HP PC Commercial BIOS (UEFI) Setup Administration Guide For Business Notebook and Desktop 2015 Models - Technical whitepaper
May 2016 
857394-002 
HP PC Commercial BIOS (UEFI) Setup     
© Copyright 2016 HP Development Company, L.P. 
7 Computer Notifications 47 
7.2 Blink and Beep Codes 
Some system errors prevent the use of the video screen; instead, the system provides error information through blink 
codes using LED lights. The LED light used depends on the system being a notebook or a desktop. The codes are presented 
in a sequence. For desktop, this means red blinks followed by white blinks. Audible long and short beeps accompany red or 
white blinks, respectively. The table below describes the meaning of critical blink codes. 
Table 27  Computer notifications 
Notebook 
Desktop 
Description 
CAP NUM 
Battery 
LED 
Red 
with 
long 
beeps 
White 
with 
short 
beeps 
2 
2 
2 
The main area (DXE) of BIOS has become corrupted and there is no 
recovery binary image available  
8 
2 
3 
The embedded controller policy requires the user to enter a key 
sequence (SureStart 2.0) 
White and 
Amber 
blinking 
2 
4 
The embedded controller is recovering the boot block or DXE. Since it 
takes 10 sec. or so to load the DXE image and get video in the DXE 
case, this blink code is necessary. (SureStart) 
3 
3 
2 
The embedded controller has timed out waiting for BIOS to return 
from memory initialization 
4 
3 
3 
The embedded controller has timed out waiting for BIOS to return 
from graphics initialization 
5 
3 
4 
The system board displays a power failure (crowbar) 
3 
5 
The CPU is not being detected 
3 
6 
The CPU does not support an enabled feature (typically this applies 
only to TXT) 
7 
1 
5 
2 
The embedded controller cannot find valid firmware 










