Dell Inspiron 3520 3 beeps / black screen problem!

TNTee

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Apr 15, 2011
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Hi, I'm trying to help my GF who is facing this problem with her DELL Inspiron 3520 laptop. Her screen is completely black when she opens the laptop and after a while 3 beeps sound...and then again and again. Now, I've read that this could be a RAM problem...other sites says you need to replace the Motherboard, others like this one: http://blog.parts-people.com/2014/06/27/dell-inspiron-3520-beep-codes-diagnostic-indicators/ ..Show a bit more complex problems (For me at least). So far, we've tried her unplugging it, removing the battery and holding down the startup key for up to even 60 secs and the trying to open it again, nothing. We've also tried and have removed the RAM and placed it back again after making sure there is no dust or anything, nothing. So...what are we supposed to even do now?
 

TNTee

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Apr 15, 2011
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18,510
We need to be 100% sure about this cause I'm gonna order this from a different continent, which will cost some cash and take some time to get here...Also, if there are any other fixes we could try (besides the one mentioned on my original post), before we set off to purchase a new part...let me know.
 

Mztech

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Aug 21, 2015
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Try this solution found in this blog..
http://dailytwocents.com/solved-windows-10-killed-my-dell-inspiron-3520/
What caused it may be different but it has the same symptoms.. Black screen with 3 beeps in dell inspiron 3520
 

tombodude

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Dec 2, 2009
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Just bought one with the same issue, three beeps, shut down. Opened it up, took out ram, hd, dvd, keyboard, and took the palmrest off. Holding the power button down did not work. However, I popped the CMOS battery out, left it for 10 minutes, started it back up with just the power button, and got two beeps = memory error. Put a stick in, got the Dell logo and it booted up to the error messages for no hard drive, etc.!! So, reset the cmos by pulling the battery and maybe your motherboard is ok like mine!
 

Mztech

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Aug 21, 2015
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Hi! I have successfully booted up by reseating the cmos battery..But everytime I turn off my laptop, I'm still having the same issue and had to reseat again the cmos to be able to boot up.. Do you experience the same thing?
 

tombodude

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Dec 2, 2009
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Not permanently, but I was changing memory modules around, and found the bottom slot a little loose and the top one a little tight with some sticks; with the factory 12800 module, it did the multiple beep thing several times, and then with a couple others. Finally put a pair of Samsung 10600 4gb sticks in and it has worked perfectly since. Seems to be a little finicky with memory. I haven't been able to put the factory 4gb stick in another pc and test it yet, it may have a slight enough error to prevent boot, so I don't know what happened; it ran with it before. So, if you have some sticks, try some different ones. I kept leaving the palm rest loose and had to remove the battery a couple of times before it finally stabilized, so I left that memory in. It has been rock solid since. This was all just yesterday.

There may be an approved memory list for it somewhere, but I didn't look, as they are usually centric to Dell.
Good luck.
 

Dimbel

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Nov 11, 2015
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Hello, i got same problem and spent hours trying everything. I got black screen, 3 beep, even 4 beep. But after search, i found you and Mztech answer.
I did it and all look great now (in fact I already did it but i didn't wait 5minute for the dell logo when i got black screen!). I updated my bios and computer work fine now. Wow, I was thinking it was broken!
Thanks!
 

sparker1

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Nov 13, 2015
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4,510

AMI bios-3 beeps is first 64k Ram.
I just fixed a PC with this issue. I tried 4 sticks of known working RAM and it made no difference. I realised that it could not be RAM. I reset CMOS using the jumper and it made no difference. Eventually, I removed all RAM and started the laptop and naturally got continuous beeping with no RAM fitted. I then inserted one stick of RAM while it was continuously beeping and the MB gave a post beep. It then shut down and rebooted. On reboot it gave notice that it had a corrupt bios and would I like to use the stored backup -Hell yeah! This PC was a gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 and had a bios backup in its chipset. The PC then booted normally.
With a laptop, if it is the bios, you would need to unsolder the bios chip and re-program it in an external programmer and then resolder it back. Not a job for the normal user.
 

Manoj_49

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Apr 7, 2017
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510
Well, in my case, I just removed the battery & tried to start the machine by plugging in charger & it worked.
After successful boot, I shut down the machine inserted the battery, removed charger & restarted it.
Machine started without any beeps.
Cheers!