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.

All of a sudden the keys will only work if I press and hold them and it also makes a beeping noise – I think a combination of keys have been pressed. Any idea which keys I have pressed and how to disable this?

It looks like you have “Turn on filter keys” function enabled.
Here’s how to disable it in Vista.
1. Go to the Control Panel.
2. Click on Ease of Access Center.
3. Click on Make the keyboard easier to use.
4. Uncheck Turn on Filter Keys.

When I turn my Toshiba Satellite m35x on there is no display and it makes 1 short beep – 3 short beeps – 3 short beeps – 1 beeps

Sometimes after trying a lot it works fine but each time take more tries
what can i do???

Toshiba Satellite M35X beeps this way when you have a memory related problem. Either the memory module is bad or it’s not making a good contact with the motherboard. Try reseating the memory module, move it to another slot. Try installing a known good memory module and see if it helps.
It’s possible that there is nothing wrong with the memory module and you have a problem with the memory slot on the motherboard, but this kind of failures is not very common. In this case you still can use the laptop if you move the memory module from the defective slot to a working one.

I recently acquired a Dell latitude notebook but it gives me a beep error on startup. I press the power on, the power light comes on the hard drive starts up but all three of the lock keys light up and system beeps 5 – 1 -2 (five long beeps, pause, 1 long, pause, 2 long) then it shuts down completely. This system never gets past this point, I’ve tried pushing down on the keyboard, I’ve disassembled it and checked connections and still get these beeps! It’s driving me looney.

I think you have a memory problem. After some search on the Internet I found this diagnostics and troubleshooting page which has a chart with system beep codes. According to this chart 5-1-2 code indicates a memory problem. Here’s a quote from this page:
“When you turn on or reboot the system, the Caps Lock and Scroll Lock indicators on the keyboard should flash momentarily and then turn off. If the Num Lock category in the System Setup program is set to On, the Num Lock indicator should flash momentarily and then remain on; otherwise, it should turn off. Abnormal operation of these indicators can result from a defective SIMM in socket A.”
I think it’s similar to your problem, try replacing the memory module.

I am getting continues beep sound when I turn on my laptop. It says press F2 or F12After pressing F2 or F12, Nothing happens. Any advice?

I think you are getting a beep sound (error) when you turn on the laptop because of a defective keyboard. Most likely a key or keys got stuck causing the laptop to make a beep error. You can try to disconnect the keyboard from the system board and turn on the laptop without the keyboard connected. If the laptop will boots fine, then the keyboard is your problem.