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Go to Solution9020SFF POST/SSD issue?
Alright, I have this weird thing going on. In the beginning my little mighty PC would just simply boot up, and everything would work. (power on to desktop = maybe 30 seconds) Now I'm experiencing a symptom that... When I Power On, It'll go through POST just fine (I think) and I'll get a blank screen with a cursor. It'll sit there for about a minute or two. During that time, I can slowly hear the system fans increase in speed, although they don't reach full speed. HDD LED blinks, so the SSD is doing something. It will eventually boot to Windows. Once it does boot, everything's fine and I can do whatever I need. Any ideas or thoughts on this? Thanks!
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Posted February 19th, 2023 13:00
Besides all that, does your 9020 have at least 8GB RAM? At least 8GB works better and faster with Win10. It'll also boot faster than 4GB.
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Posted February 19th, 2023 13:00
Check BIOS Boot Sequence and make sure it's either checked on the SSD or Windows Boot Manager. I'm guessing you got the 9020 as a refurb? Then it may have been on a bootable network. My 7010 had something like IPV4 and IPV6. For some reason, that didn't become a problem until later. They got unchecked or deleted.
Can also try a different SSD/HDD in case the one you have is failing. Running Diagnostics from the Boot & Diagnostic Menu (F12) is an option. There's also downloads that can check the health of your SSD. 30 sec. to boot from an SSD sounds a little slow.
I'm sure very familiar - First, if not done in the last 5 years, replace the size 2032 CMOS battery. Bad batteries cause boot problems.
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Posted February 19th, 2023 17:00
It's possible rear fan isn't providing proper feedback to the MB. May need replacing or hit F1 to continue after booting. But let's get to the other troubleshooting stuff first and see if we can cut out that overly long boot time.
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Posted February 19th, 2023 17:00
This post shows my 9020 in all of its glory. Everything is "maxed out" on it. I guess I'll try replacing the good ol 2032 and see what happens. I got this PC back in June 2022 off of eBay and I don't remember changing the battery... I swear, I thought I did. I'll also get a random "rear fan failure" error message, but when I open it up, I can clearly see that all the fans are running smoothly.
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Posted February 19th, 2023 19:00
My 9020 sff also had a slow post after new memory stick install, but only at the very first time of power on. Power button stays solid white. No video at all, no Dell logo. Monitor has amber light. When post is done after 1 minute or so, monitor has green + video signal. I think replacing cmos battery is a good idea in case the cmos settings has degraded over time after initial eBay purchase.
I think I also got a transient rear fan error, which did not reoccur.337
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Posted February 19th, 2023 19:00
A couple of ideas to check SSD health:
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Posted February 19th, 2023 19:00
Alright, I replaced the battery with a brand spanking new Durasmell 2032. Did a CMOS clear and RTC clear as well. I thought I nearly bricked it, but was able to recover and re-set BIOS parameters. Now it only sits for about 10-15 seconds before booting, so it looks like it partially helped. Did a Restart and a full Shutdown/power up sequence, and now it's consistent. So I'm thinking it might be the SSD. I'll order one this week and see what happens.
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Posted February 19th, 2023 20:00
Ran the CrystalDisk utility. Looks like the drives are fine.(100% on both) So, no point in getting a new drive. I suppose I could just live with it for now... it is an almost 8 year old PC.
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Posted February 19th, 2023 20:00
Glad the SSD is good.
Up to you if you want to check on the stuff in BIOS mentioned in my first reply.
With redxps' RAM mention, I'd be tempted to check 1 stick at a time and see how it does. If PC boots faster with all individual sticks, I'd reinstall the sticks until PC slows down again. The caveat is you might have to boot each stick twice since first boot might be slower with hardware change; or it may just do that on the first stick until more RAM is reinstalled.
CBIVTI22
2 Intern
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112 Posts
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Posted May 22nd, 2023 15:00
I found the problem. It's my mouse, of all things. I have a Razer Deathadder that I use for gaming, and my wife gave me hers because it wasn't comfortable for her. I started having the same symptom on my 9020 MT, but only during a restart. (Cold Power on to desktop there's no issue) So I ran Dell Diagnostics on my SFF and noticed that it was having a hard time detecting the mouse and was lagging. The instant I unplugged it, the lag went away and everything went smoothly. So for some reason, DellDiag doesn't like my mouse. What I have to do every time I restart, is unplug the mouse, wait for Windows to boot, then plug the mouse back in. A bit annoying but I'll live with it.
Oh, and the random Rear Fan Failure error? I ran a quick test in DellDiag. In order to pass, it must peak at 4500 RPM +/- 10%. (4050-4950 RPM) It finished at 4023 RPM, which is just outside of tolerance, which triggers the error.