Dell 540 Studio bios beeps

I haven't counted them but there is a whole series of them....not in a pattern.

Anyway, i have returned the machine and ordered a XPS 430 instead.

But there seems to be some issues with the Studio 540. I hope they solve them as it is a nice rig.

Best regards

--Nick 

I get the same thing. And for a quad core, at times, this thing is a real dog. Runs slow, all 4 cores are running over 75% and I only have facebook open. Also, the Event Log won't run.

Beeps sound like 1 - 2 - 1.

long, 2 quick short and a long. Then the boot seems to hang for a minute and then I get 3 more beeps, 3, all seem the same length.

I have checked the seating of the ram, and it is fine.

I would restore it, but I have read on other posts on the net, that the problem is still there.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I think I figured it out. Ran memtest86 and it gave me a memory error. I have 4gb of 1Rx8 PC2-6400u - 666. Though when I bought it from Dell, it said 800 ram.

Windows memory tester said no problems. But going to replace the ram today and see what happens.

I have the same issue with my Studio 540, Q8200, 8Gb. I have pulled everything from the board one item to isolate the BIOS beeps, but it never goes away. It will change the pattern and tone depending on what I remove, but it never goes away. This seems to be a common issue with these, and someone....anyone from Dell who has knowledge of why the Studio 540's are doing this needs to PLEASE add input here. I am 5 days into my 14 return policy, and I've spent all of it trying to find and get answers to this cause. The computer seems to run fine, and solid after it boots, but It should not be beeping during POST the way it does. It will bother me to no end if I don't get a valid explaination. I've built my own computers since 1991, and have never purchased an off the shelf system. I am not used to have the BIOS/CMOS locked where I can't see what's going on with the board settings etc. I liked what I got with this system for the price....still do. It will be a shame if I can't get some info, and I'm sure someone at Dell knows exactly why this is happening. The silence is deading on here regarding it.

Sounds like we have the same system.  I too have a 540 with Q8200, 8GB bought at Best Buy.  At startup I get the normal BIOS check beep then I get Beep-silence-beeep-beep.  I looked up the beep codes online and according to one of the websites it is "video card not detected."  I removed the ATI 3450 and inserted a video card from another dell.  Same beep issue.  I am thinking Dell needs a BIOS update.  I lso think just restoring the system would have no effect since the issue is before the OS loads.

Same here. Studio 540 with Q6600, 4GB

See my reply to Cidgrad....thanks!

David

I pulled the video card from the system, and just used the unboard video. It still beeps. I elminated everything by removing the memory stick by stick etc. and nothing alters the beeping except the number of USB devices connected at boot up. Let me say this to put those of us with these systems at ease...I don't think it's major enough to take the system back, and I do think it's something that you said Cidgrad, and have thought it for over a week now...BIOS fix. I will tell you that the BIOS update on Dell's site version 1.03 will NOT fix the beeping, but it does correct at least one issue that I have observed.

When you go into setup at boot by hitting the F2 key, and you look under the memory config, you will see that the installed memory reads correctly on the 8 gb system.....8190 mb. The available memory reads in correctly at something like 33XX mb. It appears that the original release of the BIOS for this board did not have the memory mapping set correctly. This is a BIOS setting that Dell decided to lock us out of. I'm not sure if this was fixed in the 1.02 BIOS because I updated directly from 1.01 to 1.03. This issue was resolved after the update. My available and total memory now readl the same in BIOS 8190 (I believe). It's also important to know that this issue wasn't effecting the memory management under Vista. Even before the BIOS update it was working the way it was supposed to.

Note: In order to install the BIOS update I had to boot to a disk that had a windows 32 bit OS installed. The installer on the Dell site (at the time) only ran under 32 bit OSe's and not the factory installed Vista 64 bit. Don't ask me why....I don't know. Other Dell machines get both 32bit and 64bit BIOS updates so go figure. It could be that this system is so new they haven't gotten around to posting one yet.

Back to the USB boot issue. All my USB devices and hubs work fine when the system is fully booted to the desktop. Depending on what combination of USB devices, hubs etc that I have connected at start up determines how many beeps, the length of the beeps, and the combination of beeps that I get. If you just have a keyboard and mouse hooked up, you will get the same beeps as everyone else. If you add your hubs etc. it may vary from system to system.

At this point what I can tell you is that there is apparently nothing wrong with anyone's system specifically. It seems to be by design, it doesn't seem to effect the performance of the system, and I feel if we keep bringing this to the attention of Dell, that it will be resolved in a future BIOS update.

In an unrelated FYI...

When I first got my system two weeks ago, the night I first turned it on I was getting BSOD every so often related to the video card. If you are experiencing this issue don't panic....uninstall the ATI software and drivers from you computer, and go to the actual ATI site...AMD.com, and download the drivers for the Radeon 3400 series cards. After installing their software drivers my system and video has been rock solid every since. All don't forget to check the Dell site for the latest updates to all componets of your system.

David

Just for referrence, I am running BIOS V1.04.  I agree everything appears fine with the system but the beeps are annoying Dell should fix the issue.

Yes, absolutely....Dell needs to get right on this. These are new systems, and I love mine to be honest, however...in these times you definately can't afford to alienate and lose customers.

I'm confused on how you can be running BIOS version 1.04. Did that come with your system, or did you have to update to that version? I just looked on the Dell site under 32 bit and 64 bit updates for the Dell Studio 540 (Used my Service Tag Number), and it still only shows 1.03 as being the highest release..... (Shrugs).

David

David,

        You are correct.  It came on my system.  I also checked the download site today for my 540 it shows 1.03 as the latest but I doubled-checked mine:  1.04.

JT

Thanks JT...interesting to say the least!

David

Unfortunately it probably means when they release 1.0.4 it wont help you guys either.

In addition to the beeping, I also have an issue w/ my Studio 540 "forgetting" the media card reader is there so today I was perusing Dell Support for a driver or some kind of fix.  Dell has released BIOS Update 1.0.8 unfortunately it did nothing for my beeping issue.