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OptiPlex 580 - quits working and I don't know why
I work a support desk; lot's of Dell 580's. Had one yesterday that I can't figure out. (BIOS version A04). The screen goes black intermittently, and there's no blinking HDD light on the frnt - just a steady green "on" light. I've reseated the HDD cables, run the bootable Dell Diagnostic 32-bit ISO, checked the BIOS System log, and the Windwos XP System and Application logs - nothing. It just quits on its own and you ahve to do a hard shut-down. I can't keep it running.
My supervisor advised me to wipe the disk and try the tests again. Same results. For kicks I put in a new HDD - same results. Can't run complete diagnostics as it keeps 'freezing' on me. I checked the indicator lights in front and find that numbers 1 through 4 light up during the diagnostics, and stay light when it 'freezes'. No HDD blinking light.
It's still under warranty, but it'd be nice to narrow things down before I call for support. Any ideas?
Mike6802
28 Posts
1
April 24th, 2012 15:00
Dell Tech Support was helpful. After I related all I've posted here, they suggested - as a way to 'check all the boxes' - that I swap out the video card. I did so and .... the darn thing works. I've had it up for ~ 36 hrs, even installed WinXP (bare-bones); not a single problem.
Don't know why, but it worked.
e.r.a.
63 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 11:00
I would be suspicious of the monitor. Are you sure that it is working correctly? Do you have another known good monitor that you can try with this system. And does this Optiplex 580 have integrated or dedicated video?
RoHe
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April 20th, 2012 11:00
Did you try clearing BIOS?
Power off and unplug
Press/hold power button for ~15 sec
Open case and remove motherboard battery
Press/hold the power button again for ~30 sec
Reinstall the battery (right-side-up!)
That will reset BIOS to factory defaults so you may need to change some settings back to the correct settings for the installed hardware afterwards, assuming you get it to boot after clearing BIOS.
speedstep
9 Legend
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April 20th, 2012 11:00
Boot from a Live Linux DVD or USB Flash drive.
Remove the hard drive.
Does it still freeze?
Booting from Flash
In order to create a bootable USB-medium (memory flashdisk, SD-card, digital camera with USB connector, cellphone with microSD, ...), the program flash-knoppix can be started from a running Knoppix system. This program installs all needed Knoppix files onto the FAT-formatted flashdisk, and creates a boot record for it. If desired, the target medium can be partitioned and fornatted, or left in its inistal state, so that existing files stay intact.
KNOPPIX 7.0 / ADRIANE 1.4 - Live CD / DVD
linuxpromagazine.com » Issues » 2012 » 137
Issue #137 / Apr 2012
Cover Theme: Security
DVD: Knoppix 7.0
SERVICE April 2012: DVD Inlay
Issue #137
This month’s Linux Magazine DVD is the brand new Knoppix 7.0 Live distro in 32- and 64-bit options....
Mike6802
28 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 12:00
e.r.a.
I've used several monitors - no change in behavior.
speedstep
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
If it did this with linux DVD I would think ram or CPU overheating.
Mike6802
28 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
RoHe,
Good idea. I'll give it a try once I let the Linux CD go for awhile. I'll report back.
Mike6802
28 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
Speedstep,
I booted into a Linux CD a few minutes ago and then disconnected the hard-drive. I'll let it go for a bit and report the results.
Mike6802
28 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
I kinda thought so, too. But when I was able to run Dell Diagnostics, the memory and CPU tests all passed. Maybe it's not being reported accurately by the test app.
kaiwei
1 Message
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
Never say never, there is always something to try.
http://www.nlmlol.info/g.gif
Mike6802
28 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
SpeedStep,
It 'froze' on me when in Linux with the hard-drive disconnected. I had to make a service call so I don't know how long it took. I noticed it about a half-hour after I booted to the Linux CD.
Mike6802
28 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
RoHe,
Did as you said, and it booted up. I set the time and silenced the notification about having the cover open. All the settings went back to the defaults in BIOS, but I thought that the BIOS would also reset to A00 or A01 (whichever), so I could reapply the BIOS versions.
Mike6802
28 Posts
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April 20th, 2012 13:00
Just great .... it 'froze' again. Guess it's time to call Dell and put the warranty to good use.
RoHe
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April 20th, 2012 16:00
Just for clarification, clearing BIOS by pulling the battery doesn't restore an earlier version of BIOS. It only resets the currently installed version back to its factory defaults. So if you have -say- A04, you'll end up with A04 set to the defaults.
Hope Tech Support gets it resolved quickly. Good luck!
e.r.a.
63 Posts
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April 21st, 2012 07:00
Hello again. I received your reply confirming that the monitor you are using is known to be good. However I did not see a response to the question about the type of video that you have. You also mentioned that the system passes diagnostics but diagnostics does not offer very rigorous video testing and it seems likely that it is the video system that is failing. In other words, the machine may be working just fine with no video output. If you have remote access to this machine via Windows Remote Desktop then i suggest that you try remotely connecting to the machine the next time the screen goes black to see if it is actually operating correctly but without video. If you do not have Windows Remote Desktop then you can install LogMeIn Free edition or VNC for similar functionality. Look forward to hearing back from you.