Help with laptop - one beep every four seconds continuously

[xandence]

I have a Dell laptop and when it is trying to boot up it gives one beep ever four seconds continuously until I hold down the power button to turn off. It will eventually boot up after I turn off and on for a while. (once took over an hour for it to finally boot up) I've called Dell, but of course it's out of warranty. I have tried to reseat the RAM a couple times, but that doesn't fix it. Right now I'm delaying a Window's update installation reboot because of this problem.

 

[Tradesman1]

Try a hard reset, unplug the cord, remove battery and press power button for about 30 seconds, reinsert battery, plug in and give it a try

 

[xandence]

Try a hard reset, unplug the cord, remove battery and press power button for about 30 seconds, reinsert battery, plug in and give it a try

It tried to reboot overnight so now I am trying to boot up. I tried to do the hard reset and it is still having this problem.

 

[Tradesman1]

Do you have an OS CD, if so might try booting to it and do a repair

 

[BadAsAl]

Check the beep codes section here and try to match to what you are hearing:
http/en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/w/desktop/3624.beep-codes-and-psa-diagnostic-chart
If it is the same beep 4 times that does indicate RAM.
Have you tried only using 1 of the sticks? I would try each stick in each slot and see if any of them work.