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May 25th, 2021 11:00
Optiplex 3010 Blinking Amber Light on Motherboard
Hello!
I have an Optiplex 3010 which doesn't power on. I suspect the PSU has gone bad as the green LED doesn't light up when plugged into the power. To double test, I took a known, working PSU (Dell H305N-00) and plugged it into the system (main 24-pin and CPU 4-pin connectors only). When I plugged in the power cord, an amber LED marked LED1 located near the main connector began blinking and there was no reaction at all when I tried to power up.
No front panel LEDs are lighting up. The RAM is in known, working condition. The CMOS battery is at 3.05 VDC. I've tried using the jumper to reset any passwords. I currently have no peripherals attached: no HDD, no DVD-RW, no keyboard, no mouse--not even the monitor.
A new PSU is in transit, but I wanted to see if anyone at Dell (or in the community) knows what the blinking amber light is so that I might know ahead of time if the motherboard is blown, too.
Thank you for your help!
speedstep
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May 25th, 2021 11:00
3010 7010 9010 tower uses standard power supply.
smaller models cant use full size power supply inside the case.
https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/dell_optiplex_7010_spec_sheet.pdf
markomus
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May 25th, 2021 15:00
Thank you for your reply.
I have received the replacement PSU for this form factor (SFF). I wondered earlier if Dell simply uses proprietary circuitry in their PSUs and it seems they do.
Regardless of form factor, any PSU of sufficient wattage should be able to power a system (also provided it isn't a proprietary pin out).
Autopsy on the old PSU: It does appear to have some circuitry that is extracurricular to the functionality of a standard PSU, so I must assume that Dell uses proprietary PSUs for this make, model, and form factor. In a way, tsk tsk. But since part of the design is to have LED codes, it makes sense in the greater picture.
At any rate, a blinking amber LED on the motherboard with no other activity looks like it simply means, "Incompatible PSU," which has nothing to do with the form factor of the PSU--just the internal circuitry.
Again, thank you for your help. This has been educational.
speedstep
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May 25th, 2021 23:00
"Regardless of form factor, any PSU of sufficient wattage should be able to power a system (also provided it isn't a proprietary pin out)."
That is incorrect because power supplies are not single rail and single spec of watts.
Some vendors have insufficient power on 5VSB as well as combined 3.3V/5V rails.
140w to 225w combined on those rails is fine. Less than that can have issues.
This is why EVGA 700BR is recommended due to having 150w combined on 3.3V/5V rails and 3 AMPS on 5VSB.
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=100-BR-0700-K1
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/evga-br-series-700w-atx12v-eps12v-80-plus-power-supply-dc-dc-technology-black/6346160.p?skuId=6346160
evga 850 has 160w on those rails
Dell 875w has 225w on those rails
Some vendors however have 90 - 130w max combined on these rails even with their 1000w units which is why they are a problem.
markomus
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May 26th, 2021 12:00
More precisely, it should be pointed out that, in this particular case, the primary problem was with the Amperage on the +5VSB rail of my test unit (the Dell H305N-00 that I mentioned in my first post), which has a max Amperage of 2A. The proper replacement PSU for this form factor (Model H240AS-01, though others might work?) has a max of 4A. I found another test unit that has a max of 2.5A and it was able to start the system (regardless of any system stability issues later--I'm not testing for that).
This negates my earlier hypothesis that Dell used a component that would create a proprietary dependency. Good to see that they didn't repeat one of their "sins of the past" (proprietary pinouts on their PSUs aeons ago). It would now seem to me that the extracurricular circuitry is only a part of a self-diagnosing system, which is just fine.
I still have to stand with my conclusion, however: "a blinking amber LED on the motherboard with no other activity looks like it simply means, 'Incompatible PSU,' which has nothing to do with the form factor of the PSU--just the internal circuitry," though admittedly for different reasons now.
Thank you for further enlightening me on some specifics of PSUs I wasn't previously totally familiar with. I will use it in the future.
bradthetechnut
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May 26th, 2021 15:00
There's also the BIST (built in self test) test. But you basically did some of that already with unplugging everything. It simply involves unplugging everything and push test button on PSU to see if green light comes on. Then plug everything back in one at time, pushing test button in between, to see if green light comes on. Once it doesn't, you know what's at fault.
Blinking amber on an Optiplex does typically mean bad PSU, so you're right there.
Solid amber can mean bad or bricked MB.
Smart move testing the battery.