Laptop starts with 4 short beeps followed by 3 short beeps

When I turn my laptop on, I have a black screen and get 4 short beeps followed by 3 short beeps. I’ve tried removing the battery and holding the power button for 30 seconds, but to no avail. When I try to power up after this, I get a 1-1 beep. Following attempts without removing the battery return to the 4-3 series of beeps. I cannot seem to be able to find any bios codes like this. I’m not sure what bios is in it.
I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 with Vista.

Could be memory related error. Do you have two memory modules installed in the laptop? Remove the one by one. Test the laptop with each module separately. It might start properly when the bad module is removed.

Try starting the laptop with the hard drive and DVD drive removed. Can you get to the BIOS window when one of these drives is removed? If yes, one of them could be bad.

Try starting the laptop with the keyboard disconnected. A failed keyboard also could cause the beep error.

If you tried minimizing the system as much as you could but still getting same beep error, most likely it’s either bad motherboard or video card.

7 Responses to “Laptop starts with 4 short beeps followed by 3 short beeps”

  1. 1
    Scott Says:

    I get a similar problem to this whereby the laptop will boot, get past post to the boot loader (be it GRUB when I had linux installed) or the windows boot loader.

    The PC Buzzer/speaker then just start this shrill ring that doesn’t stop, if I hold down a few random keys (and it never seems to matter which ones) it will eventually stop and continue to boot with no problems. If I boot off of a CD this does not happen, this is an old acer laptop whose model number I can not find, the bios has nothing obvious to change (infact I find it ironic that silent boot is enable and it sets the speaker off).

  2. 2
    Saheel Says:

    I have a problem with my Hp dv6000 series. when I start the laptop it gives nothing on the screen but a long beep and 2 short beeps. Sometimes it starts normally without showing any symptoms but most of the times I suffer much. Pls help me to get out from this problem.

  3. 3
    Vicki Says:

    Hi Saheel – I have exact same problem with my HP dv6000. Have you had any luck with finding a solution?

  4. 4
    Shelby Says:

    I have a similar problem with my HP G60 laptop. Out of no where it will make a loud beep. It only lasts for a second but it happens at least once a day.
    Does anyone know why?

  5. 5
    peter Says:

    Toshiba Satellite A100 – how can I replace the Bios Battery?

    The Bios always forgets time and date – the little battery seems to be empty. A friend told me the battery could be found under the keyboard another guy said I had to exchange the complete motherboard of my Satellite A100.

    How do I replace the Bios battery? Any help will be appreciated.

  6. 6
    Jana Says:

    I’m having a problem with the touch pad buttons of my Dell Inspiron 6400. I don’t know what my cat, Tifa, did when she stepped on the keyboard earlier today but the left button makes this loud beep whenever I finish a game of Solitaire. It doesn’t do it for anything else I do. Just a finished game of Solitaire. I did System Restore twice to try to correct it but the problem still persists.

  7. 7
    mike Says:

    vaio model vgn fe890 when powered on it gives one long beep and two short beeps only. the lcd doesnt come on.

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