A Reference Guide to Vostro Laptop Diagnostic Indicators
Summary: The following article is a reference guide to the codes available on each model of Vostro laptop and what those codes indicate.
This article applies to
This article does not apply to
This article is not tied to any specific product.
Not all product versions are identified in this article.
Instructions
Dell Vostro laptops have a long history of built in diagnostic indicators. These can be audible beeps, power buttons that display different states and colours, specific diagnostics LEDs or a combination of them all, in order to indicate at which point during the Power On Self Test (POST) a system is having issues.
The following article is a reference guide to the codes available on each model and what those codes actually mean. These change through the various models and years. These indicators are merely a starting point to narrow down any troubleshooting you will carry out to identify the cause of your current issue. You can use this as a starting point to narrow down the proper troubleshooting guide you will need or you can contact technical support for further help and they will be looking for these indicators as well.
Table of Contents:
- Diagnostic LEDs for the Vostro laptop series (2015 to Present)
- Diagnostic LEDs for the Vostro laptop series (2010 to 2015)
- Diagnostic LEDs for the Vostro laptop Series (Prior to 2010)
- Vostro laptop Audible Beep Codes
- Glossary of Acronyms
- Diagnostic Indicator Guides
Note: For all the tables below, please remember that the diagnostic LEDs only serve as an indicator of the progress through the POST process. These LEDs do not indicate the problem that caused the POST routine to stop.
Note: Please be aware that if your system completes POST without stopping on a particular error code and then gives a black screen, the most likely reason is that you are experiencing a No Boot issue and not a No POST issue at all.
Diagnostic LEDs for the Vostro laptop series (2015 to Present)
With the latest series, the diagnostics indicator Beeps have mostly been removed from these systems. Instead the Power Button state now gives a blink and colour shift pattern to indicate where its had a problem.
(Fig.3.1 Vostro 7570)
Note: Please click on the title of the section you want to open below, in order to see the contents.
Note: Diagnostic Error Codes will always supersede any other use of the LED. For instance, battery codes for Low Battery or Battery Failure situations will not be displayed when Diagnostic Error Codes are being displayed.
(Fig.3.2 Vostro Battery Status LED)
| Power Source | Status | Power State | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| AC Adapter | Off | S0 - S5 | Fully Charged |
| White | S0 - S5 | Charging | |
| Battery | Off | S0 - S5 | Battery Discharging |
| Solid Amber | S0 - S5 | Low to Critically Low |
- S0 - ON - System is on
- S4 - Hibernate - System in in hibernation mode
- S5 - OFF - System is off
Note: The blinking patterns will consist of 2 sets of numbers. These are represented by First Group (Amber Blinks), Second Group (White Blinks).
Example: No Memory detected (2, 3), The Battery LED blinks two times amber followed by a pause, then blinks three times white, pause, etc. This pattern continues until the system is powered off.
- First Group: The Battery LED blinks in Amber up to 9 times then pauses for 1.5 seconds before running the second group.
- Second Group: The Battery LED blinks in White up to 9 times then pauses for 3 seconds before running the first group again.
Example: No Memory detected (2, 3), The Battery LED blinks two times amber followed by a pause, then blinks three times white, pause, etc. This pattern continues until the system is powered off.
| Power LED | Problem Description | Suggested Resolution | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber | White | ||
| 2 | 1 | CPU Failure |
|
| 2 | 2 | System Board : BIOS, ROM Failure |
|
| 2 | 3 | No Memory / RAM detected |
|
| 2 | 4 | Memory / RAM failure |
|
| 2 | 5 | Invalid Memory Installed |
|
| 2 | 6 | System board, Chipset Error |
|
| 2 | 7 | LCD failure |
|
| 3 | 1 | CMOS battery failure |
|
| 3 | 2 | PCI or Video card/chip failure |
|
| 3 | 3 | BIOS Recovery 1 |
|
| 3 | 4 | BIOS Recovery 2 |
|
| 3 | 5 | Power Rail Failure |
|
| 3 | 6 | SBIOS Flash Corruption |
|
| 3 | 7 | ME Error |
|
Diagnostic LEDs for the Vostro laptop series (2010 to 2015)
With this series of laptops, the Diagnostic indicators changed to use two different methods depending on the model of system you have:
- One method uses only the Power LED as an indicator. The Diagnostic LED is now the state of the Power LED and how many times it blinks at you.
- The other method uses the beep codes from the beep code section.
(Fig.2.1 Vostro 5460)
| Power LED State | Description |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
System is in S0 state, the normal power state of a functioning machine. The BIOS will turn the LED to this state to indicate it has started fetching opcodes. |
 |
System is in a low power state, either S1 or S3. This does not indicate a fault condition. |
Warning: The power LED only serve as an indicator of the progress through the POST process. These LEDs do not indicate the problem that caused the POST routine to stop.
Note: The Power button has a bi-colour LED. In a No Post situation it displays an Amber LED blinking pattern: The Power Button LED shall blink the corresponding LED codes for the corresponding fault condition. The repeated pattern has a 3 second long pause inserted in the middle.
Example: No Memory detected, Power Button LED blinks two times followed by a pause, blinks two times, pause, etc. This pattern continues until the system is powered off.
Example: No Memory detected, Power Button LED blinks two times followed by a pause, blinks two times, pause, etc. This pattern continues until the system is powered off.
| LED Behaviour | Problem Description | Next Steps |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | System Board : BIOS, ROM Failure |
|
| 2 | No Memory / RAM detected |
|
| 3 | System board, Chipset Error, Clock Failure, Gate A20 Failure, Super I/O Failure, Keyboard controller failure |
|
| 4 | Memory / RAM failure |
|
| 5 | CMOS battery failure |
|
| 6 | Video card/chip failure |
|
| 7 | CPU Failure |
|
This indicates the Battery power management LEDs codes
| Power Source; Battery Charge | Off / Hibernate | Standby | On |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power LED (All; 0-100% charge) | Off | Blinking White light (repeated) | Solid White |
| Battery LED (AC Adapter; 98-100% charged) | Off | Off | Off |
| Battery LED (AC Adapter; Below 98% charging) | Solid White | Solid White | Solid White |
| Battery LED (Battery; discharging) | Off | Solid Amber | Solid Amber |
| Battery LED (Battery; Below 10% critically low) | Off | Off | Off |
| HDD LED | Off | Off | White when active |
| Camera LED (All sources; 0-100% charge) | Off | Off | Sold White when streaming data |
Diagnostic LEDs for the Vostro laptop series (Prior to 2010)
This series used power button LED states and a diagnostics LED pack on laptop systems.
(Fig.1.1 Vostro 3700)
Note: Please click on the title of the section you want to open below, in order to see the contents.
These models had a block of keyboard status LEDs on the front of the chassis that either lit up solid white, flashed white or were Off. I've included a table below with what these indicated.
(Fig.1.2 Caps Lock LEDs)
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
 |
Caps Lock light - Turns on when the Caps Lock is engaged |
 |
Scroll Lock light - Turns on when the Scroll Lock is engaged |
 |
Number Lock light - Turns on when the Number Lock is enabled |
| Flash Code | LED Pattern | Description | Next Step |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Flash-On-On | The microcontroller is handing control of the system to the processor. This code persists if no processor is detected. |
|
 |
On-Flash-On | The memory has encountered an error. |
|
 |
Flash-Flash-Flash | A system board component is faulty. |
|
 |
Flash-Flash-On | The video card is preventing the system from completing POST. |
|
 |
Flash-Flash-Off | The keyboard is preventing the system from completing POST. |
|
 |
Flash-Off-Flash | The USB controller encountered a problem during initialization. |
|
 |
On-Flash-Flash | No SODIMMs are installed. |
|
 |
Flash-On-Flash | The LCD encountered a problem during initialization. |
|
 |
Off-Flash-Flash | The modem is preventing the system from completing POST. |
|
(Fig.1.3 System Status LEDs)
If the computer is running on a battery, the battery light operates as follows:
- Off — The battery is adequately charged (or the computer is turned off).
- Flashing Amber — The battery charge is low.
Vostro laptop audible Beep codes
In addition to the various types of diagnostics LEDs, there are a number of audible beep codes across some of the models of these systems.
These codes are recognised across manufacturers and have remained the same for some time.
The key to these codes are displayed in the table below.
Note: Please click on the title of the section you want to open below, in order to see the contents.
| Beep Code | Description | Failure Coverage | Suggested Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | System board, covers BIOS corruption or ROM error | System board BIOS ROM failure | Run the Dell Diagnostics |
| 2 | No Memory/RAM Detected | No memory detected | Troubleshoot the Memory |
| 3 |
|
System board failure | Run the Dell Diagnostics |
| 4 | Memory/RAM read/write failure | Memory failure | Troubleshoot the Memory |
| 5 | Real Time Clock power fail | COMS battery failure | Try reseating the CMOS Battery and run the Dell Diagnostics if that does not resolve the issue |
| 6 | Video card/chip Failure | Video BIOS | Run the Dell Diagnostics |
| 7 | CPU Cache Test Failure | CPU Failure | Run the Dell Diagnostics |
| 8 | LCD | LCD Failure | Contact Technical Support |
Glossary of Acronyms:
Refer to the table for definitions of the acronyms within this article.
| Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|
| BIOS | Basic Input/Output System |
| CFG | Resource Configuration |
| CPU | Central Processing Unit |
| DIMM | Dual In-line Memory Module |
| DMA | Direct Memory Access |
| EC | Embedded Controller |
| HECI | Host Embedded Controller Interface |
| LCD | Liquid Crystal Display |
| LED | Light Emitting Diode |
| MBF | Motherboard Failure |
| MBIST | Memory Built-in Self Test |
| ME | Management Engine |
| MEM | Memory |
| NVRAM | Non-Volatile Random Access Memory |
| PCI | Peripheral Component Interconnect |
| POV | Post-video Activity |
| PRV | Pre-video Activity |
| PSU | Power Supply Unit |
| RAM | Random Access Memory |
| RCM | Recovery Mode |
| ROM | Read Only Memory |
| RTC | Real Time Clock |
| S0 | System Power State S0 – This is the Working State, where your Windows PC is awake. |
| S1 | System Power State S1 – In this sleep state, the CPU is stopped, and your computer is in standby mode. |
| S2 | System Power State S2 – This state is similar to S1 except that the CPU and system cache are lost because the processor loses power. |
| S3 | System Power State S3 – In this state, data is saved to RAM, hard drives, and other hardware are shut down. |
| S4 | System Power State S4 – In this state, RAM and other data are saved to the hard disk. |
| S5 | System Power State S5 - The System is off. |
| SBIOS | Small Board Interface Operating System |
| SPI | Serial Peripheral Interface |
| STD | Boot Hand Off |
| STO | Storage Device |
| TPM | Trusted Platform Module |
| USB | Universal Serial Bus |
| VID | Video |
Note:
If you are seeing a recognisable code, please follow the instructions and if you have to contact your local support - please make sure you have the code information to hand. The technician will need this information to help you further.
If you are seeing an unrecognisable code, one that isn't listed above - then please get in touch with your local support straight away.
If you are seeing a recognisable code, please follow the instructions and if you have to contact your local support - please make sure you have the code information to hand. The technician will need this information to help you further.
If you are seeing an unrecognisable code, one that isn't listed above - then please get in touch with your local support straight away.
If you require further assistance, please contact Dell Technical Support.
Additional Information
Diagnostic Indicator Guides
- Understanding Beep Codes on a Dell Laptops
- Understanding Beep Codes on a Dell Desktops
- A reference guide to the Precision Mobile Workstation Diagnostic Indicators
- A Reference Guide for Latitude Laptop and Tablet Diagnostic Indicators
- A Reference Guide to the XPS Laptop Diagnostic Indicators
- A Reference Guide to Inspiron Laptop Diagnostic Indicators
- A reference guide to the Precision Workstation Diagnostic Indicators
- A reference guide to the Dell OptiPlex Diagnostic Indicators
- A reference guide to the XPS Desktop Diagnostic Indicators
- A reference guide to the Vostro Desktop Diagnostic Indicators
- A reference guide to the Inspiron Desktop Diagnostic Indicators
Affected Products
VostroArticle Properties
Article Number: 000141346
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 20 Dec 2023
Version: 8
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