Beep Codes

Your computer might emit a series of beeps during start-up if the monitor cannot display errors or problems. This series of beeps, called a beep code, identifies a problem. One possible beep code (code 1-3-1) consists of one beep, a burst of three beeps, and then one beep. This beep code tells you that the computer encountered a memory problem.

If your computer beeps during start-up:

1Write down the beep code.

2See "Dell Diagnostics" on page 28 to identify a more serious cause.

3Contact Dell for technical assistance. For information on contacting Dell, see your online

User’s Guide.

Code

Cause

Code

Cause

 

 

 

 

1-1-2

Microprocessor register failure

3-1-4

Slave interrupt mask register failure

 

 

 

 

1-1-3

NVRAM read/write failure

3-2-2

Interrupt vector loading failure

 

 

 

 

1-1-4

ROM BIOS checksum failure

3-2-4

Keyboard Controller test failure

 

 

 

 

1-2-1

Programmable interval timer failure

3-3-1

NVRAM power loss

 

 

 

 

1-2-2

DMA initialization failure

3-3-2

Invalid NVRAM configuration

 

 

 

 

1-2-3

DMA page register read/write

3-3-4

Video Memory test failure

 

failure

 

 

 

 

 

 

1-3

Video Memory test failure

3-4-1

Screen initialization failure

 

 

 

 

1-3-1 through 2-4-4

Memory not being properly

3-4-2

Screen retrace failure

 

identified or used

 

 

 

 

 

 

3-1-1

Slave DMA register failure

3-4-3

Search for video ROM failure

 

 

 

 

3-1-2

Master DMA register failure

4-2-1

No timer tick

 

 

 

 

3-1-3

Master interrupt mask register

4-2-2

Shutdown failure

 

failure

 

 

 

 

 

 

4-2-3

Gate A20 failure

4-4-1

Serial or parallel port test failure

 

 

 

 

4-2-4

Unexpected interrupt in protected

4-4-2

Failure to decompress code to

 

mode

 

shadowed memory

 

 

 

 

4-3-1

Memory failure above address

4-4-3

Math-coprocessor test failure

 

0FFFFh

 

 

 

 

 

 

4-3-3

Timer-chip counter 2 failure

4-4-4

Cache test failure

 

 

 

 

4-3-4

Time-of-day clock stopped

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Reference Guide

 

35