Optiplex 330

Question

Wont boot up. Starts of then message with going to auto adjustment then blank screen and computer makes two clicks every 5 seconds or so

DELL-Ravi Ch · Accepted Answer

Hi philiptodd, As suggested by Tyrandis it seems to be an issue related to hard drive. Please let me know if you have any other queries related to the system.

DELL-Ravi Ch · Answer

Hi philiptodd

I’d suggest that you follow the steps mentioned below and check if the beep pattern repeats.

Switch off the computer.
Disconnect the power cable from the wall.
Press and hold down the power button for 15 seconds.
Then connect back all the peripherals and check if the beep pattern repeats.If it repeats please reply us back with the count of number of beeps.

Tyrandis · Answer

Format hard drive then reinstall windows and see if thats the issue if not then message me back

philiptodd · Answer

tried that and made no difference. That happens is when you switch computer on you get the normal DELL screen then it goes to very small letters saying ' Auto adjustment in progress' then screen goes black and computer makes distinctive clicks, not beeps. Nothing else happens. Normally you need to hold start button in for sometime before computer powers down but now you just need to touch the start button. At the top left of the black screen is a flashing _ and if you do the Alt Ctr Del it goes back to the power up again. I can use F2 and F12 on start up but nothing else

philiptodd · Answer

how can I reinstall windows when I haven't got a screen? It is on windows vista

Tyrandis · Answer

Thats good that your motherboard is working! it just means that your hard drive is bad no try to reinstall windows and if that doesn't work then its time for  you to get a new hard drive

Tyrandis · Answer

First you need to put your windows vista in your cd drive then after turn off your computer and turn it back on then press del or whatever your code key is to get into the bios then you would see boot settings you will click that since the first boot order has to be your cd drive and once thats done you have to let your computer run until the screen saids "press any key to continue" once you do that windows will prompted you to installing windows vista then after it loads up you will click install now then it will ask you which hdd you would like to select so you would just select the one that had vista in it but before you do that you would click on the advance option then when you see new, delete, format, ect. you would click the format one and format your original hdd once thats done you will install windows vista.

To remove a hdd first unplug your computer's power cord then hold the power button for 15 seconds then open the computer case then you will see the hard drive it one of the hdd ports if you see any screws then take a philips screw driver and remove the screws then after that take off the power cord and the sata cable then put your new hard drive that you bought at the store and attach the power cable and sata cable together and screw in the screws to the hdd bay.

speedstep · Answer

The clicks are the hard drive trying to find track zero aka click of death.  The drive is dead and reformatting wont fix it.

philiptodd · Answer

Yes got an optiplex 3020 on order. Now just need to see if there is anything on the old 330 I need to retrieve

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Optiplex 330

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