When there is a computer malfunction, it is hard to tell what the exact problem is without examining the nature of the problem. With so many hardware and software components, it is almost impossible to find out the error without a knowing how and what caused the computer crash. Thanks to the computer manufacturers who saw this coming and made a set of computer error codes which will help us understand the nature and type of error.

There are error codes for just about every possible error out there. If you want to categories these computer error codes, they could be of three major types. One is hardware related, software related and OS related. Here is a small description about each of these and some tips as to overcome these errors.

A hardware error code is displayed when there is a malfunction in the hardware that is attached o the computer. Now, there could be a lot of different reason as to explain the malfunction of the hardware like the device driver malfunction or the interfacing problem or the incompatibility of the hardware or the difference in the configuration. A device drive malfunction is indicated by a blue screen error code which is commonly known as blue death screen after which the computer reboots.

If there is a problem with the interfacing or the configuration of the hardware, this will be first captured at BIOS itself and there are set of beep error codes for this. The error codes are indicated by the pattern of the beep. The design of beep code is done so as to provide some information even when there is no display, which very much is the case in most of the hardware failures. Some of the fatal errors of hardware malfunction are as follows along with their beep codes. When there is an error in SMPS or the CPU cabinet as such, the computer will not even switch resulting in no beep. If everything is fine and all the hardware is verified, it beeps once and proceeds to boot the OS. If there is an error with CMOS, then it beeps twice to indicate that while for the error in the memory (Hard drive or RAM) it will indicate with continuous high beeps. For any motherboard and port related errors, it will have a high beep followed by a low beep while for a keyboard malfunction it beeps thrice. For an error in the processor or the processor fan, the error code is continued high and low beeps and for all sorts of display error it will be one high beep followed by two or three low beeps. These error codes make it very easy to recognize and identify the problem.

There are error codes for software and OS errors as well which is plain text message displayed on the screen with the details. These are pretty straight forward to understand. They give a very descriptive message about the nature of the error and the probable cause of action as well.

Computer error codes are mainly used in detecting the errors in the hardware and is very helpful when repairing a computer and the hardware has failed.