--- title: "What your GE is doing, and what it actually means." description: "18 things a GE appliance does when something is wrong, described the way people describe them — and what each one usually turns out to be, starting with the causes" url: "https://gemiami.support/symptoms/" date_modified: "2026-08-31" --- # Symptoms archive ## What your GE is doing, and what it actually means. Not every appliance shows a code, and some of the ones that do are reporting a setting rather than a problem. These pages start from the behavior you can see and work toward the cause — cheapest and most likely first. 18 — symptoms, in plain words 11 — signals that are not problems 12 — appliance types covered from $95 — diagnostic, credited to the repair ## Each behavior, and where it usually ends Every page here begins with what is free to rule out, because on this make that is often the answer: a mode, a plug, a vent, a delay timer. Nothing is listed here yet. Tell us the model number and what the appliance is doing, and we will answer without one. ## A refrigerator that looks perfectly healthy and is not cooling GE lists a code called DE for it: demo mode. The lights work, the controls respond, the display behaves normally, and the cooling system is switched off on purpose — because that is how showroom floor models run. Appliances are sold from those floors and arrive still in it. Their own first step is to unplug the refrigerator for a minute or two, and it costs nothing to try before anybody quotes a sealed system. ## Some GE appliances publish no codes at all Wine centers, range hoods and built-in ice makers show nothing, and basic dryers show nothing. On those, a symptom page is the only page you can arrive on, and the diagnosis is measurement and elimination rather than a table. We would rather say that than publish a list of codes the appliance cannot raise. ## The free checks, by appliance Refrigeration - Look for DE on the display — that is demo mode and the cooling is off. - Read both compartments with a thermometer, not the display. - Paper test on the door seal, hinge side first. Dishwasher and laundry - Run the disposer; if it is new, check its dishwasher plug was removed. - Feel the air at the outside dryer vent — a trickle is your answer. - Open the washer's pump filter. Towel down first. Cooking - Photograph any code before cutting power. - Let a locked oven cool completely — well over an hour after self-clean. - On a microwave, check a cook function was used rather than the timer. ## Every appliance we cover Every job on this page belongs to at least one of these. Start from the appliance if you would rather. ## This list is what we publish, not the limit of what we repair If what yours is doing is not described here, call and describe it. These pages cover the behaviors that come up often enough to write about. ## The questions this page is asked My appliance shows no code at all. Can you still diagnose it? — Yes, and for several GE appliances that is the only way — they publish no codes. Diagnosis is then measurement and elimination, which is slower to describe and just as reliable. It is intermittent. Is it worth calling? — Yes, and note when it happens: which cycle, what time of day, how full the machine was. Intermittent problems are diagnosed from the pattern more than from the appliance. Could it be normal? — Sometimes, and GE publishes documents saying so — normal ice production rates, normal washer noises, TurboCool and TurboFreeze indicators that look like errors. We would rather tell you that on the phone than charge for finding it out. ## What GE repair actually involves in Miami ### Why these pages start with what is free On this make a real share of calls end at a setting, a plug, a filter or a vent. Putting those first is not a disclaimer — it is the honest order of likelihood, and it is the same order GE’s own troubleshooting uses. ### Behavior is evidence When it started, what changed just before, whether it happens on every cycle or only some — those three answers narrow a diagnosis further than most codes do, and they cost nothing to gather before we arrive. ## Describe what it is doing, in your own words. That plus the model number is enough. If it sounds like one of the free answers, we will say so on the phone. --- **[Read full article: Symptoms archive](https://gemiami.support/symptoms-archive/)**