Dell Inspiron 1012 beeps 7 times on startup.

My Dell Inspiron 1012 with Windows 7 Starter beeps 7 times on start up. I have to turn off and then turn on my laptop several times to get it to work. It took me 2 hours today to get it to turn on. The beeps are 3-4 or 1-1-3 or anything like that; it’s just like 1-1-1-1-1-1-1. When the computer beeps the monitor stays black. It doesn't matter if I leave it beeping for a few hours, it'll still take me a lot of time and effort to get it to turn on. It’s so annoying. One day, once I was able to start it up, I clicked F12 and ran a Diagnosis but it said nothing was wrong. My computer does have a virus, could that be it? My warranty recently went out. This Dell laptop has given me so many problems over the past year. It’s a year and 2 months old. Can someone tell me what’s wrong with my laptop and how to fix it? Thanks in advance.