Dell Inspiron no display and beeps 8 times when switched on?

Draeger

Draeger

Draeger

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As above. It's about 1 and a half years old. i3 based, when switched on there's no display at all, it just beeps 8 times then it's silent then it repeats the beeps again. Google suggests either a faulty GPU or LCD screen. I've taken it apart and checked all cables in relation to the screen, removed and reseated the memory and also tried the battery discharge trick to no avail. Google says hold the 'D' key when powering up to test the display but this does nothing. Any ideas folks?. Owner is rather miffed that the GPU or screen is goosed at only 1 and a half years old!!
 
Right, hooked the laptop up to my TV via an HDMI cable and it booted fine with no issues although the actual laptop screen still remained dead. Any advice on what the next step is?. Does this mean it's likely to require a new LCD screen or could it be the inverter or some other component?. Kinda worried about ordering a replacement screen and finding it still doesn't work.
 
Right, took the plunge and ordered a replacement LCD screen last night, hopefully it will solve the issue. Can't understand why pressing 'D' at boot up doesn't work though.
 
Table 3-1. POST Beep Codes
Beep Codes Error Probable Causes
1 Memory refresh failure. Defective system board.
2 Error occurred in first 64 KB of main memory. Faulty DIMM or defective system board.
3 Read or write error occurred in first 64 KB of main memory. Faulty DIMM.
4 Timer on system board malfunctioned. Defective system board.
5 Microprocessor error. Defective microprocesor.
6 Gate A20 failure. Defective system board.
7 Microprocessor-execption interrupt error. Defective microprocessor.
8 Video memory read/write error. Missing or faulty video adapter.
9 ROM checksum value does not match value encoded in system BIOS. Corrupted system BIOS program or defective system BIOS chip.
10 NVRAM shutdown register read/write error. Defective system board.
11 Cache memory error. Defective microprocessor or cache card.
1-2 Video adapter failure. Faulty video adapter.
1-3 No monitor connected. Loose video cable connection or defective video cable.
Faulty video adapter.

Does not look good tbh

What model?
 
Nope, F12 doesn't do anything either. It will boot up with no issue whatsoever if its connected to an external source via either a monitor cable or an HDMI cable to a TV.

It's a Dell Inspiron 15R 5010. After Googling it, I found that 8 beeps means LCD failure. I'm assuming the GPU is working fine since it will happily output to an external source. When it is doing this, the actual laptop screen remains completely dead.
 
OEMs are almost always maddeningly coy regarding beep codes. All the charts for Dell laptops I've seen show 8 beeps to be video memory, maybe I'm not looking hard enough

Does the laptop continue to POST and boot to Windows without an external display?

Video from similar laptop


The diagnostics option should be in there...

If F12 does not show at POST maybe you have to enable it in BIOS first
 
Nope, if it is not connected to an external display it doesn't appear to POST and doesn't boot to Windows as far as I can tell. Just beeps 8 times in a repeating loop.

Some results of searches for the issue specify video memory read/write error and a lot mention LCD failure :-

http://search.dell.com/results.aspx...&~srd=False&ipsys=False&advsrch=False&~ck=tab

So I can't access the BIOS or use F12 / D to see if anything untowards is going on when the laptop is unconnected to an external source as it just gives me the 8 beeps in a loop and never goes any further than this. By the same token, if I hook it up to an external monitor, would it not be the case that because it will think 'Ahh....I can boot ok as I've got an external source to send a signal to' that any diagnostic that I try and access and run at that point will not show up any issues that would be present without the external source connected?. If that makes sense?.
 
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IIRC if you can get into the diagnostic utility using an external screen you can still run internal display diagnostics. What good that will do IDK, these days I just throw a new screen on laptops in this kind of scenario and see what happens...
 
Roger all that, I'll hook it back up to an LCD monitor tomorrow and try running the diagnostics and see what it comes up with. I'll post back with results. Ta. :)
 
Just thought I would update this thread, new screen arrived this morning. Now fitted and everything working perfectly. :)
 
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