How to fix 3 beeps on MacBook Air

Your MacBook Air (MBA) 2011 is considered obsolete by Apple and they won't even look at it. I will let you investigate if it is possible to do it yourself. Check the MacSales.com web and Everymac.com sites and see what they say about working on RAM in the MBA line. My memory about the MBA line is there are very few things you can do yourself and most of the components are not standard.

Hi raj,

Here's what beeps mean:

About Mac computer startup tones - https://support.apple.com/HT202768 - (The below is an integrated version of the new and older version of this document.)

1 tone, repeating every 5 seconds: This indicates no RAM is installed. Your Mac isn't detecting any memory (RAM). If you recently added or replaced memory, make sure that it's properly installed.

3 successive tones, a 5 second pause (repeating): This indicates RAM does not pass a data integrity check.

1 long tone while holding down the power button: Indicates an EFI ROM update is in progress on a computer manufactured before 2012.

3 long tones, 3 short tones, 3 long tones: Indicates EFI ROM corruption is detected and the computer is in EFI ROM recovery mode.

If you need to restore the EFI ROM on certain Mac computers produced before 2008, you'll need to use a Firmware Restoration CD to restore the EFI ROM. Search Apple Downloads for the right CD image for your computer.

Newer computers automatically recover from a corrupted ROM; when this occurs, a progress bar appears on the screen during ROM recovery mode. Do not disturb the machine while the ROM recovery is taking place. It will restart back into OS X when recovery is complete."

If you didn't recently install RAM and you are getting the 3 successive tone beeps it could be your RAM is bad and your computer needs service.