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A Reference Guide to Inspiron Laptop Diagnostic Indicators

Summary: This article is a reference guide to the diagnostic codes available on each model of Inspiron laptops and what those codes actually indicate.

This article applies to   This article does not apply to 

Instructions

Dell Inspiron laptops have built in diagnostic indicators such as beep codes or LED codes that are helpful to diagnose and resolve issues that your laptop might experience during startup. These can be audible beeps, power buttons that display different states and colours, specific diagnostics LEDs or a combination of them all, indicate at which point during the Power On Self-Test (POST) a laptop is having issues.

The following article is a reference guide to the codes available on Inspiron laptops and what those codes actually mean. The diagnostic indicators may vary across different models, see the documentation of your Dell laptop for device-specific information. These indicators are merely a starting point to find troubleshooting steps to resolve startup issues.


Table of Contents:

  1. Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron Laptop Series (2020 to Present)
  2. Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron Laptop Series (2016 to 2020)
  3. Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron Laptop Series (2006 to 2016)
  4. Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron Laptop Series (Prior to 2006)
  5. Inspiron Laptop Audible Beep Codes
  6. Glossary of Acronyms
  7. Diagnostic Indicator Guides
Note: The diagnostic LEDs in the tables below serve as an indicator of the progress through the POST process. These LEDs do not indicate the problem that caused the POST failure.
Note: If the laptop completes POST without stopping at a particular error code and then displays a black screen, the most likely reason is that laptop is unable to boot to the operating system and not related to the POST issue.

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Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron Laptops (2020 to Present)

With the latest series, the power or battery LED state now gives an increased number of blinks and colour shift pattern to indicate where it's had a problem.

Inspiron Product Shot 5401/5408

(Fig.1.1 Inspiron 5401/5408)

Note: Click the title of the section that you want to open below, in order to see the contents.
Note: Diagnostic Error Codes will always supersede any other use of the LED. For instance, battery codes for Low Battery or Battery Failure situations will not be displayed when Diagnostic Error Codes are being displayed.

Inspiron_5401/5408_PowerBattery_LED_BK

(Fig.1.2 Inspiron Power and Battery Status LED)


Power or Battery Button LED

Power Status

Table 1: Power LED status on Inspiron laptops (2020 to present).
Power LED State Description
Solid White On
Flashing White Standby
Off Hibernate
Off Soft Off
Off No AC Power or Battery

Battery LEDs

Table 2: Battery LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (2020 to present)
Power LED State Description
Alternatively Flashing Amber and then White An unsupported Non-Dell AC Adapter or Battery is attached to your PC.
Constantly Flashing Amber Below Low Battery Level
LEDs Off Battery in full charge mode with AC Adapter present
Constant White Battery in charge mode with AC Adapter present
Note: The blinking patterns consist of two sets of numbers. These are represented by first group (amber blinks), second group (white blinks).
  • First group: The battery LED blinks in amber up to nine times and then pauses for 1.5 seconds before running the second group.
  • Second group: The battery LED blinks in white up to nine times and then pauses for 3 seconds before running the first group again.

For example, No Memory detected (2, 3), the battery LED blinks two times in amber followed by a pause, and then blinks three times in white, pause, and so on. This pattern continues until the system is turned off.
Table 3: Diagnostic LED indicators on Inspiron laptops (2020 to present)
Power LED Status Problem Description Suggested Resolution
Amber White
1 1 M-BIST: Trusted Platform Module failure
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting.
1 2 M-BIST: SPI Flash Unrecoverable
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting.
1 5 I-Fuse failure
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting.
1 6 EC Internal failure
  • Disconnect all power sources (for example, the AC adapter, Battery, and so on.)
  • Drain the flea power by holding down the power button
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting if the problem persists
2 1 CPU Failure
  • Run the Intel CPU diagnostics tools
  • If problem persists contact Tech Support for further help
2 2 System Board: BIOS, ROM Failure
  • Flash BIOS to latest revision. See our guide to Dell BIOS Updates.
  • If problem persists contact Tech Support for further troubleshooting
2 3 No Memory/RAM detected
  • Confirm Memory installed
  • Troubleshoot memory further
2 4 Memory/RAM failure
  • Reseat the Memory
  • Troubleshoot the memory further
2 5 Invalid Memory Installed
  • Reseat the Memory
  • Troubleshoot the memory further
2 6 System board, Chipset Error
  • Flash BIOS to latest revision. See our guide to Dell BIOS Updates.
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
2 7 LCD failure
  • Flash BIOS to latest revision. See our guide to Dell BIOS Updates.
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
2 8 LCD Power Rail failure
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 1 CMOS battery failure
  • Troubleshoot the CMOS battery
  • If problem persists contact Tech Support for further troubleshooting
3 2 PCI or Video card/chip failure
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 3 BIOS Recovery 1
  • Recovery Image not found
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 4 BIOS Recovery 2
  • Recovery image found but invalid
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 5 Power Rail Failure
  • EC ran into power sequencing failure
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 6 SBIOS Flash Corruption
  • Flash corruption detected by SBIOS
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 7 ME Error
  • Timeout waiting on ME to reply to HECI message
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting

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Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron laptop series (2016 to 2020)

With this series, the diagnostics indicator Beeps were mostly removed. Instead the Power Button state gives a blink and colour shift pattern to indicate where it's had a problem.

SLN309627_en_US__13Inspiron_prod_shot_2017_BK

(Fig.2.1 Inspiron 7577)

Note: Click the title of the section that you want to open below, in order to see the contents.
Note: Diagnostic Error Codes will always supersede any other use of the LED. For instance, battery codes for Low Battery or Battery Failure situations will not be displayed when Diagnostic Error Codes are being displayed.

SLN309627_en_US__16Inspiron_7477_PowerBattery_LED_BK

SLN309627_en_US__17Inspiron_7477_Battery_LED_BK

(Fig.2.2 Inspiron Power and Battery Status LEDs)

Table 4: Power LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (2016 to 2020).
1 Power Button LED
2 Front Battery LED

Power Status

Table 5: Power LED status on Inspiron laptops (2016 to 2020).
Power LED State Description
Solid White On
Flashing White Standby
Off Hibernate
Off Soft Off
Off No AC Power or Battery

Battery Management

Table 6: Battery LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (2016 to 2020)
Power LED State Description
Alternatively Flashing Amber and then White An unsupported Non-Dell AC Adapter or Battery is attached to your PC
Constantly Flashing Amber Below Low Battery Level
LEDs Off Battery in full charge mode with AC Adapter present
Constant White Battery in charge mode with AC Adapter present
Note: The blinking patterns consist of two sets of numbers. These are represented by first group (amber blinks), second group (white blinks).
  • First group: The battery LED blinks in amber up to nine times and then pauses for 1.5 seconds before running the second group.
  • Second group: The battery LED blinks in white up to nine times and then pauses for 3 seconds before running the first group again.

For example, No Memory detected (2, 3), The battery LED blinks two times in amber followed by a pause, and then blinks three times in white, pause, and so on. This pattern continues until the system is turned off.
Table 7: Diagnostic LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (2016 to 2020)
Power LED Status Problem Description Suggested Resolution
Amber White
2 1 CPU Failure
  • Run the Intel CPU diagnostics tools
  • If problem persists contact Tech Support for further help
2 2 System Board: BIOS, ROM Failure
  • Flash BIOS to latest revision
  • If problem persists contact Tech Support for further troubleshooting
2 3 No Memory/RAM detected
  • Confirm Memory installed
  • Troubleshoot memory further
2 4 Memory/RAM failure
  • Reseat the Memory
  • Troubleshoot the memory further
2 5 Invalid Memory Installed
  • Reseat the Memory
  • Troubleshoot the memory further
2 6 System board, Chipset Error
  • Flash BIOS to latest revision. See our guide to Dell BIOS Updates.
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
2 7 LCD failure
  • Flash BIOS to latest revision. See our guide to Dell BIOS Updates.
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 1 CMOS battery failure
  • Troubleshoot the CMOS battery
  • If problem persists contact Tech Support for further troubleshooting
3 2 PCI or Video card/chip failure
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 3 BIOS Recovery 1
  • Recovery Image not found
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 4 BIOS Recovery 2
  • Recovery image found but invalid
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 5 Power Rail Failure
  • EC ran into power sequencing failure
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 6 SBIOS Flash Corruption
  • Flash corruption detected by SBIOS
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting
3 7 ME Error
  • Timeout waiting on ME to reply to HECI message
  • Contact Dell Technical Support for further troubleshooting

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Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron laptop series (2006 to 2016)

Systems during this time period only used LED states to show the Battery and hard drive status. Check the beep codes section for the audible beep code table.

SLN309627_en_US__10Inspiron_prod_shot_2015_BK

(Fig.3.1 Inspiron 14 3442 / 3443)

Note: Click the title of the section that you want to open below, in order to see the contents.

SLN309627_en_US__12Inspiron_System_LED_2016_BK

(Fig.3.2 Inspiron System LED)

Table 8: System LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (2006 to 2016)
System LED Status System State
White The power adapter is connected, and the battery is being charged.
Amber The battery charge is low or critical.
Off Off
  • The computer is plugged in, and the battery is being charged
  • The computer is running on battery, and the battery has more than 10% charge

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Diagnostic LEDs for the Inspiron laptop series (Prior to 2006)

These systems used keyboard button LEDs, but apart from the Inspiron 1501 all the other Inspiron models during this time used the audible beep codes as a diagnostic indicator on their laptop.

SLN309627_en_US__3Inspiron_prod_shot_2006_BK

(Fig.4.1 Inspiron 1501)

Note: Click the title of the section that you want to open below, in order to see the contents.

These models had a block of keyboard status LEDs on the front of the chassis that either lit up solid Green, flashed Green or were Off.

SLN309627_en_US__5Inspiron_Kybd_LED_2006_BK

(Fig.4.2 Keyboard LEDs)

Table 9: Keyboard LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (before 2006)
Keyboard LED Icon Description
SLN309627_en_US__61395072784135.Caps Caps Lock light - Turns on when the Caps Lock is engaged.
SLN309627_en_US__71395072803479.Scroll Scroll Lock light - Turns on when the Scroll Lock is engaged.
SLN309627_en_US__81395072849604.Num Number Lock light - Turns on when the Number Lock is enabled.
Table 10: Diagnostic LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (before 2006)
Num Lock Caps Lock Scroll Lock Description Next Step
Off Flash Off The memory is believed to be good, but it is about to be exercised (such as when shadowing the BIOS and when testing or zeroing all memory).
  • Reseat the memory modules
  • Contact Support
Off On Off The system is performing diskette and hard disk initialization.
  • Contact Support
Off On Flash Flash USB controller initialization.
  • Remove any USB devices
  • Contact Support
Off On On No DIMM is installed.
  • Install the memory modules
  • Reseat the memory modules
  • Contact Support
Flash On On EC turn on Pentium.
  • Reseat the processor
  • Contact Support
Flash Flash On Call option ROM for Video.
  • Contact Support
Flash Flash Flash CMOS initialization, SMI initialization, timer, gate A20, and mouse.
  • Contact Support
On On On POST has completed, and the BIOS is about to go to the PSA module.
  • Look at a boot issue
  • Contact Support

SLN309627_en_US__9Inspiron_System_LED_2006_BK
(Fig.4.3 System Status LEDs)

If the computer is connected to an electrical outlet, the battery light operates as follows:

  • Solid green — The battery is charging.
  • Flashing green — The battery is almost fully charged.

If the computer is running on a battery, the battery light operates as follows:

  • Off — The battery is adequately charged (or the computer is turned off).
  • Flashing amber — The battery charge is low.
  • Solid amber — The battery charge is critically low.

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Inspiron laptop audible beep codes

In addition to the various types of diagnostics LEDs, there are several audible beep codes across the models of these systems.

These codes are recognised across manufacturers and have remained the same for some time.

The key to these codes is displayed in the table below.

Note: Click the title of the section that you want to open below, in order to see the contents.
Table 11: Diagnostic beep codes on Inspiron laptops
Diagnostic beep Codes
Code Cause Suggested Resolution
1 BIOS ROM Checksum in progress or failure Contact Technical Support
2 No memory modules detected Learn How to Diagnose and Resolve Common Memory Issues on a Dell Desktop Computer.
3 Chipset Error
Time-of-day clock test failure
Gate A20 Failure
Super I/O chip Failure
Keyboard controller test failure
Contact Technical Support
4 RAM read/write error Learn How to Diagnose and Resolve Common Memory Issues on a Dell Desktop Computer.
5 Real-Time Clock Failure Replace the CMOS Battery, Contact Technical Support if problem persists.
6 Video BIOS test Failure Learn How to Run a Preboot Diagnostic Test on a Dell Computer.
7 CPU Cache Test Failure Contact Technical Support
8 LCD Failure Contact Technical Support

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Glossary of Acronyms:

See the table for definitions of the acronyms within this article.

Table 12: Power LED indicator on Inspiron laptops (2016 to 2020).
Acronym Definition
BIOS Basic Input/Output System
CFG Resource Configuration
CPU Central Processing Unit
DIMM Dual In-line Memory Module
DMA Direct Memory Access
EC Embedded Controller
HECI Host Embedded Controller Interface
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
LED Light Emitting Diode
MBF Motherboard Failure
MBIST Memory Built-in Self Test
ME Management Engine
MEM Memory
NVRAM Non-Volatile Random Access Memory
PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
POV Post-video Activity
PRV Pre-video Activity
PSU Power Supply Unit
RAM Random Access Memory
RCM Recovery Mode
ROM Read Only Memory
RTC Real-Time Clock
S0 System Power State S0 - This is the Working State, where your Windows PC is awake.
S1 System Power State S1 - In this sleep state, the CPU is stopped, and your computer is in standby mode.
S2 System Power State S2 - This state is similar to S1 except that the CPU and system cache are lost because the processor loses power.
S3 System Power State S3 - In this state, data is saved to RAM, hard drives, and other hardware are shut down.
S4 System Power State S4 - In this state, RAM, and other data are saved to the hard disk.
S5 System Power State S5 - The System is off.
SBIOS Small Board Interface Operating System
SPI Serial Peripheral Interface
STD Boot Hand Off
STO Storage Device
TPM Trusted Platform Module
USB Universal Serial Bus
VID Video

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Note:
If you are seeing an error code that is listed in this article, follow the instructions to troubleshoot and fix the issue. When you contact Dell Technical Support, ensure to provide the error code to help us diagnose the issue better.

If you are seeing an error code that is not listed in this article or the documentation of your Dell laptop, contact Dell Technical Support.

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Additional Information

Affected Products

Inspiron
Article Properties
Article Number: 000140521
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 20 Dec 2023
Version:  8
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