Quick Reference Guide
37
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:
1
Write down the beep code.
2
See "Dell Diagnostics" on page 30 to identify a more serious cause.
3
Contact 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
failure
3-3-4
Video Memory test failure
1-3
Video Memory test failure
3-4-1
Screen initialization failure
1-3-1 through 2-4-4 Memory not being properly
identified or used
3-4-2
Screen retrace failure
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
failure
4-2-2
Shutdown failure
4-2-3
Gate A20 failure
4-4-1
Serial or parallel port test failure
4-2-4
Unexpected interrupt in protected
mode
4-4-2
Failure to decompress code to
shadowed memory
4-3-1
Memory failure above address
0FFFFh
4-4-3
Math-coprocessor test failure
4-3-3
Timer-chip counter 2 failure
4-4-4
Cache test failure
4-3-4
Time-of-day clock stopped
book.book Page 37 Tuesday, October 17, 2006 11:16 AM
