2d ago

New thrift sore pickup wont stop beeping at me while on

(Stock reference image because im terrible at taking pictures)

I got this dell laptop for 10 dollars at a thrift store and it powers on but i beeps 5 times at me before reaping the beeps. I oped up the laptop to give it a light clean but to notice this model has the storage and ram embedded into he board. I took a gamble with this laptop, im thinking the cmos batters need replacing but im unsure. What would you advise? This is a dell inspiration 11 3000 series from 2010.

If you need more info leave a comment.

7 comments

5 beeps on a Dell is usually dead CMOS battery (at least in my experience), so thankfully it’s a cheap thing to replace as a first attempt.
- Seconded, I'm guessing OP is having slight datetime problems too. Open it up, new battery, like new. Someone probably gave it away because they didn't know what it meant

It's the "everything's okay" alarm, it goes off every three seconds so you know everything's okay.
- what's cool with a dell is you always know it's working normally if it's not on fire

Sounds like a dead BIOS battery. You can confirm it by turning the laptop off and pulling the main battery out. Put it back in, boot the laptop. If the clock has reset, the BIOS battery is dead.
Apart from that, I'd recommend installing AntiX Linux. It's exactly the right kind of OS to get something like that real fast.

Mint XFCE! I'm not giving that any context. Swap the BIOS battery, and you're gold!

Best get Linux in there before the windows updates get cut off.

7 comments