Scary beeping laptop noises

Hotlead Junkie

So I hit the power button on my laptop to turn it on like normal, but the sreen stays dark and the system starts to make a horrible beeping noise, one long beep (1 second) then two shorter beeps within the space of one second afterwards, this keeps repeating every 3 seconds for about 60 seconds until the system powers down again. I turn it back on and the system loads up fine this time. I wasn't sure it if turned off because of my repeated attempts to turn it off via the power button or because it shut down itself, but I'm worried about what this could mean.

ElectricTurtle

Usually this means your memory is loose and/or failed. It can also indicate a dead graphics adapter or whatever the beep code coincides with from the manufacturer.

Hotlead Junkie

ElectricTurtle wrote: »

Usually this means your memory is loose and/or failed. It can also indicate a dead graphics adapter or whatever the beep code coincides with from the manufacturer.

Loose memory? Can you elaborate a little please?

ElectricTurtle

Somewhere in your laptop, unless it has fixed memory as some do, there are slots into which its memory is inserted. These are usually reachable through a small panel on the bottom of the laptop. If there's more than one panel, as there usually is, just unscrew each one til you find `em, take them out and put them back in (firmly!). If that doesn't solve the problem, they're either dead or some integrated component elsewhere in the system is. Which means you'll either need new RAM or a new laptop.