Carefully reseat RAM modules and PCI cards in their slots
Reinstall the battery* (right-side-up!) and see if it boots now with only mouse, monitor and keyboard attached.
*If the battery is more than ~2-3 years old, this might be a good time to replace it with a new one. its a 3-volt CR2032 lithium coin cell battery, about $2-$3 at discount stores.
Hi there, many thanks for your suggestions, i will give them a try. I'm not the best with internals of computers, i can see ram modules but what and where are the PCI cards! I can see white slots which look like the RAM module slots only smaller, but there is nothing in them, am i looking at the wrong thing or should there be something in those white slots?
You haven't said if you have the small desktop <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> or minitower version, but these links will show you where things are on the motherboard.
Thanks for the help, sorry i forgot to mention its the minitower version. I'll have to double check but i'm pretty sure there are no cards inserted into the PCI slots. Is that normal, I presume so as its been working fine up until now!
Sounds like the motherboard might be done. After reviewing the diagnostics LED's A and D being green and B and C being orange, they are not a valid Diagnostic indicator for that machine. This can occur when one or more controllers on the motherboard have died, and I have seen it in the past with Optiplex's and workstation's, bad motherboards will show false diagnostics indications. Best thing to do is strip it to minimum to post, which in your case, is remove all memory except 1 stick in dimm 1 and remove all connections to the CD drive and Hard drive. Power the system up and see what you get as far as diag LEDs. If the system posts, reconnect 1 drive at time a time, until all are reconnected. Then repopulate all the memory dimms as they should be configured. If the system does not post you can isolate which part is causing the no post issue by testing them 1 at a time.
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
May 10th, 2011 13:00
Could be a RAM error.
Power off and unplug
Press/hold power button on tower for ~15 sec
Open the case and remove the motherboard battery
Press/hold power button again for ~30 sec
Used canned air to blow out all the dust bunnies
Carefully reseat RAM modules and PCI cards in their slots
Reinstall the battery* (right-side-up!) and see if it boots now with only mouse, monitor and keyboard attached.
*If the battery is more than ~2-3 years old, this might be a good time to replace it with a new one. its a 3-volt CR2032 lithium coin cell battery, about $2-$3 at discount stores.
Ron
speedstep
9 Legend
•
47K Posts
1
May 11th, 2011 12:00
Try removing All Ram and testing each piece 1 at a time.
yellow
green
yellow
green
Memory modules are detected, but a memory configuration or compatibility error exists.
Documentation
Solving Problems
Dell™ OptiPlex™ 170L User's Guide
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
sturowls
6 Posts
0
May 11th, 2011 12:00
Hi there, many thanks for your suggestions, i will give them a try. I'm not the best with internals of computers, i can see ram modules but what and where are the PCI cards! I can see white slots which look like the RAM module slots only smaller, but there is nothing in them, am i looking at the wrong thing or should there be something in those white slots?
Many thanks, Stuart.
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
May 11th, 2011 20:00
You haven't said if you have the small desktop <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> or minitower version, but these links will show you where things are on the motherboard.
Ron
sturowls
6 Posts
0
May 12th, 2011 02:00
Thanks for the help, sorry i forgot to mention its the minitower version. I'll have to double check but i'm pretty sure there are no cards inserted into the PCI slots. Is that normal, I presume so as its been working fine up until now!
Thanks, Stuart.
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
May 12th, 2011 12:00
No PCI cards just means you don't have a dial-up modem or an add-in video card. Certainly possible.
And that would elminate those items from your troubleshooting problem. :emotion-5:
Ron
Jbx
16 Posts
0
May 12th, 2011 16:00
Sounds like the motherboard might be done. After reviewing the diagnostics LED's A and D being green and B and C being orange, they are not a valid Diagnostic indicator for that machine. This can occur when one or more controllers on the motherboard have died, and I have seen it in the past with Optiplex's and workstation's, bad motherboards will show false diagnostics indications. Best thing to do is strip it to minimum to post, which in your case, is remove all memory except 1 stick in dimm 1 and remove all connections to the CD drive and Hard drive. Power the system up and see what you get as far as diag LEDs. If the system posts, reconnect 1 drive at time a time, until all are reconnected. Then repopulate all the memory dimms as they should be configured. If the system does not post you can isolate which part is causing the no post issue by testing them 1 at a time.