Black screen and 3 beeps

I have exactly the same issue. upgraded Windows 10, ran for a few days now dead. just black screen and if i'm lucky 3 beeps

Hi!I have exactly the same issue with my Inspiron 3520. I am so glad I dropped b the forum to check out possible solutions and have found your post. I will try your solution and update if it helped my issue (I'm really hoping this will worked with my latop). Thank you for posting.

Update:

This solution worked for me. Thank You so much I have successfully booted up my Laptop. When I first turned it on, the beeping was gone but I still have black screen. I thought it won't work with mine. But since it wasn't beeping anymore, I left it on and after more or less 5 minutes, I saw the Dell splash screen and it booted up back to Windows 10..Thank You Thank You!

Thanks for sharing this, havent tried it but wil soon do it.

If not i just have to buy a bigger office table so that it can accomodate my 14 inch paperweight.

I've fixed the issue..well it's a workaround that worked... Right firstly, ignore the dumb response from Microsoft Engineer. It's a logic problem and I have a workaround!!!!! I figured that an update or some function of Windows 10 had done something to the Bios as part of an update or driver reboot. No mater what you do it's stone cold dead. I remembered an old trick on HP servers to bring them back to life after a failed Bios update. On another PC download the latest BIOS Update I think it was A10 (you will need this as soon as you get the brick working again Now it is time to bring it back from the dead - You need to clear the CMOS data that HAS BEEN CORRUPTED by windows 10 update. It's not for the faint hearted though. Strip the laptop, if you don't know how to do this ask a grown up or search You tube. Remove the memory (optional, but I did this anyway), Laptop battery, power supply, HD and finally the CMOS backup battery. Now in the old days we used to short out the battery terminals to clear any residual capacitor every; but now it looks like  you can just hold down power button for about 1 minute to discard any capacitors. Resemble the laptop, don't button it up just yet as It look a few attempts to get this to stick. Power it up!!!!, be patient as it takes a while for it to sort out the BIOS. after a few minutes you should see the Dell Bootloader (if you don't try power cycling a few times. If it starts with the 3 beeps then repeat step 4 - 7 again. If it comes back to life let it boot into windows and log in with an admin account. before you do anything else update the bios to A10 (I had A03). It will force a reload and will boot to BIOS update routine. Follow instructions....... Let it boot into Windows and do a test reload It should be OK with Windows 10 and as long as you not done anything stupid already trying to fix it should be ok. Notes: I found the BIOS fix this after a number of false starts. I got the laptop working and on every power off the BIOS was screed by something W10 was writing. As soon as I upgraded the BIOS it was fine. This is a new on on me; but I'm not technical any more so don't know how windows boots now compared to Windows 2000. Hope this helps, my Son is now happy and I have been reinstated as god of all things IT in our house, as I told him, he thinks he knows about computers; but I have forgot more than he knows. Old school rules :-)

Hi! I was able to boot back to windows 10, thank you so much for your help.. But everytime I turn off my laptop and turn it back on, I'm still experiencing the same problem and had to reseat my bios again to be able to boot up normally.. Do you experience the same thing? If yes, how did you resolve it? I tried having a clean install with Windows 10 and installed updates but still having the same issue..

Hello. I was able to stop the beeping, thanks to your info. But no matter how many times i restart I just can't get it to boot.

So I ask this: if I was to buy a new mother board, like everyone is telling me, would I still need to use a second comp/USB to get the new Bios? Or would the laptop be able to let me download it from the dell page?

Hello. I was able to stop the beeping, thanks to your info. But no matter how many times i restart I just can't get it to boot. So I ask this: if I was to buy a new mother board, like everyone is telling me, would I still need to use a second comp/USB to get the new Bios? Or would the laptop be able to let me download it from the dell page?

Have you tried pressing Fn/F2/F8 simultaneously while pressing power button? You might not be able to start it right away but you will be able to start it by repeating it several times. Just be patient with it. You might also need to to press power button for about 2-3 seconds while simultaneously pressing either fn/f2/f8. You need not to buy a new motherboard because it is more on software compatibility issue.

Hello Codeyez,

I am a noob and pretty much know nothing. I was planning to get a friend's help using this. Just wanted to ask if this trick might work on Inspiron 15z notebooks??

Thanks!

You need to be patient, it will work. It may take a few attempts (i.e. it starts beeping again, if it does go back to step 1) The second time i Had to do it it took 15 mins to sort itself out, it was just sat at a black screen for ages.

As the post says below this is a software issue that does something to the system BIOS on rest so unless you have the newer BIOS update on the replacement board it will happen again.

You will know if it works because you will eventually get a login or desktop screen. as I said in the walk through get that bios downloaded and installed before you reload or Windows 10 will just do it again.

The Laptop I fixed 3 week-ago has been perfect ever since. I can also see other people have made this work (with patience)

It should work, this is an old school trick for clearing bad data from the part of the computer that tells it what it is when you turn it on (BIOS).

Thank you so much for this post! It took some doing, but with the help of my son (and a couple Youtube videos), we were able to get my computer back up and running. You are a life saver!!