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April 6th, 2023 08:00
Dell Optiplex 990 SFF weird issue
Hi all,
As above, I have a Dell Optiplex 990 SFF with the strangest issue. It simply will not boot, it keeps throwing blue power button and 1 and 3 glowing orange.
Here are all the steps I have followed till now:
1: It initially booted fine, it has two identical Samsung DDR3 10600 4 GB RAM modules ( Model number M378B5273DH0-CH9) in it, in DIMM slots 1 and 2. I have tested these in another PC and they seem to be working fine.
2: I first noticed it had an old BIOS, A03, so I upgraded, first to A05 as per the Dell website, then to A10, also as per the Dell website, then to A24. All upgrades went smoothly with no issues. PC booted into Windows 10 with no problems whatsoever.
3: I shut down the PC last night, went to bed. When I woke up this morning, I powered on and got the issue, blue power light, 1 and 3 glowing orange. So I powered off, removed and reseated the RAM modules, still the same.
4: Removed the CMOS battery, left it for about an hour with no power cable plugged in, then replaced CMOS battery with a new one, inserted into the motherboard, plugged in power supply and powered on, same issue.
5: I then removed CMOS battery again, cleared the CMOS with the blue jumper, left it plugged in for a while to ensure the CMOS was cleared. Removed power cable, moved jumper back to original pins, reseated CMOS battery, plugged power cable back in, still the same issue.
So now I am at a loss. Does anyone have any other possible suggestions I could try please?
Thanking you,
Mark.
redxps630
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April 6th, 2023 21:00
Did you flash from A10 to A24 last night in one step before shut down?
If it booted only once to windows last night before shut down, then could not boot any more speaks of cmos corruption. Dell’s procedure of clear cmos is not self consistent. Try not to plug in any power cord when you move the blue jumper to RTCRST. Try disconnect power cord, drain all flea power, then clear cmos via jumper. If still no post, remove all memory sticks. Does pc beep when powered on? No beep is a bad sign.
PS a quantum leap in bios flash is risky (A10->A24). take small incremental steps, or do not flash bios unless you absolutely need to.
JOcean
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April 6th, 2023 08:00
You are on the right track, that diagnostic light pattern means no RAM modules detected. Try one module then the other just to see if possibly one of the modules is bad. Try running diagnostics, F12 at boot, if possible just to confirm or deny a RAM problem. Also go to the Memtest86 site here and download the RAM test program. It will create a bootable USB test drive. Any error using that test is a fail. And the RAM slots should be in this sequence. A1-B1-A2-B2.
Worst case scenario could be a MB problem. But just to test that out remove the RAM and reboot. You should get error lights and/or beeps. Of course it could give you the same light pattern and that would seem to confirm a MB problem.
Markdewet
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April 6th, 2023 11:00
@JOcean, thank you for your reply. As per your reply:
1: I get no POST screen, so cannot get to press F12 to run any form of diagnostics.
2: I did re-insert the RAM modules 1 by 1, no difference, same issue. I also tried 2 other known working DDR3 1333Mhz RAM modules, from another PC I have with the same result, so I really am at a loss here. It was working fine until this morning, lol.
Markdewet
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April 6th, 2023 12:00
My Apologies all, My Dell is DT version not a SFF version, not sure if this makes any difference.
Markdewet
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April 7th, 2023 04:00
@redxps630 ,
Thank you for your reply.
In order:
1: Yes, I went from A10 to A24, but did not shut down, I rebooted into Windows no issue and used the PC for a while after that with no issue.
2: Yes, I finally worked out exactly how to reset the CMOS correctly, I removed the power cable, replaced the CMOS battery, moved the jumper over and left it for about a minute. That seems to have worked.
I can now report that the PC is up and running, albeit with only two RAM modules in DIMM slots 2 and 4. For some reason slots 1 and 3 are still giving the same error lights. However, I will run it for a day or two and see if it comes right. If not, at least I have a working PC with 8GB of RAM.
Thank you to all for your assistance and replies.