Optiplex GX270 will not boot to BIOS

Question

Hi,

I'm having a problem in that I can't get one of our PCs to boot up - I got an error from the BIOS something along the lines that previous boot attempts failed at checkpoint pnp7 - contact support then the screen went blank. Now I can't get past the initial flash screen.

Anyone seen this before - it's mention a couple of times in the forum but with no solutions / answers ?

Thanks

Steve

rafadoig · Answer

Hello,

I have the same problem with my optiplex. However, I thought it was the fan in my case, since I was getting the message: previous fan failed.
I changed the fan and I have still the problem: checkpoint [PnP7]. And also the message [previous fan failed] remains.

any suggestions? if you got solved that problem, please take a short a time to email me a help.

Thank you in advance.

lourocco · Answer

I am also experiencing the same problem. Did either of you have any luck with figuring it out?

When I boot my GX270, it sometimes says, "Alert! Previous shutdown due to thermal event."

Other times when I boot the computer immediately shuts itself down or displays the message "Failed to boot at checkpoint PnP7"

When I try to boot to last known good point or into safe mode, this just shuts the machine down. Previously when the computer was booting it would sometimes shut itself down for seemingly no reason.

At first I thought this was a fautly video card, but now it seems like it overheated. Anyone out there know more about "PnP7" or "thermal events?"

Thanks, Lou

Message Edited by lourocco on 02-13-2006 08:15 AM

rafadoig · Answer

Hi Lou,

sorry but I did not solve the problem until now. Actually my PC is now useless. My PC faces same symptoms as your yours. Now it doesn't boot anymore.

The origin of the problem was (I guess) an overheated CPU. I let my PC running the whole night in a very hot summer day. Since then I had the problem. I did change the cooler, I put a more stronger cooler but no solution...

I saw this problem in many places (search engine results). I wonder if DELL people have a solution... It's pitty that they don't help despite the high cost of the PC...

Please let me know if you got a path to the solution.
Rafael

C4rtm4N · Answer

I did get it sorted eventually - it's down to a bunch of faulty capacitors on the motherboard (search the web & I'm sure you'll find something about it). GX270s were apparently hard hit by this problem.

Anyway, Dell replaced the motherboard & everything is fine again!

Thanks

Steve

lourocco · Answer

Rafael: After speaking with my company tech support and Dell tech support, it was determined this the motherboard was toast. For the past month my computer would shut itself down, probably because circuits on the moterboard were overheating/going bad.

Sadly, I think you are just going to have to buy a new motherboard or a new computer. :-(

A Dell tech came to my house today with a new motherboard, installed it and now my computer is working fine. No data was lost.

Good luck...

~Lou

lourocco · Answer

Thanks Steve!

You're right about the GX270's being hit hard. Our company probably as about 30+ of them and in the past few months we've had TWO other machines have the same problem! Both other machines needed new motherboards as well. Luckily this was covered by Dell's extended warranty program.

I'm so happy my computer is running again and not acting strange.

I appreciate your reply!

~Lou

rafadoig · Answer

Thanks Lou, Thanks Steve for reporting!!

Could you please give me more information about the new motherboard you got, I mean brandname, model, number, etc. so that I can buy one of those too.

Thanks a lot in advance!
Rafael

rafadoig · Answer

Hi,

you don't need to give me motherboard data anymore. I called DELL and they came within a day and changed the motherboard. My PC is alive again.

I learned today that if a capacitor (small cylinders on the motherboard) has its top part (cover) curved outwards then it's damaged.

Thanks for all
Rafael

lourocco · Answer

Rafael: Cool! Glad you got it fixed! :-)

I was going to pop open my machine and try to figure out some information about the motherboard, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. I'm not even sure if any information is printed on the board itself.

Sounds like all three of us have machines that work again. Woo hoo!

~Lou

John-DownUnder · Answer

We have 3 Optiplex GX270's and two now have this problem.   We tried the Dell Crash Tool and quite a few other diagnostics (included web searches) - all to no avail.   Then we decided to updated the BIOS on all 3 machines (v2 to v6 from the Dell web site using file: GX270A06.EXE). Whilst this did not solved the problem, it meant this morning that one of the systems (after multiple reboots) briefly flashed a system message that it was aware of the multiple failures to boot and that it was failing at checkpoint PnP7. After about 12 boots, we eventually got it up and running.   Thanks to you guys here, as we Googled 'PnP7' and found this thread.  Looks bad :smileysad: - new motherboard on the cards hey? Cheers

rafadoig · Answer

Yeah, DELL is familiar with this problem.
So for all new guys having the same problem: just call DELL and tell them the model number: GX270. From April 2003 to March 2004 GX270's motherboards were built with bad quality capacitors.

Reference:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5942647.html

DELL changed my motherboard within one day.
Strong support!!

Cheers...

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Optiplex GX270 will not boot to BIOS

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