Hikvision recorders (NVR or DVR) come with all the audible alarms enabled. This can cause the system to sound beep constantly even if everything is set up properly. The most common reason people get this beeping sound is because they are powering up their Hikvision DVR/NVR for the first time with a hard drive that has not been ‘initialised’ (or it’s not even installed). Initializing is just another word for formatting, which is the process of wiping off the hard drive and preparing it to be used by a new device. This needs to be done even with brand new hard drives.
Another aspect you need to consider regarding “beeping sounds” is the exception feature of Hikvision devices. There exists a list of exceptions that can generate a certain alarm. Below we will list all the beeping sound problems and solution for Hikvision recorders.
Initializing your hard drive
First of all, make sure you’re using a surveillance hard drive in your NVR/DVR. Once you have physically installed the hard drive on your recorder, you’ll be prompted to initialize the hard drive during the initial set up. Let’s assume that you are starting from the main live view menu. Right click on your mouse and log-in if prompted, and then select ‘Menu’.
Then select ‘HDD’.
You will be taken to a list that looks similar to this; there should be a hard drive listed, showing the capacity and status of it. You need to select the box to the left of the hard drive you want to format, then click ‘Init’ at the bottom right of the page. It might take a few minutes but once the process is complete the hard drive will show a status of ‘Normal’ and the free space will be the same as the capacity (since all the data has been wiped from the hard drive). The the interface on the (new) Hikvision recorders may vary, but the procedure is the same, there’s always a “init” option.
Now, your hard drive is ready to be recorded onto and the annoying beeping alarm will stop.
Disabling the exception feature alarms
If your recorder is beeping after the hard drive has been initialized then this may be caused by things such as not having a network cable connected or certain cameras being offline. Here are the steps how to turn off these alarms. The first step is to right click on your mouse and log-in into your recorder, and then select ‘Menu’. On the Menu click Configuration.
On the Configuration screen select ‘Exceptions’ on the left hand list of sections.
You need to click on the menu next to ‘Exception Type’ and select ‘All’.
Make sure the tick box next to ‘Audible Warning’ is unticked and then click the ‘Apply’ button.
This has now disabled all the audible warning on your Hikvision recorder. Keep in mind, by inactivating all the exceptions, you’ll loose critical information of use, for example in a working camera loses video signal it is mandatory to be notified and solve the issue immediately.
You might however wish to re-enable some of them, for example ‘HDD Error’, as it would be important to know if your HDD had developed a fault. To do this, click on the drop down next to ‘Exception Type’ and select ‘HDD Error’. Tick the box next to ‘Audible Warning’ and then press the ‘Apply’ button.
Now we have re-enabled the HDD Error alarm only. You can re-enable other alarms you may need although this is the only important one for most people.
