Did you know that anytime you hear a beeping sound on your Dell laptop or desktop computer, there is a meaning to it? Some people might get scared when they hear a beeping coming from their Dell computer whereas there’s nothing to be scared of.
Many people may mistake beep codes for Dell blink codes but they are two different issues but at the same time similar. Although, they can both cause your dell laptop to flash orange but when you understand how they work, you will know they are different.
The beeping noise represents different types of codes which can be identified if you pay attention to them closely so that you can understand what is causing the beeping noise and how you can fix it.
My aim is to help you understand how to read any beeping coming from either a Dell laptop or desktop computer in order for you to be able to identify the codes, what they represent and how to fix them. So, make sure you continue reading this article.
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What are Dell Beep Codes?
Dell beep codes are diagnostic indicators that reveal through a beeping sound on start-up to help identify and resolve any problem on your laptop or desktop.
Your computer goes through a diagnostic test immediately when you turn it on to make sure all the important components like your RAM, motherboard, and hard drive are working perfectly. The diagnostic test is known as POST (Power on Self-Test). When the diagnostic test detects an error or failure, your Dell computer reveals that error to you through a beeping noise that is coded in numerically.
The beeping only occurs when your computer can’t display an error on the screen, so it automatically switches to the beeping noise to let you know something is wrong.
This simply means that if your computer detects an error, it reveals that error to you through sound when it is unable to display the error directly to your screen.
These are other common terms most users refer Dell beep codes as:
- Error Codes
- Beep Codes
- Light Codes
- POST Codes
- Blink Codes
- LED Code
- Power Light Code
Why Is my Dell Computer Beeping?
Your Dell Computer is beeping because it has failed the POST. Failing the POST doesn’t necessarily mean your computer is damaged instead, it means your computer is simply notifying you that there’s something wrong somewhere that needs to be fixed.
To fix your computer from failing the POST, you would need your computer to pass all the diagnostic tests on start-up. The simple way to pass all the diagnostic tests is to listen closely to the beeping to identify which numeric category it falls under. Once you are able to identify the rhythm of the beeping, you would need to trace using the table below to find the culprit.
For example,
Beep Codes For All Dell Laptop and Desktop
| Beep Cods | Descriptions | Failure | Solution |
| 1 | Motherboard: BIOS ROM Failure | Motherboard, covers BIOS corruption or ROM error | Dell Diagnostics |
| 2 | Memory | No memory detected (RAM) | Troubleshoot Dell Memory |
| 3 | Motherboard: Chipset | Chipset Error (North and South bridge error Time-Of-Day Clock test failure Gate A20 failure Super I/O chip failure Keyboard controller failure | Dell Diagnostics |
| 4 | Memory | Memory (RAM) Failure | Troubleshoot Dell Memory |
| 5 | Real Time Clock Power Failure | CMOS Battery Failure | Reset CMOS Battery or Run Dell Diagnostics |
| 6 | Video BIOS | Video card / Chip Failure | Dell Diagnostics |
| 7 | Central Processing Unit (CPU) | CPU Failure | Dell Diagnostics |
| 8 | LCD | LCD Failure | Contact a Computer Repairer |
How to Fix Dell Beep Codes
Run Dell Diagnostic
The Dell diagnostic test might take between 10 – 15 minutes depending on the computer you are using.
1. Turn on your Dell computer and immediately start tapping on the F12 key before the windows logo is revealed. You should get a pop up of your boot menu. In a situation where you get no boot device found on your dell laptop or If you don’t see a pop up, turn off your computer and try again.
2. When your boot menu is revealed, scroll down to Diagnostic or Utility Partition on click on it. At this stage, your mouse won’t work so you will need to navigate with your arrow keys.
3. A pro-boot test should run and you should be prompted with some yes or no question which will not be really important. Press Y for yes and N for no.
4. Once the test has ended, click on any key on your keyboard to boot up the utility partition.
5. Inside the utility partition, among the four lists of tests that will be displayed, click on custom tests.
6. Check the box beside the non-interactive test and then click on all devices located by your left hand side.
7. Click on run tests.
Troubleshoot Dell Memory
There are three ways to troubleshoot your dell memory which are:
- Diagnostics
- Hardware
- Software
1. Diagnostics
The whole point of the diagnostics is to confirm if the PSA (Pre-Boot System Assessment) can run.
Here’s how
1. Turn off your dell computer
2. Hold the Fn key and turn on your computer simultaneously or you can also tap the F12 key as the system is booting up.
3. Click on diagnostics when a pop up is revealed.
4. Your Dell computer will go through a series of hardware tests. Be patient till it finishes.
5. If all the tests are without any failure, skip to software troubleshooting but if you get an error code, you should continue with hardware troubleshooting.
2. Hardware
There’s a chance that you are having issues with your RAM or it’s slot and at the same time, there’s a chance you might have issues with it simultaneously. Also, if your computer has multiple RAM slots, you should also consider that.
It’s either they are both dusty or damaged and these are few ways to find out.
1. Open your Dell desktop or laptop to reveal the RAM.
2. Take all the RAM out.
3. Wipe the golden tip of the ram that goes in the slot with a clean cloth to remove all the dust. Wipe it clean.
4. Get a blower to clear out all the dust accumulated in the ram slots. Try to get as much dust out as you can. If you don’t have a blower, you can use your mouth but be careful of saliva droplets onto your motherboard.
5. Once both the RAM and it’s slots are clean, insert the RAM one after the other testing each slot. For example, take the first RAM and insert into slot 1 and then turn on your computer to run the diagnostics to see if that particular ram and slot is working.
6. Repeat that step with all your RAM and slots to find out which is working and which isn’t.
If you have a damaged RAM with a working slot, you can easily buy a Laptop RAM or Desktop RAM on Amazon.
3. Software
The software test is performed while your computer is turned on and fully booted to Windows. The aim here is to confirm if your computer is using a high percentage of your RAM. This way, we would be able to tell if your computer needs more RAM or not.
Here’s how to check your memory usage,
1. Hold the following keys below to reveal your task manager.
2. Click on more details.
3. Navigate to the memory tab and click on it.
4. Run the common programs you regularly use.
5. Go back to the task manager and see how many percent of memory is consumed by your computer.
Anything below 60% means your computer doesn’t need an upgrade but anything above 70% means you need to upgrade your RAM for performance improvements. You can learn more on why you need to upgrade your RAM here.
Reset Dell CMOS Battery
Here’s how,
1. Turn off your Dell computer.
2. Disconnect your battery and other peripherals.
3. Open your Dell laptop or desktop to reveal the motherboard.
4. Take out the battery that looks like a coin.
5. Hold down your power button for 15 – 20 sec to completely drain any leftover power.
6. Place the coin looking battery back correctly.
7. Reconnect your battery and assemble your computer together.
8. You’re done.
Contact a Computer Engineer
If you happen to be reading this section, there’s a possibility that your Dell computer is facing a hardware problem. In this situation, the best advice would be to visit a professional that deals in computer repairs.
Your Dell might be being eight times which indicates you may have an LCD problem meaning there’s a chance you have display issues.
LCD issues are not something you can just fix at home. and most of the time, LCDs usually get replaced. So, my advice for you is to visit your nearest computer repair shop to resolve your Dell computer.
