Optiplex 790 Flashing Amber Power Light

Hello,

travis,

the issue you have experienced in the dell 790 is indicating the failure of its power supply unit . You should call Dell for replacements.

I agreed with you that Dell or its sub contractors who made PS unit is not upto best quality!!.

Travisty,

In the last week, i've had 3 different Opt790's go up. All 3 were issues with the PSU. I've verified that there are no voltage issues coming from any of the receptacles. I'm completely dumbfounded how 3 brand new desktops die in the course of a week due to Power Supply malfunction. Thus far, i've already fixed one by replacing only the PSU, as the system board indicated it was okay. Fortunately, 790's are not yet the standard in our environment. However, for the ~50 that have been deployed in this department, i'll be keeping a close eye for more failures. And i'll also be checking our DSOD history for any other 790's that have had PSU replacements.

Have we heard anything from Dell in regards to a known faulty capacitor yet? Has anyone else been experiencing issues with this?

Thanks,

Daniel Hewitt, CCNP

Correction, make this 4 desktops now. Another PSU started crackling and then the PC failed while I was typing this response. I've been informed that the 790 and 390 are using the same PSU and they also have a noticeably high rate of failure as demonstrated in this thread:

en.community.dell.com/.../19951685.aspx (Dell Optiplex 390 Power Supply dying)

Our 4 Desktops with bad PSUs:

One my new SFF 790's just died - crackling sound, burning  electrical smell. Only 3 weeks deployed. Dell is sending a new power supply to us. Thank goodness I only have two in production. I was going to order more units, but this is enought to steer me away to another model.

Just lost two power supplies iout of 6 computers received in November. Do I need to get new motherboards as well?
Are they doing any kind of notification?
Blast - after the Optiplex 270 debacle one would have thought they'd learn better customer service!

Can anyone suggest a decent Dell replacement for the 790 SFF?  Or at least something that lasts a little longer?

We ordered 1100 Optilex 790's. Well 3 months in and we are well over 15% of them with replacment powersupplies.  We now also have problems with Bio's and Windows dropping keyboards and mice.   Beware to all.  Dell is telling me that a power supply is a user replaceble part.  I first want to see Micheal Dell have his mother or grand mother replace one of this in a SSF PC.   I have started to ask for the 390 Desktop for replacement's.  Hope to hear soon what Dell will do.  270- MB, 280's Power supplies, 745 MB.  Here is the break down

2500 - Optiplex 270 replaced all Motherboards

Over 800 -Optiplex 280 Bad power supplies

745 - over 1,000 bad motherboards.

1100 790-  Dell tells us 450 have bad power supplies and 300 the are not sure.

Wish Dell would pay us to repair the junk. 

FYI...  Its not just Dell. 

Look at the Optiplex 390 Desktop model.  We have a couple in and they have better air flow and case is easier to work in.

The company I work for has been having a large number of PSUs die in our Optiplex SFF 790 machines.

The PSU is model H240AS-00.

This is starting to become a common issue.  I'm wondering if there is any plan to either fix the issues with this PSU or replace it with another model?

We are purchasing our 790 SFF's with dual Radeon 6350s from Dell and I am wondering if that is a contributing factor.  I'm curious if other companies with this system/PSU, not using these video cards are also having issues.

Has anyone tried or does anyone have any experience with the "green" power supplies availible for the 790 SFF units?  We are considering switching to these on new machines just to get away from this paticualr power supply.

I think you can report this directly to DELL Technical support team, they may help to provide more comments.

My Dell account team acknowledged a power supply issue with OptiPlex 790's manufactured in November.  They are in the process of working with clients to try and rectify. I recommend that you contact Dell support or your Dell account team to inquire if this applies to your systems.

Hello everyone. If you are here for the same reason as I you have noticed the 790's have a power supply problem. I have noticed something I think is worth trying out. at the end of the power supply is a peace of blue plastic that redirects airflow from the fan on the front of the computer away from the intake of the power supply and onto the motherboard. Now I am recomending removing that peace to improve airflow to the power supply. Over long term this may mean that the motherboard will fry. However I would doubt it will fail anytime soon. I cannot confirm this as a 100% solution and currently am testing it on 20 machines. However I do believe this should improve the life the power supply greatly.

According to page 10 of this...

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/op790/en/SFITS/sfits_en.pdf

Flashing Amber is a system board malfunction (solid amber power light would indicate either power supply or system board).

We just got a 390 demo in and I think we're going to switch to that instead, it's cheaper anyways.