you updates for your hardware including manufacturer and filename, but does not provide direct download links. You'll have to go to the manufacturers website and find the driver yourself. RadarSync's Premium version does provide direct download links to drivers, email notification when a new driver is available, and rollback protection when a driver doesn't work as expected.

How to Keep Your Computer Up to Date

An important part of owning a personal computer is keeping your software up-to-date. Security patches, upgrades, and hotfixes need to be installed to make your computer safer while connected to the Internet. When using a computer running Microsoft Windows, this checklist can include windows, antivirus, antispyware, and firewall updates. However, for most computer users this can seem like a daunting task and I hardly ever work on a customer's computer without finding at least one missing needed update concerning hardware or software.

The Basic Updates

Windows Updates

At the very least, you should keep your computer up-to-date with the latest Windows security patches and updates for your operating system. Microsoft has made it fairly easy to keep everything updated by including an automatic updates feature in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Although its not always advised to install Windows updates when they are immediately released, it is a good idea to install these updates shortly after they are released. In most cases, Windows updates are created to fix security holes and vunerabilities in Windows that can be exploited by hackers to take over your computer or use it to send spam or viruses. If you don't have Windows set to automatically update, you can visit the following website to check your computer for these updates and download them.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Antivirus Updates

Keeping your antivirus software up-to-date is also an important step in keeping your computer running properly while connected to the Internet. I run across many computers that have antivirus software installed, but the virus signatures have not been updated in several months or even years. Your antivirus software is only as good as the last virus signature update you have installed. If a virus was discovered yesterday, and you havent updated your antivirus product today, then you are susceptible to being infected by that particular virus.

I have written step-by-step instructions for updating the virus signatures for Norton, McAfee, and Trend Micro antivirus products. Most free antivirus programs such as AVAST, AVG, and Anti-Vir check for updates on a daily basis as long as your computer is connected to the Internet.

Anti-Spyware Updates

Whether you are running Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search and Destroy, Windows Defender, Webroot SpySweeper, or another antispyware product, you need to update the software regularly for it to be effective. Just like antivirus software, software to remove adware and spyware can't remove problems if it doesnt have that program in its database. Unfortunately, many of these programs don't update themselves automatically. When you open your antispyware program look for a button or tab to update the adware database and do this on a regular monthly basis before scanning your system.

Firewall Updates

Most firewall programs will prompt you that there is a newer version to download. Its always a good idea to download these updates when they become available.

Other Updates

What about the other programs installed on your computer, do they need to be updated to remain secure? The easy answer is yes, however most of these other programs don't automatically tell you when a new version is available. The average computer user usually doesn't have the time or the patience to check all these other installed programs and update them. However, a couple utilities have come to the rescue and provide fairly in-depth checks for insecure or outdated software.

FileHippo.com's Update Checker

FileHippo.com, a software download website, released a small program to download and run on your computer that will check your machine for unpatched, outdated, and insecure versions of installed software. The program checks video drivers, software updates for java and flash, adobe acrobat reader, chat programs, and more. If Update Checker finds a problem, it will provide the name of the program as well as a link to download the latest version of the outdated software. The program gets its updates based on the software available on the FileHippo.com's website. So although its not an absolutely complete list of updates its very close. Follow the steps below to download Update Checker and run it.

1) Click on the following link to download FileHippo's Update Checker to your desktop or Visit the Update Checker web page to read more.

http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/FHSetup.exe

or for the standalone version without an installer click below

http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/UpdateChecker.exe

2) Once the Update Checker is saved to your desktop, find the UpdateChecker.EXE file and double-click on it to start scanning or run UpdateChecker from your All Programs menu.

3) After the scan is completed, you'll be presented with a screen similar to the one shown below. Download and install any updates you wish by clicking on the link provided in the Update Checker report.

Possible errors when installing Update Checker

When you try to install Update Checker, you may receive the application error "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application. The message is shown below:

Update Checker requires Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 to be installed. If it is not, you will likely receive the error message shown above. To resolve this, download and install Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0 before running Update Checker. Click on the following link to download Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0:

Download Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0

How to Check What Version of .Net Framework is Installed

If you are wondering what version of Microsoft .Net Framework is installed on your computer, you can download the following program to check your system

http://www.tmgdevelopment.co.uk/versioncheck.htm

Secunia's Online Software Inspector

Secunia, a well known security company, has created an online checker for outdated and insecure software on your computer. Although they don't require you to download a program, the site does require java to be installed to operate properly. You can visit their Online Software Inspector by visiting the link below.

http://www.secunia.com/software_inspector/

If you don't have Java installed or would rather just install a program to check your system for updates, Secunia has released a beta version of Personal Software Inspector.

Secunia's Personal Software Inspector

According to their website:

"The Secunia PSI detects installed software and categorises your software as either Insecure, End-of-Life, or Up-To-Date. Effectively enabling you to focus your attention on software installations where more secure versions are available from the vendors."

Personal Software Inspector detects and advises on problems with more than 4,700 applications and also provides links to updates for the affected programs. PSI installs in your Startup group to monitor your applications each time your computer boots. You can read more about PSI or download it by clicking on this link:

https://psi.secunia.com/

In many cases, these old and outdated versions that PSI finds can be removed from your computer by using the Add or Remove Programs section in Control Panel. Installing a newer version of a program (for instance Java) will leave the old version still intact and you'll have to go to Add or Remove Programs to remove the old version.

Old versions of Adobe Flash Player can sometimes be difficult to find and remove. Adobe has created an uninstaller to find a remove Flash Player. For the uninstaller and more information on why the flash player may not install click here.

FileHippo's Update Checker and Secunia's Software Inspector evaluate your installed programs based on different databases, so each finds a comparable although not identical list of outdated applications. For this reason, it may be a good idea to run both programs at first on your computer, and then settle on which one you like better.

While Secunia's Personal Software Inspector focuses on insecure and "end of life" software, FileHippo's Update Checker will check for updated versions of software as well as some hardware.In either case, these programs should become part of your monthly checklist when updating your computer and protecting yourself from threats from the outside world.

Hardware and Device Driver Updates

What about hardware updates? While software updates keep your computer from being infected or otherwise compromised, hardware updates can solve issues from computer lockups, screen freezes, and printing problems among other problems. There is a cool utility from a company called RadarSync that checks your computer against currently 90,000 updates. The free version allows you to scan your computer and shows you updates for your hardware including manufacturer and filename, but does not provide direct download links. You'll have to go to the manufacturers website and find the driver yourself. RadarSync's Premium version does provide direct download links to drivers, email notification when a new driver is available, and rollback protection when a driver doesn't work as expected.

Shortcut Keys For Windows

basic shortcut keys are a listing of shortcut keys that will work with almost all IBM compatible computers and software programs. It is highly recommended that all users keep a good reference of the below short cut keys and/or try to memorize the below keys. Doing so will dramatically increase your productivity.
Shortcut Keys Description

1. Alt + F File menu options in current program.
2. Alt + E Edit options in current program
3. Ctrl + A Select all text.
4. Ctrl + X Cut selected item.
5. Shift + Del Cut selected item.
6. Ctrl + C Copy selected item.
7. Ctrl + Ins Copy selected item
8. Ctrl + V Paste
9. Shift + Ins Paste
10. Home Goes to beginning of current line.
11. Ctrl + Home Goes to beginning of document.
12. End Goes to end of current line.
13. Ctrl + End Goes to end of document.
14. Shift + Home Highlights from current position to beginning of line.
15. Shift + End Highlights from current position to end of line.
16. Ctrl + Left arrow Moves one word to the left at a time.
17. Ctrl + Right arrow Moves one word to the right at a time.

Power On Self Test Beep Codes for AMI and Phoenix BIOS

Standard Original IBM POST Error Codes 1 short beep Normal POST - system is ok 2 short beeps POST Error - error code shown on screen No beep Power supply or system board problem Continuous beep Power supply, system board, or keyboard problem Repeating short beeps Power supply or system board problem 1 long, 1 short beep System board problem 1 long, 2 short beeps Display adapter problem (MDA, CGA) 1 long, 3 short beeps Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) 3 long beeps 3270 keyboard card

IBM POST Diagnostic Code Descriptions 100 - 199 System Board 200 - 299 Memory 300 - 399 Keyboard 400 - 499 Monochrome Display 500 - 599 Color/Graphics Display 600 - 699 Floppy-disk drive and/or Adapter 700 - 799 Math Coprocessor 900 - 999 Parallel Printer Port 1000 - 1099 Alternate Printer Adapter 1100 - 1299 Asynchronous Communication Device, Adapter, or Port 1300 - 1399 Game Port 1400 - 1499 Color/Graphics Printer 1500 - 1599 Synchronous Communication Device, Adapter, or Port 1700 - 1799 Hard Drive and/or Adapter 1800 - 1899 Expansion Unit (XT) 2000 - 2199 Bisynchronous Communication Adapter 2400 - 2599 EGA system-board Video (MCA) 3000 - 3199 LAN Adapter 4800 - 4999 Internal Modem 7000 - 7099 Phoenix BIOS Chips 7300 - 7399 3.5" Disk Drive 8900 - 8999 MIDI Adapter 11200 - 11299 SCSI Adapter 21000 - 21099 SCSI Fixed Disk and Controller 21500 - 21599 SCSI CD-ROM System

AMI BIOS Beep Codes 1 Short Beep One beep is good! Everything is ok, that is if you see things on the screen. If you don't see anything, check your monitor and video card first. Is everything connected? If they seem fine, your motherboard has some bad chips on it. First reset the SIMM's and reboot. If it does the same thing, one of the memory chips on the motherboard are bad, and you most likely need to get another motherboard since these chips are soldered on. 2 Short Beeps Your computer has memory problems. First check video. If video is working, you'll see an error message. If not, you have a parity error in your first 64K of memory. First check your SIMM's. Reseat them and reboot. If this doesn't do it, the memory chips may be bad. You can try switching the first and second banks memory chips. First banks are the memory banks that your CPU finds its first 64K of base memory in. You'll need to consult your manual to see which bank is first. If all your memory tests good, you probably need to buy another motherboard. 3 Short Beeps Basically the same thing as 2 beeps. Follow that diagnosis above. 4 Short Beeps Basically the same thing as 2 beeps. Follow that diagnosis above. It could also be a bad timer 5 Short Beeps Your motherboard is complaining. Try reseating the memory and rebooting. If that doesn't help, you should consider another motherboard. You could probably get away with just replacing the CPU, but that's not too cost-effective. Its just time to upgrade! 6 Short Beeps The chip on your motherboard that controls your keyboard (A20 gate) isn't working. First try another keyboard. If it doesn't help, reseat the chip that controls the keyboard, if it isn't soldered in. If it still beeps, replace the chip if possible. Replace the motherboard if it is soldered in. 7 Short Beeps Your CPU broke overnight. Its no good. Either replace the CPU, or buy another motherboard. 8 Short Beeps Your video card isn't working. Make sure it is seated well in the bus. If it still beeps, either the whole card is bad or the memory on it is. Best bet is to install another video card. 9 Short Beeps Your BIOS is bad. Reseat or Replace the BIOS. 10 Short Beeps Your problem lies deep inside the CMOS. All chips associated with the CMOS will likely have to be replaced. Your best bet is to get a new motherboard. 11 Short Beeps Your problem is in the Cache Memory chips on the motherboard. Reseat or Replace these chips. 1 Long, 3 Short Beeps You've probably just added memory to the motherboard since this is a conventional or extended memory failure. Generally this is caused by a memory chip that is not seated properly. Reseat the memory chips. 1 Long, 8 Short Beeps Display / retrace test failed. Reseat the video card.

Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes These audio codes are a little more detailed then the AMI codes. This BIOS emits three sets of beeps. For example, 1 -pause- 3 -pause 3 -pause. This is a 1-3-3 combo and each set of beeps is separated by a brief pause. Listen to this sequence of sounds, count them, and reboot and count again if you have to. 1-1-3 Your computer can't read the configuration info stored in the CMOS. Replace the motherboard. 1-1-4 Your BIOS needs to be replaced. 1-2-1 You have a bad timer chip on the motherboard. You need a new motherboard. 1-2-2 The motherboard is bad. 1-2-3 The motherboard is bad. 1-3-1 You'll need to replace the motherboard. 1-3-3 You'll need to replace the motherboard. 1-3-4 The motherboard is bad. 1-4-1 The motherboard is bad. 1-4-2 Some of your memory is bad. 2-_-_ Any combo of beeps after two means that some of your memory is bad, and unless you want to get real technical, you should probably have the guys in the lab coats test the memory for you. Take it to the shop. 3-1-_ One of the chips on your motherboard is broken. You'll likely need to get another board. 3-2-4 One of the chips on your motherboard that checks the keyboard is broken. You'll likely need to get another board. 3-3-4 Your computer can't find the video card. Is it there? If so, try swapping it with another one and see if it works. 3-4-_ Your video card isn't working. You'll need to replace it. 4-2-1 There's a bad chip on the motherboard. You need to buy another board. 4-2-2 First check the keyboard for problems. If nothing, you have a bad motherboard. 4-2-3 Same as 4-2-2. 4-2-4 One of the cards is bad. Try yanking out the cards one by one to isolate the culprit. Replace the bad one. The last possibility is to buy another motherboard. 4-3-1 Replace the motherboard. 4-3-2 See 4-3-1 4-3-3 See 4-3-1 4-3-4 Time of day clock failure. Try running the setup program that comes with the computer. Check the date and time. If that doesn't work, replace the battery. If that doesn't work, replace the power supply. You may have to replace the motherboard, but that is rare. 4-4-1 Your serial ports are acting up. Reseat, or replace, the I/O card. If the I/O is on the motherboard itself, disable them with a jumper (consult your manual to know which one) and then add an I/O card. 4-4-2 See 4-4-1, but this time is your Parallel port that's acting up. 4-4-3 You math coprocessor is having problems. Run a test program to double-check it. If it is indeed bad, disable it, or replace it. Low 1-1-2 Your motherboard is having problems Low 1-1-3 This is an Extended CMOS RAM problem, check your motherboard battery, and motherboard.