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Inspiron 620 - LED1 on motherboard lit
I have an Inspiron 620 (Dell service tag: ) that won't start Windows 7, and won't install it, either. In either case, it gets to the "Starting Windows" screen, and stops there. For hours, nothing.
I was thinking that the hard drive might be bad, so I opened the case to try a different drive, and saw that the LED1 right beside the SATA plugs is lit bright orange. I suspect that's some sort of error signal, but I can't find any mention of it anywhere in the documentation, or on Dell's site Does anyone know anything about this?
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
ejn63
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July 22nd, 2017 11:00
It simply shows the system is getting 5V power -- it may be green or amber depending on the model, but it should be illuminated as long as the system is plugged in.
If the replacement drive doesn't solve the problem, run the Dell diagnostics on the system to see if you have a bad memory module. Also check the condition of the capacitors on the mainboard - if any don't have perfectly flat tops or are clearly leaking electrolyte, the caps have gone bad - if that's the case, replace both the mainboard AND the power supply (if the system has been running for any period of time with bad capacitors, the power supply will have been appreciably stressed).
hscoggins
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July 22nd, 2017 21:00
No, it's not simply a power indicator. I replaced the hard drive in this machine just a couple weeks back, and this light was not on at the time.
I got confirmation form Dell support this afternoon that this is a probable indication of a motherboard issue. So I'm scrapping it. Problem solved.
RoHe
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July 23rd, 2017 12:00
I presume you unplugged the PC from the wall and maybe pressed/held the power button, or just waited a while after unplugging it, before you went inside to replace the hard drive. Either way, once the PC is unplugged and the power drains, the motherboard LED will go off.
If you're looking at the board now while PC is plugged in and/or you haven't drained the power, that LED is going to be on. As ejn said, that LED means the board is getting "flea" power from the PSU. If that LED is off while the PC is plugged into a working outlet, you have either a motherboard failure or a PSU failure.
So if Window won't install, then you probably have a hard drive issue or defective/corrupted installation media. Did you try wiping the hard drive before running a clean install?
Did you open BIOS setup and check to see if the hard drive is recognized correctly and that SATA mode is set correctly?
ejn63
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July 23rd, 2017 14:00
Additionally, if the system did power up, I'd venture it more likely the power supply is bad than that the mainboard is bad.