Power turned on after long amber light blinking 2-1, 2-1,......

Let's hope it's not the motherboard. 

But a way to check if it's the power supply is to unplug the 4 pin and 24 pin (or how ever many pin you have on your power supply) and plug in a known working power supply and if you don't have the same problem with the new power supply then a bad power supply is the problem.

I had the same issue and the problem was my DisplayPort Cable. Why?

- The PC starts and runs fine (Optiplex 7010 - Core i-7 3770 3.4GHZ - 16GB RAM - 250 SSD)
- The Power Supply I have is a 650W 80 Plus Bronze

So definetly not a bad PW Supply Unit or Motherboard.

The DisplayPort cable connector PIN #20 was supplying power from the monitor to the Motherboard causing the Motherboard to Amber Blink because the only 2 power supplies should only be the Power Supply unit and the Battery Coin. Therefore I had to cut the copper thin string of the DP cable (the colour of the cable on PIN 20 is white btw).

That automatically stop the Orange blinking and now is solid white!

So before replacing motherboard, check every port with every cable and see if gives you the amber light.

I spent 1 week trying port after port with 2 DP cables, and only 1 cable gave me the issue.

Check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s1cMwzesZI

Also this https://www.cablechick.com.au/blog/the-displayport-pin-20-issue-explained/


Hope this works!

re: Is it my motherboard or power supply?

agree with 1st reply that psu is first suspec to rule out.  it could be a failing psu.

Glad you got it figured out.  Also, the BIST (built in self test) involves unplugging all external and internal peripherals, then plugging back in one by one until fault repeats.  I'm sure it could also be done in reverse - unplug one by one until fault doesn't appear.

On a plus side, you didn't have to go thru all of that before finding it was a cable.

Just wanted to post my experience with this 2,1 LED blinking issue. I fixed up an Optiplex 9020 SFF system for a friend back in June, and it has worked perfectly until last night when they had a power outage. After the power outage, the system would only do the 2,1 amber blink. I tried another power supply and it did the same thing. There is also a faint whistle coming from the onboard speaker as the LED blinks. No combination of holding buttons, unplugging or power cycling changed the issue.

What did change it was pulling the CMOS battery for several seconds (with the system unplugged) and then putting it back in. This is a new battery as of June, so it wasn't a bad battery. It appears that something in the CMOS must have been "messed up" (to put it technically) by the sudden loss of power. Pulling the battery forced it to reset. Everything seems to be working perfectly fine now. I will update my post if the blinking returns.

I'm glad you got it.

A bad battery will cause boot loop issues, erroneous error codes, and so on.  Yet your battery is good.  Changing the battery can be often suggested, but also has been hit & miss.

In your scenario, or "I turned it off last night and then when I turned it on today" scenario, not unusual for CMOS reset/battery change to be suggested.

Hi, 

To resolve this problem. 

Remove CMOS battery, keep the motherboard idle for 10 - 15 mins, you may get display. 

If you got display go to bios setting. 

Under power management Disable Deep Sleep Control & Block sleep. That's it your system will be ok. 

Regards

Deepan. A

Thank you for the replies! 
The same issue happened to me.
I do have an R10 Ryzen edition with 3080
I've upgraded my RAM to Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600)
After I changed the frequency settings through BIOS, the PC on a startup gave me an LED signal, but after a couple of restarts, it was alive again. But yesterday, it was not starting even after restart, going with a complete reset with power cord out, everything external unplugged, motherboard battery out overnight, using old RAM, etc. 

I called Dell and waiting for a technician now to arrive and replace the motherboard...

I have same problem with blinking 2.1...2.1 and was ready to get new motherboard but found your solution and can't find words to say thank you. It solved my problem and computer start normally. Thank so much

You mean to say, “remove the CMOS and re install and then let the Light blink for 10-15 minutes”?

I am having this issue i have removed everything just used power cable. still having same issue. the video link you provided is not working it is saying Video is private. i have tried many things kindly will you give me detailed video or something like that so i can repair that system. i like to work on motherboard can i get your video of Repairing for practice. Anything that solve my issue will be appreciated

Thanks in advance 

OK .. back to this issue and posts...  I have a Dell 7440 AIO, which like the others has the 2~1 blinking lights.

I replaced the power supply because it failed all the tests.  New supply - Powered it back up and again the same 2~1 blinking lights.

So OK, maybe the pwr supply took out the MB, so I got a "used" MB and put it in.  Same results, the supplier refunded me the purchase and sent me another board.  Same rev, same model number and again 2~1 blinking lights.

What I DON'T have

• Any power to the USB's
• No POST
• No beeps, or sound of any kind

What I do have at this moment using the 3 buttons on the side

• Volume UP & Down
• I can light the screen and do a screen test
• Select the "inputs", but the input dont work because of the rest of the failures

Tried removing / replacing the CMOS Battery, removing it over night, removing it and letting the system run for 30 minutes without the battery.

2~1 Blinking lights ... Anyone with any ideas (other than e-waste or Thermite ) .. Could a bad CPU cause the same issue????

Thanks

It didn't work in my pc.