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DELL SX280 - BLINKING AMBER LIGHT
This is a real mystery. The troubleshooting documentation says a blinking amber light (when you turn the system on and nothing else happens) means... a faulty component. But I find that not to be true.
Hello everyone. I have 2 DELL SX280 desktop Optiplex PCs. One of them suddenly without warning just shut off one day and I have not been able to get it back up and running. All I get is a Blinking Amber Light when I press the power button. I can see inside that everything appears to be functioning properly. Fans, HD, CPU etc. But still the unit seems to be just sitting there not able to post.
So I started doing what any intelligent systems engineer would do... I started swapping individual parts from the bad SX280 to the good one to see which component was faulty.
Every component I swapped from the bad unit was in good working condition when I placed it into the good unit. They all worked fine. In fact nothing seems to be working improperly. There are not that many components to check. Most of the machine has embedded components.
The only thing I could test was the Memory, CPU, Power Supply, HD, Fans, Cables and the Speaker. Thats it! Everything else is embedded. And YES.. the capacitors are fine.
There is no signs of burned circuitry, no signs of corrosion and definitely no signs of misplaced wiring.
I need someone from DELL to tell me what is it that DELL is not posting regarding these systems because I still have not found anything to explain this. Or anyone who is familiar with this problem.
And please don't tell me that I have to replace the motherboard. Because I expect better quality from Dell than to buy a machine that has a motherboard that only lasts a couple of years.
HELP is greatly appreciated.
angelhailey
2 Posts
0
January 13th, 2010 10:00
I also have a Dell Optiplex, and while checking my email it just shut off. I tried to turn it back on, but the power button just blinks yellow. This happened three days ago, and I still can't figure out why. I really hope someone answers your question, so I may find out what is wrong with mine.
angelhailey
2 Posts
0
January 13th, 2010 10:00
I found this posted last year by someone else. I printed it off, and I am taking it home to try. I hope this helps.
Here's the troubleshooting guide for the Optiplex line:
According to this, it's either the voltage selection switch, or the main power cable to the motherboard.
dwaynewaynebmw
6 Posts
0
January 13th, 2010 15:00
The SX280 model that I have does not have a power cable running to the motherboard. There is an integrated jack on the back of the unit that is soldered into the board.
So if this article is true then the problem is the power supply somehow ( even though I tried this power supply on my good SX280 and it worked fine). Even tried the other power supply on the bad system, and got the same result. So I can rule out the power supply.
My situation is very strange because I have 2 SX280s sitting right next to each other and I tried the components in the broke one to see if they work in the good SX280 and every component I tested works fine.
In my case it has to be something on the motherboard itself. From what I can see nothing looks broken or burned. So this is a mystery. Btu you know after all of these complaints about this problem I am convinced that if DELL doesn't start addressing this issue I am done with their products. I was a huge DELL fan until this happened...twice.
Dwayne
ESQ-Tech
9 Posts
0
January 15th, 2010 07:00
The problem is on the motherboard. There are a series of capacitors that have a tendancy to blow. This problem is well documented:
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19271750/19619584.aspx#19619584
dwaynewaynebmw
6 Posts
0
January 15th, 2010 10:00
ESQ-Tech, thanks for your help and insight...
You are right. Capacitors do tend to blow. But I have an NEC desktop thats almost twice as old as the 2 Dells I have and it never once gave me these problems and it has plenty of capacitors on the motherboard.
In fact I am quite surprised that DELL hasn't discreetly deleted some of these complaints about their failing capacitors on these SX and GX models due to some possible decrease in sales on other systems, because there is a ton of posts on this issue on this Forum. lol! Unbelievable! :emotion-3:
Look.... I have inspected the capacitors. Top and bottom on this motherboard. They are fine. All of them. They look brand new. So if it is a capacitor, it sure does not show. They are sqeaky clean.
As I said in previous posts, there are no burned parts on this motherboard. The fans startup; the hard drives start up; even a board relay or two are clicking every once in a while (which indicates CPU activity). SO WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS THING?????
All I see for sure is the blinking Amber Light from Hell...:emotion-12:
And I noticed that these capacitor problems started back in 2002 as far as I can see..... and they are still having these problems? DELL didn't learn its lesson the first year these things started dropping like flies...?
What.. did they order too many and sad lets take our chances and roll the dice...? :emotion-40: Come on.. a bad capacitor is a bad capacitor...throw the batch away already and let's order the ones that NEC and Fujitsu are using. Their freakin' Laptops and Desktops are built like tanks. The Japanese sure know what the hell they are doing. I think DELL would learn a thing or two from them.
Anyways here in Tokyo these SX series PCs are like $30 at the used PC shops. So its a no wonder they are so cheap.
Forgive the typos..I type fast when I am angry.... :-)
dwaynewaynebmw
6 Posts
0
January 15th, 2010 10:00
BTW...
I was a huge huge DELL fan until this started happening. I had convinced my clients to buy equipment from Servers to Desktops and Laptops. My DJ rig even includes a DELL laptop... but now I am not so sure anymore..
DELL has no idea how much they have broken my heart... the fact that they are not even dealing with this issue makes me even more angry.
ESQ-Tech
9 Posts
0
January 15th, 2010 11:00
The caps will look fine, but you will notice there is a small dome on one (or more). This is 80% of the problems.
I had about 20 of these units, and they all seemed to fail just around the time when the warranty expired (almost ike a time bomb). Our new units use a different manufacture of the cap and they are running fine (for now). If the 20 or so units we had, 17 failed as you discribed. When I replaced all of the caps (if you are going to replace one, may as well do them all), the problem went away and the units are still running 24 x 7.
Dell as admitted this issue and in fact had a recall on the units.
Don't shoot the messenger, just trying to tell you what I have found the issue to be and what fixed them.