R3 won't boot, 5 beeps

Brand new machine I just got yesterday. When I turn on my machine, the lights turn on, but the screen remains blank and then it givs 5 beeps, pauses, then repeats the 5 beeps. It does this for the first 2 or 3 tries then on the final try (3rd or 4th time) it will seemingly shut off for a second (keyboard lights turn off) and then back on again and this time it will boot normally but the internal clock will be way off. Subsequent boots are fine. The problem only seems to come back when I haven't turned it on in a while. Almost like it has to 'warm up' or something. CMOS battery bad? I'm going to call Dell but do any of you know what's going on? I can't find the beep codes anywhere so I don't know what this means. Thanks in advance!

 

5 Beeps: Processor failure is what i found on google.

 

5 beeps is simply known as "Process failure"...means something failed (unfortunately not very meaningful)

Computer POST and beep codes

I'd definitely call dell because this is a new computer. You don't want it to linger past the brand new exchange period.

 

I'd bet RAM. Tried re-seating it yet?

 

I think that would be 4 beeps for ram.

 

Yeah, pretty sure it's not the RAM. I'd be experiencing crashes if it was RAM, wouldn't I? So far once it's booted to Windows everything runs normally except the clock and strangely...some of the system tray icons are blank.

 

you could try reseating the cmos battery...could be a bad bios chip, but call dell. you might as well make use of the warranty

 

totaly agree make them fix there screw up

 

Thought RAM was 3 long beeps?

 

You are right My Bad 4 beeps is sytem failure

 

5 beeps = RTC Failure. Swap out the battery for a new CR2032 type battery and try again. They're like $2 from any place that sells batteries.

 

Now that I've observed it a bit more, I think you're right. I tried an experiment by leaving the laptop plugged in overnight. Turned it on this morning and it worked fine. So it looks like it's got something to do with me unplugging the power and leaving it off for a long time, i.e. CMOS battery is almost dead. Thanks for the replies so far guys.

 

No no no. 4 beeps is a bus backing up. 5 beeps is a garbage truck. 3 beeps is the shopping cart at Walmart. OK. JK.

It seems as though there are different codes. Whenever I've had in the past beep codes, I start by disconnecting all peripheral hardware that I can. Then try the process of elimination. BUT..........if you are in warranty, let them do it as others have stated.

 

Oh btw, what sorts of things would void my warranty? Would opening it up and putting in a new cmos battery do it? Because I've heard Dell is pretty good about letting you work on your own machine without voiding the warranty.

 

i don't see how that would void your warranty...however, i'd really call them. you have next day in your home service! Get them to come over and put a new battery in. that way, you don't have to worry about your warranty

 

I've had all 7 (M17x R1, R1, R2, R3, R3, M18x X2) of mine in a hundred pieces and they knew it. But, as Slick and several others have said, let them do it. Or, call em and walk through it on the phone with them. If you seem adept to working on them, most techs will let you 'try' some stuff on your own. They will diagnose it for you and narrow it down...........

 

It's not the battery.
Pull the RAM out. Turn on the PC without the memory.
POST checks for CPU before the memory. Listen for the beeps.
Do you get the same beeps without the RAM?

 

I've had the CMOS battery going in my old rig. If it near dead you may notice a few anomalies like the BIOS/OS clock time always being wrong (on boot-up) no matter what you do, or that your primary drive is now excluded from the boot order list in BIOS so you get a black screen with a message saying something is missing, or thing of that nature.

 

Well, I bought a new CMOS battery hoping it would be an easy fix. No dice. Found another thread from a poster here that had the same problem so I'm trying to get in touch with him now.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/617809-m17xr3-boot-system-check.html

Since he had the exact same problem I wanna find out how his was fixed so I know what to tell Dell before I call, rather than waste my time running through their troubleshooting process.

 

So I went ahead and called Dell. Tried re-flashing the BIOS, ran diagnostics (everything passed). They concluded it's a bad motherboard. They offered to either send out a tech to replace the mobo or do an exchange since I'm still within the 21 day return period. Of course I'd rather do the exchange but so far my first two Alienwares have had issues so I dunno if I wanna stick with them. Maybe I just have bad luck.

 

hey, got your pm.
unfortunatly due to timezones i wasnt able to reply until now.

it looks like we have the exact same problem, although for the last two weeks i didnt encounter this problem anymore.

what i did? nothing! it never happend to me again, my m17x r3 performs the way it should be.

the only thing i can think of...i didnt remove the battery since the first time i got the beeps ^^, so basically the system is under power the whole time.

maybe if i remove the battery, do a powerdrain, diconnect the a/c (or any combination of these things) i can reproduce this behaviour, but atm i honestly dont have the time to deal with dell and techsupport.

im curious though what will solve the problem so im going to follow this thread...

 

@mrm2x

Interesting. So even if you leave your system unplugged from AC power for a while (say 10 minutes) and turn it on again, you don't get the beeps? For me, the problem goes away if I leave it plugged into the adapter. It's only when I unplug the adapter, wait a few mins, then turn it on again that the problem resurfaces. Then, after a 2 or 3 tries on battery power, the machine starts up normally. But basically, I can't leave it off for more than a couple of minutes on battery power without it messing up again.

 

nope, so far i can remove ac and boot the system with batterypower as much as i like...no beeps.

a thing i found out recently though:
if the system is "offline" (battery installed but no ac) over night, after powering on in the morning (with ac) the battery shows 95% charged (although it should be 100%)...weird.

 

I had this as well. When my laptop came, it was perfectly fine. The next day, when i switch on it started beeping. called Dell and the guy asked me to open the laptop internals (which i didnt noe how) and when i asked him to guide me, he put me on hold indefinitely.

I then proceeded my own trial and error. I reseated the RAM but taking it out and putting it back and the laptop started up again. seems like the Fedex guy might have loosen it a tinnneyyy little bit when he unloaded the package.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi guys. I can tell you what it is, I've tried all those things. It has to do with your cmos battery. If it is almost dead, you should change it. Wait for a little while (an hour also) and start your machine.

If this does not solve your problem and the 5 beeps are still going on, you have a processor failure and you should call Dell immediately, with no excuses.

This happens to many people who change the CPU or change the paste on the CPU for cooling purpuse and unplug their cmos battery (thinking it is safe, which it is)...

 

And one more thing, do not forget to do a power drain before starting your machine again (unplug the power cord, remove the battery and hold the power button for about 2 minutes).