Dell Optiplex 7010 SFF Orange blinking power button

Question

Hello, I have a weird problem with my Optiplex 7010 SFF, I bought it used a few months ago, and it was working quite alright, all of the sudden in the past month I started experiencing this blinking orange power button the power comes on for a second then it switches itself off, I searched for answers all over the internet, the conclusion is "possible Motherboard Failure" however sometimes the computer actually turn on, which is the weird part, I tried a different PSU, same result, re-seated the cpu, ram, battery, updated BIOS and even unplugged everything but the 24-pin and 4-pin, same result, any idea what might cause this ? there is no burnt anything on the motherboard, and it does actually run from time to time, but not consistent.

Here is a video of the problem

https://youtu.be/a6mDp6dnyu0

bradthetechnut · Accepted Answer

Hi @Zatlon,

You said, among the things you reseated, was the CMOS battery. You also said the PC ran without the battery. Did you try replacing the CMOS size 2032 battery with a new one? A low battery can cause all sorts of bizarre problems.

The batteries last around 5 years and the 7010 is a little older than that. I also suggest using Duracell or Energizer. Sony batteries only lasted me 2 years.

You may also use the "Get Help Now" option at the bottom right to chat with a Dell technician right away.

XSSMOKE_ONE · Answer

This worked for me:

Disconnect any mouse,keyboard,usb,etc.

Power ON the Computer

On the back of the Computer you will find a Button and a Light

While the computer is ON press and hold the Black Button in the back of the Power Supply

IF the Led indicator turns solid GREEN this means that the Computer works Properly

IF the Led indicator does not turn on this means that a Failure was Identified

Zatlon · Answer

You see thats the problem, when I press the black button it stays on, however when i press the power button it does exactly like the video, something strange happened to me today, I removed the battery and kept it outside and drained the system, and 'oh boy' it ran just fine, however when I put the battery back and adjusted the time in bios, same problem happened again.

redxps630 · Answer

even though you said you tried a different psu, a finicky power button is still suspicious sign that psu is failing.  maybe not completely dead but it fails to supply stable voltage to board.  to rule out psu issue make sure your other test psu is 100% working, i.e., pulled from another completely working system.

Zatlon · Answer

I really suspect if the psu is failing, and to make sure, I pulled a 3rd one from a working system that has a 9900K and a 1080Ti in it, however same problem happened again, thats a total of 3 power supplies, which am sure at least 2 of them is in 100% working status, I really dont think its the power supply.

Any ideas I could try ?

redxps630 · Answer

Good to know you have ruled out psu. Then I suspect CMOs is unstable.  I had old optiplex that had intermittent boot issues too.  Have you tried jumper reset on motherboard?  For me that worked sometimes (not 100%).  If that helps revive your 7010, it is not guarantee that CMOs would not lose it again next time. I looked at it like some kind of dementia of CMOs: it is supposed to hold on to a nonvolatile memory when powered off, but sometimes it doesn’t read the book.  no permanent fix (if that is the cause of boot problem) other than replacing cmos, but I would just keep the system powered on, or resort to the jumper reset again when issue reoccur (not a convenient fix).

Zatlon · Answer

could you illustrate more please, where do I find that jumper on the motherboard ?

redxps630 · Answer

I don’t have a pic for SFF jumper but here is one for MT/DT. jumper they are similar. blue jumper is on pswd (password). black one is for CMOS (RTCRST).

wearing anti-ESD wristband or ground your fingers first, move the blue jumper to black 2 pin for 30-60 sec, then move it back to blue.

Zatlon · Answer

Okay, now it is getting really strange, I did exactly what you said, and the weird thing is that the system stays on with a orange light power button, it doesnt blink, nor gives any signal on the monitor.

however when I cut the power and power it back on, it does the same thing as before, two orange blinks, followed by one fast blink.

redxps630 · Answer

If you tried the jumper on CMOS one more time and same strange thing happened again (no video on monitor), the board is possibly bricked.  what I do not quite understand is you said 'I tried a different PSU, same result, re-seated the cpu, ram, battery, updated BIOS'.  How did you boot into dos/Windows to update BIOS?

Zatlon · Answer

You see thats the problem and what is really strange, from time to time it does boot, and work just fine, it once did, I updated the bios that time.

redxps630 · Answer

now looking at video of power button with audio on I can hear the fan spins/stops repetitively. this is an ominous sign that motherboard is failing.  I had the exact bad experience with a motherboard I bought which had intermittent boot behavior like yours.  Sometimes it was able to boot into Windows apparently well.  Next time after power off it had a lot of trouble. over the period of 1-2 days it got worse and worse.  I could hardly boot up and success rate dropped from 1/3 to 1/10 to not booting at all. A lot of time wasted to try to rescue the board which eventually got killed. In retrospect it was not worth the time.  Someone told me my cpu socket had bent pins. Did that cause the intermittent boot issue and ultimate death? IDK.

Zatlon · Answer

This what will come to the end after I try replacing the battery.

Zatlon · Answer

Okay am gonna just say it, this doesnt make any sense, I tried what you said, and it actually booted, and for several times!!

I will be testing this for the next couple of days, hopefully it continues to work.

redxps630 · Answer

do you mean you remove/replace cmos battery or reset cmos jumper the second time and now it is booting well?

Optiplex Desktops

Dell Optiplex 7010 SFF Orange blinking power button

Was this post helpful?