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cezzium

2 Posts

6908

October 30th, 2004 20:00

Power Supply Issue?

I have an Optiplex GX150 which I'm thinking has a power supply issue.
 
When I went to power it up today it went through the Dell splash to Windows 2000 start up about 1/2way then I kept hearing a clicking and it would kick up the Dell splash for a couple of seconds. It did the Dell splash about 3 times then went to nothing.
 
Now all I get is the power light is flashing amber and the hard drive light is solid green. I tried discharging electricity. I can't seem to get any diagnostic lights. No go
 
This is a work computer I was allowed to take home for on call use since the even older compaq with a celleron I had died and this one is now no longer "in spec" either.
 
I doubt I'm going to get much help at work since it's a machine they would probably not keep. It is perfectly usable for what I need to do so I'd like to get it working -- I'm just not very knowledgeable about desktop support.
 
Any suggestions would be grateful. I don't have any ideas what a power supply would cost.:smileyindifferent:

BBraxton

2 Intern

 • 

2K Posts

November 2nd, 2004 15:00

In my experience the CLICK sounds suggest a hard drive failing (or failed). Are you able to boot into Safe Mode? Can you boot from CD drive and run the complete diagnostics (specifically EIDE tests, thorough hard drive test). When I go that, generally I find an "unrecoverable disk error" and the hard drive has to be replaced. If the disk drive test passes (comes up clean) you might also try doing a CHKDSK
SCANDISK /ALL /SURFACE

Nuttz

7 Posts

November 8th, 2004 08:00

This could be a PSU problem. The flashing amber usually points to psu. You mention a ticking noise. Is it the same noise with the case open? also check the nic lights at the back and see if they flash in time to the ticking. If so a replacement power supply is what you need

cezzium

2 Posts

November 8th, 2004 12:00

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

After much angst and begging for a new power supply, it turned out that my manager had hers (the exact same pc and configuration) still available after an upgrade. We swapped the power supplies and it wouldn't boot -- after doing a thorough check that all the plugs were seated it did finally start and seems to be fine.

Funny thing is now the pc we swapped psu's with seems to boot up -- didn't have a monitor, but it sounded like the disk was spinning. Interesting ...

thanks again.

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