Dell Laptops have various built-in visible and audible diagnostic tools to help pinpoint possible failed hardware components causing specific symptoms. The majority of these symptoms are related to the system not being able to boot to Windows displaying a black screen from startup. Various reasons for this can be found in our Resolve No Power, No Post, No Boot or No Video article in addition to the information and solutions offered below
Battery light state:
Diagnostic LED:
These notebooks rely on the Battery LED light blinking amber/white pattern to determine failures listed in the following table:
The blinking patterns will consist of 2 sets of numbers being represented by (First Group: Amber blinks, Second Group: White blinks)
First Group: The LED blinks 1 to 9 times followed by a brief pause with LED off at the interval of 1.5 seconds. (This is in Amber color)
Second Group: The LED blinks 1 to 9 times, that would be then followed by a longer pause before the next cycle starts again at the interval of 1.5 seconds. (This is in White color)
Example: No Memory detected (2,3), Battery LED blinks two times of amber color followed by a pause, and then blinks three times of white color. The Battery LED will pause for 3 seconds before the next cycle repeat itself again.
The following table depicts the amber and white blinking patterns with possible troubleshooting resolution:
