Windows 7 Dell laptop beeps on start up and then freezes

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ianlawton

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May 16, 2011
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Hi everyone

I am having a major problem with my laptop (Dell inspiron 1520). The laptop starts up, whe the dell logo disappears I get some very quick beeps (there must be about 8 beeps in total). I then get a boot manager screen which shows windows 7 at the top, and windows memory diagnostic in the tools section at the bottom. When I press enter it goes to the password screen and then after entering the password it seems to boot up as normal. I can probably get 2 - 3 minutes use out of my laptop before everything freezes. From this point I cannot do anything and have to tur the computer off by the switch. This is all it does in a constant loop. I have tried everything I can think of but still the same issue.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter spilt a little water on the keyboard. I mopped it up but next time I booted it up again the beeping noises started on start up. I removed the memory stick from under the keybpard and noticed there was signs of water damage. I removed the memory stick and the beeps on start up continued every time I booted the laptop up. But everything worked. Last Friday I was browsing the internet and that is when everything froze.

I have tried to restore to an earlier date but it won't let me complete the restore. I have run the various disk repairs that are offered when pressing F8 at the dell logo screen but to no avail (it doesn't seem to find any issues). I really just want to get my files/photos off and then try and reinstall windows but as explained my computer won't stay on long enough for me to be able to do anything.

The computer will stay on in safe mode, however, it will not load in safe mode with networking. Could it be something to do with wifi? Reason I say this is I have been reading various threads and this has been suggested as a possible issue for one person's similar problem.

I'm sorry if I haven't provided all the information that might be needed, if anyone can help I would be most grateful. If any more info is needed then please let me know. Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
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Re: Dell laptop beeps on start up and then freezes - SOLVED

Hi, just thought I'd close this thread as being solved now. I started to get another problem with pages continuously scrolling up and things being randomly deleted. I figured there must be something wrong with the keyboard (specifically page up/down and delete buttons). I just received a new keyboard today fitted and now no more beeping on start up or scrolling. There must have been some water damage on the keyboard and the delete button was stikcing causing the beeping noise at start up. Thanks for your help.
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Right I have done the above and now although the windows boot manager doesn't really appear I am getting more beeps now. When rebooted, after the dell logo disappears I am getting about 10 beeps or so, then you get a very quick glimpse of the boot manager screen which is then followed by another 7 or 8 beeps, windows then loads. I'm not sure what to do now.
 
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Hi, I'll give that a try now. I am running windows 7, I installed a different hard drive yesterday and loaded vista onto that (as my windows 7 disc is only an upgrade disc from vista). After having same beep/boot manager problems with this other hard drive I then swapped back to the original hard drive with 7 installed onto it.

There was only a small amount of water, small enough for me to think no problem. Maybe the problems I am having are a coincidence with the water spillage I don't know. After hearing the beeps upon booting after the water spillage I checked the internet and gathered it must be a memory issue. I then took the memory card out from underneath the keyboard and noticed a very small water mark on the copper strips of the card. Even though that memory card is not in my machine now I still have problems as you can see. The laptop repair shop that I took it into stripped the machine and have told me there was no damage to the motherboard or anything that they could see from the water spillage.
 
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Can I undo the changes I made to the BCD installer? I unistalled it and booted my computer but it still does the same (10 or so beeps, quick glimpse of boot manager and then 7 or so beeps) as when I rebooted after doing what you suggested? If I reinstall it what should I do?
 
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I set the time out back to 30, not sure what else I could do. Now I boot, get the 10 or so beeps then the boot manager, click on windows 7 and then no more beeps as it boots into windows. I also went into the command prompt as detailed in your last message but there is only the one boot option so not a lot I can do with that. Sorry if this is giving you a headache (bet mine's worse haha). I do appreciate your help.
 
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Ok well we at least know there is only one os showing... May I ask if your bios is up to date? Also have you tried unplugging from the mains, taking the battery out of the lappie and leaving it that way for a few minutes?
 
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Hi, yes I have done that. I flashed the BIOS, same version that I already had A09 so was already up to date. When the computer booted after flashing the BIOS the bar took longer to fill up at the Dell logo screen. When that finished loading there were no beeps what so ever (still had the Windows Boot Manager screen though). I thought I might be finally getting somewhere, however, I rebooted the computer and the beeps returned!
 
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How many beeps are there again? A chart can be found here for Dell although it doesn't seem too clear on which models it covers...

Link Removed

It also suggested reseating your memory which I found interesting?
 
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Hi Kemical. I have 9 beeps,sometimes it sounds like it could be 8 as there it seems there are 2 in very very quick succession. These are all very quick beeps and I find it impossible to put them in any sort of order. I have found something else on another website which details Dell inspiron beep codes and it suggests the following -

8 beeps - this indicates a video memory read/write failure. Reseat the video card and memory DIMM or SIMM modules.
9 or 10 beeps - this indicates a ROM (read only memory) checksum error or shutdown register error. This indicates a defective BIOS chip(s). Reseat the BIOS chips.

I have reseated the memory cards. Something is stopping me from getting the palm rest cover off my laptop. I have undone every screw and everything else as indicated on the Dell support website but there is something 'stuck' near to where the bluetooth card would sit. I haven't checked how to reseat BIOS chips or even if that is something I should be doing (as a novice).

I don't quite understand why I was getting these 7, 8 or 9 beeps before and the computer froze. I then got my laptop back from the shop and it beeped just the 3 times but stayed on (didn't freeze), yet when I carried out the easy BCD yesterday I have the 9 beeps again.

I go away for 2 weeks in the morning and I don't have time to really get into the guts of this laptop. Perhaps I should get someone to look at my laptop when I return.

I left my laptop on overnight (I am lazy and don't often turn it off just rely on the power saver to put it to sleep). When I got up this morning the fan was blowing quite hot air out of the side of my laptop, I pressed the power button to wake it but this did nothing. I had to hold the power button down to switch it off and then again to power up. This has happened before recently . Perhaps something is causing it to overheat?
 
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See if the Service Manual will help in disassembly..

Link Removed due to 404 Error

Those things "snap" on, so it probably will not just pull off easily. There should be some instructions about each part of the unit.

I had an older Dell Laptop and the air flow was being obstructed by some dust bunnies in the path that I could not see until I removed the top cover.
 
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I'm pretty sure the beeps aren't from overheating. I have a feeling tho' that some onboard memory has become corrupted and this why your getting the memory error beeps. In this case simply changing the snap-in memory wouldn't fix it and it might be worth running this app found here:

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

The windows memory checker just doesn't cut it really and the above is industry standard. Just make sure that if you have two memory cards to have only one in at any one time during testing. This is so you know which if any are bad.
 
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Re: Dell laptop beeps on start up and then freezes - SOLVED

Hi, just thought I'd close this thread as being solved now. I started to get another problem with pages continuously scrolling up and things being randomly deleted. I figured there must be something wrong with the keyboard (specifically page up/down and delete buttons). I just received a new keyboard today fitted and now no more beeping on start up or scrolling. There must have been some water damage on the keyboard and the delete button was stikcing causing the beeping noise at start up. Thanks for your help.
 
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Solution
Re: Dell laptop beeps on start up and then freezes - SOLVED

Wow really? Man we would have never found that huh? Well glad to hear your all good to go once again and do pop back if you need us again (not that we helped a great deal last time LOL)
 
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