You need to describe the buds' surrounding's better. If you have a branch with buds that were last spring's buds that did not expand last spring, they are dead, cut them off. If they are buds on a branch that had leaves on it this year that have fallen off and just now that's all that's left, that's what's supposed to be there. New buds for next spring were created in the axil of each leaf stem. An axil is where a leaf stem is joined to the twig. There is usually a leaf scar from where the old petiole wrapped around the stem with a bud in or very close to that scar. A dead twig is almost always a slightly different color or appearance than a live twig, it being dry and often shrunken compared to live twigs.