Dell laptop turns on then shuts off after a few seconds

You say it beeps. Then before giving up/in, try the following... There are a lot of reasons for a device to beep. Here are some of the common ones. Beeps at start up... 8 Beeps on startup means the LCD on system has failed (or is failing). 6 on startup would mean it is your GPU. You might want to try running a LCD Test, as well as a Pre-boot System Assessment.

So now you are probably thinking "How to run these tests?"

7 beeps - Bad processor (CPU)

Considering the age of the device, and the fact that you had it stored for quite a while, the battery likely needs to be replaced. Even if they show not physical issue, they do die after a while, and that is a long while since purchased.

I would start there.

Considering the age of the device, and the fact that you had it stored for quite a while, the battery likely needs to be replaced. Even if they show not physical issue, they do die after a while, and that is a long while since purchased.

I would start there.

Looks like I'll be repurposing these batteries if he doesn't do refunds.

You say it beeps. Then before giving up/in, try the following... There are a lot of reasons for a device to beep. Here are some of the common ones. Beeps at start up... 8 Beeps on startup means the LCD on system has failed (or is failing). 6 on startup would mean it is your GPU. You might want to try running a LCD Test, as well as a Pre-boot System Assessment.

So now you are probably thinking "How to run these tests?"

7 beeps - Bad processor (CPU)

Doesn't boot long enough to do any of that

You say it beeps. Then before giving up/in, try the following... There are a lot of reasons for a device to beep. Here are some of the common ones. Beeps at start up... 8 Beeps on startup means the LCD on system has failed (or is failing). 6 on startup would mean it is your GPU. You might want to try running a LCD Test, as well as a Pre-boot System Assessment.

So now you are probably thinking "How to run these tests?"

First, turn off your laptop. For the LCD Test... Hold down the 'D' key and then turn on your laptop Keep holding down 'D' and you should see color bars on your LCD. Again, turn off the laptop... For the Pre-boot System Assessment... Hit the 'F12' key immediately after turning on your system. From the options displayed, choose "Diagnostics" . This will tell you if there are any errors that you need to address/fix. Other beep codes.... NOTE: Due to the fact that different manufacturers with this BIOS have different codes, the beep codes may vary. Below are the AMI BIOS Beep codes that can occur. 1 short - DRAM refresh failure 2 short - Parity circuit failure 3 short - Base 64K RAM failure 4 short - System timer failure 5 short - Process failure 6 short - Keyboard controller Gate A20 error 7 short - Virtual mode exception error 8 short - Display memory Read/Write test failure 9 short - ROM BIOS checksum failure 10 short - CMOS shutdown Read/Write error 11 short - Cache Memory error 1 long, 3 short - Conventional/Extended memory failure 1 long, 8 short - Display/Retrace test failed two-tone siren - Low CPU Fan speed, Voltage Level issue Below are Award BIOS Beep codes that can occur. 1 long, 2 short - Indicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information. 1 long, 3 short - Video card not detected (reseat video card) or bad video card Beeps repeating endlessly - RAM problem. Repeated high frequency beeps while PC is running - Overheating processor (CPU). Repeated beeps alternating high & low frequency - Issue with the processor (CPU), possibly damaged. Dell beep codes 1 beep - BIOS ROM corruption or failure 2 beeps - Memory (RAM) not detected 3 beeps - Motherboard failure 4 beeps - Memory (RAM) failure 5 beeps - CMOS Battery failure 6 beeps - Video card failure

7 beeps - Bad processor (CPU)