Strange beeps: Can L2 cache be faulty on Pentium III?

[long, sorry]

I just acquired a used Pentuim III 650MHz, socket 370, which I am
running on a slot 1 board using a slocket. When I first powered it up
after installing, the PC speaker kept repeating a rapid series of beeps
which ascend in pitch. The PC seems to run OK though (I'm using it now)
though a couple of times it has hung during Win 2k bootup (which is a
worry). I have had to disconnect the speaker, as it would beep the whole
time the PC is on. The PC worked fine for 4 years with the old Celeron
400 on a (different) slocket.

The strange thing is that WCPUID tells me there is no L2 cache - see
WCPUID output at end of this post. There should be 256kB!

A bit of googling tells me that for an AMI BIOS, 11 short beeps mean a
cache error. My beeps are too fast to count but there could be 11.
Surely the beeps would all be the same pitch though, not rising pitch.
And they would be slow enough to count, and have gaps between them.
Also, it doesn't prevent the PC booting up.

Is it possible for the on-chip L2 cache to be faulty? Maybe the CPU is
loose in the slot 1 connector? I have wiggled and shoved it in as well
as I can though (but I can't get the retaining clips back to hold the
slocket in, so I'm running without them).

I cleared CMOS and reentered the old values in BIOS setup. It still beeps.

I might try disconnecting all connectors (HDs etc) and reconnecting firmly.

Please help - any ideas?

thanks
Roger

WCPUID output:
[ WCPUID Version 3.1a (c) 1996-2002 By H.Oda! ]

Processor #1 : Intel Pentium III / 400E90C7
Platform : Socket370 (PGA370 Socket)
Vendor String : GenuineIntel
CPU Type : Original OEM Processor (0)
Family : 6 (-)
Model : 8 (-)
Stepping ID : 3 (-)
Brand : 2
APIC : ----
HT Log.CPU Cnt : ----
Name String : ----

Internal Clock : 651.47 MHz
System Bus : 100.23 MHz
System Clock : 100.23 MHz
Multiplier : 6.5

L1 I-Cache : 16K Byte
L1 D-Cache : 16K Byte
L1 T-Cache : ----
L1 Cache : ----
L2 Cache : 0K Byte -------- !!!!!!!!!!!!
L2 Speed : ----

MMX Unit : Supported
SSE Unit : Supported
SSE2 Unit : Not Supported
MMX2 Unit : Not Supported
3DNow! Unit : Not Supported
3DNow!+ Unit : Not Supported

Host Bridge : 1106:0691.01 [VIA Apollo Pro]
South Bridge : 1106:0596.06 [VIA VT82C596x]
VGA Device : 1039:6326.0B [SiS 6326]
Memory Size : 192M Byte
Memory Clock : ----

OS Version : Windows 2000 Version 5.00.2195 Service Pack 1
-------------- : -----------------------------------
StdFunc 0 : 00000002 756E6547 6C65746E 49656E69
StdFunc 1 : 00000683 00000002 00000000 0383F9FF
StdFunc 2 : 03020101 00000000 00000000 0C040840
00000017h : 7A510000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0000001Bh : 00000000 FEE00100 00000000 00000000
0000002Ah : 00000000 C7C80000 00000000 00000000
00000119h : 00000000 9EBDB4B7 00000000 00000000
0000011Eh : 00000000 007426E1 00000000 00000000

##--- Date 01/07/2004, Time 23:17:19

[ WCPUID Version 3.1a (c) 1996-2002 By H.Oda! ]
$$--- Cache Information (Processor #1)

[L1 Information]
Instruct.Cache : 16K byte cache size 4-way set associative 32 byte
line size
Instruct. TLB : 4K byte pages 4-way set associative 32 entries
: 4M byte pages fully associative 2 entries
Data Cache : 16K byte cache size 4-way set associative 32 byte
line size
Data TLB : 4K byte pages 4-way set associative 64 entries
: 4M byte pages fully associative 8 entries

[L2 Information]
Level 2 Cache : No L2 cache


##--- Date 01/07/2004, Time 23:17:48


[ WCPUID Version 3.1a (c) 1996-2002 By H.Oda! ]
$$--- Chipset Information

Host Bridg : 1106 0691 01 00000000 VIA Apollo Pro
ISA Bridg : 1106 0596 06 00001106 VIA VT82C596x
IDE Controller : 1106 0571 06 00000000
VGA Device : 1039 6326 0B 63261039 SiS 6326

AGP Revision : 1.0 / Enabled
(Status) (Command)
Data Rate : 1x 2x / 2x
Side Band Addr.: Supported / Disabled
Aperture Size : 128 MB
---------------------------------------------------------------
A0:[02] A1:[00] A2:[10] A3:[00] A4:[03] A5:[02] A6:[00] A7:[07]
A8:[02] A9:[01] AA:[00] AB:[00] AC:[48] AD:[00] AE:[00] AF:[00]
B0:[00] B1:[00] B2:[00] B3:[00] 80:[0F] 81:[41] 82:[00] 83:[00]
84:[80] 85:[00] 86:[00] 87:[00] 88:[05] 89:[50] 8A:[07] 8B:[00]
8C:[00] 8D:[00] 8E:[00] 8F:[00] 90:[00] 91:[00] 92:[00] 93:[00]
94:[00] 95:[00] 96:[00] 97:[00] 98:[00] 99:[00] 9A:[00] 9B:[00]
9C:[00] 9D:[00] 9E:[00] 9F:[00]
##--- Date 01/07/2004, Time 23:17:48


[ WCPUID Version 3.1a (c) 1996-2002 By H.Oda! ]
$$--- System Information

[BIOS Information]
Vendor String : American Megatrends, Inc.
Version String : 0627
Release Date : 07/15/95
ROM Size : 256 KB

[Motherboard Information]
Manufacturer : PCHIPS
Product String : S760V
Version String : 1.20
Serial Number : S1234567890

[CPU Microcode Information]
M.Patch ID : 10h (16) / 0683

D:2.0 S:0.0 V:T
##--- Date 01/07/2004, Time 23:17:48

Go into the Bios settings and turn the level 2 cache off and see if the
problems persist.

[Motherboard Information]
Manufacturer : PCHIPS

*Them*, hmmmmm :-)