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Question

Incessant Beeping/Non-stop

Aug 5, 2016 8:06AM PDT

HELP! My Dell Inspiron 15 3521 has a black screen and just makes a constant beeping sound when I try to turn it on. The fan starts, then immediately shuts off, and the computer beeps. I took it in to Geek Squad, and the technician had never seen such a thing, and said it must be the motherboard. I have hardly used this laptop, but it is now out of warranty. Any ideas of what I might check? I am an optimist, maybe it is something easy to fix. Thank you for any advice you can give.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Since you took it in
Aug 5, 2016 8:17AM PDT
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Since you took it in
Aug 5, 2016 8:24AM PDT

Thank you.
He actually just held the laptop in his hand, listened to it, and that was it. He didn't open it up at all, just told me he had never seen that before and it must be the motherboard, and it would be better to buy a new laptop rather than fix it, since mobo are very expensive.

Because it won't boot up, I cannot really run diagnostic tools. After pressing FN and powering it on, over and over, and over, it did boot up yesterday. I did a restore point, and after finishing that, it shut down...and never restarted. (It was so exciting to see it working for two hours....ran a hard drive test, and then the restore point. The hard drive test lasted 1.20 hrs., then it 'extracted' and poof, everything was gone - the wrench icon and any results from the test.)

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Remmeber it is BROKEN
Aug 5, 2016 8:31AM PDT

I have to write that since some folk cringe at looking inside the laptop. It's broken so you can't break it. If this was mine I'd open up the memory or whatever panel there is to access the memory sticks so I can unplug them (there are YouTubes on how to do this) and then try it with just one stick.

It's a common little thing.

You didn't tell me if you tried the generic reset.

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Remember it's broken
Aug 5, 2016 8:47AM PDT

Thank you again for your advice.
I couldn't connect to your generic reset link, and cannot find it anywhere.
Would you mind checking and re-posting it?
Thanks!
Lissa

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Oh nice. You found a forum bug.
Aug 5, 2016 9:20AM PDT
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Oh nice
Aug 5, 2016 9:29AM PDT

I took out memory cards, and re-installed them. No luck.
Have done the reset multiple times....still black screen and beeps. I am thinking the fan turning off immediately must be a red flag - short somewhere?

Willing to keep trying whatever you throw at me to try! Thanks, R.

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While the fan is a clue
Aug 5, 2016 9:46AM PDT

It usually points to some motherboard fault.

There's only a few more parts we can remove so why not?

When I want to be sure it's not the fairly cheap parts I remove the HDD, ODD (hard and optical disc drives), the WiFi card and try one them the other memory stick.

There is a slim chance that the CMOS battery is low and given the dollar item it is (we buy these in bulk) I replace that along the way if I don't have my Volt meter handy.

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Too deep
Aug 5, 2016 10:15AM PDT

I suggest this is a true h/w issue and generally you need more in-depth repairs. Its already too late for a some diags to run as its just not stable as you describe. In effect, you don't have the required skills, you're going to cause more problems. Taking that into acct. and already went to repair shop, well what can be done. I don't like that the tech only held it and did some cursory look, it definitely requires more testing, buy you probably opted out and I would too if that's all they did. I agree is a mtrbd. problem, usually only a repair swap will do.

I suggest then get yourself some ext. HD case to mount your old HD in order to get anything off of it. -OR- if you have a spare HD, swap out and load some OS to test. Also, you may try using an Ubuntu created "live CD". Instructions to do that are get the Ubuntu .ISO file, burn to disc and if done properly will be bootable. See, if you can boot from that disc as 1st boot device provided you have access to bios setting or as laptop hit the required key during boot-up to access a boot menu to select the boot device there. Info on these details are from the support website of your model# and maker.

Offhand, I feel you have a heat stress issue and defeated your mtrbd. and caused it to falter in some way. Thus, the cost of mtrbd. replacement and talent to do such comes into play. Don't be misguided that it worked once and now doesn't that you fix by some s/w or diag. that a hope and a prayer. Another fix, is to buy a used model# like yours and just swap out the HDs and it should work as before provided that's affordable as well. good luck

tada -----Willy Happy

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Answer
listen to the beeps
Aug 5, 2016 10:21AM PDT

the beeps are usually in a pattern. there will be long and short beeps. If you can figure out the pattern, for example two longs then short repeating someone here should be able to tell you the problem using a site such as

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm