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WHY IS MY
COMPUTER
MAKING
STRANGE BEEPS
WHEN I SWITCH IT ON?
Does your computer sound like a supermarket
checkout till every
time you turn it on?
That beeping noise is the power-on self-test (POST) that every
computer performs when it’s first switched on. It’s a mini-MOT the
computer conducts by itself to check everything is working properly
before it launches into Windows. It happens so quickly you won’t
even notice it when everything is fine, but when something is amiss,
you’ll hear a series of beeps and may also see an on-screen warning.
The number of beeps you hear is indicative of the problem. But
here’s the thing: every different
computer manufacturer has a
different set of beep codes. Even different models made by the same
manufacturer can have different codes.
For example, at the time of writing, two beeps on a Dell Inspiron
laptop indicates no memory (RAM) detected, three beeps is a
motherboard
chipset failure, and four beeps signals a memory
failure.
On a Lenovo IdeaPad laptop, however, a basic memory
failure is indicated by one short beep, followed by three short beeps,
followed by another two beeps!
If we tried to list every beep code for every manufacturer, this book
would be the size of an encyclopaedia. Instead,
our best advice if
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you hear strange beep codes when you fire up your computer is
to note down the pattern, then do a Google search for your laptop
manufacturer and model name, followed by beep codes (i.e. ‘Lenovo
ThinkPad beep codes’).
