Optiplex 740 Orange / Amber Power Button

Question

I am new to this forum and thankful for this opportunity to seek advice / recommendations / guidance. I purchased my first full scale arcade game for my kids, Big Buck Hunter Safari Deluxe. I am sure the first dumb mistake I made was leaving the unit completely unplugged for over 5 months - kept in climate controlled storage to give as a X-Mas present. The system turned on and worked perfectly the first time out. I noticed a message during boot-up about a low voltage warning, but everything worked fine. The unit was turned off and on a few times on X-Mas day and near the end of the day it wouldn't boot during one of the power up attempts and the power button on the Dell Optiplex 740 was orange / amber and not green during the final power-up attempt. We let the system rest overnight and it worked fine again in the morning. The next time the unit was turned off and then attempted to restart later, it went back to the orange power button and no boot. I did some research and read about replacing the CMOS battery. At first, this seems to do the trick, but after turning off and on again it went back to orange power button. The next few days I got into the routine of disconnecting everything from the CPU, removing the CMOS battery, reinstalling the CMOS battery, reconnecting the CPU, and the game worked fine. Used voltmeter to confirm the CMOS batter was doing fine and holding near 3v. This was the only way I could get the system to work. Over this past weekend, the removal and reinstall trick of the CMOS battery is no longer working. I am stuck with the orange power button on the Dell Optiplex 740. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Mary G · Answer

Not sure what you did--Try another brand new coin cell battery in the computer.  Removing and replacing the battery doesn't work if the battery is weak or bad. Coin cell battery is available from any place that sells batteries for about a dollar.

redxps630 · Answer

Re: the removal and reinstall trick of the CMOS battery is no longer working

try clear cmos settings by reset RTCRST jumper on 740 motherboard.

Clearing CMOS Settings
1. Follow the procedures in Before You Begin.
2. If clearing the CMOS setting on a small form factor computer, remove the hard drive (see Removing a Hard Drive).
3. Reset the current CMOS settings:
a. Locate the password and CMOS jumpers. Password (PSWD) and CMOS (RTC_RST) jumpers are on the system board (see Jumper Settings).
b. Remove the password jumper plug from its pins.
c. Place the password jumper plug on the RTC_RST pins and wait approximately 5 seconds.
d. Remove the jumper plug from the RTC_RST pins and place it back on the password pins.
4. If clearing the CMOS setting on a small from factor computer, install the hard drive (see Installing a Hard Drive).
5. Replace the computer cover (see Replacing the Computer Cover).

Chadley07 · Answer

A lot of new terms in this one for me.  I have done a bunch of online research and I believe I have found the RTCRST pins on my Optiplex 740.  They appear to be right next to the CMOS battery.  They are just two pins with no jumper currently installed.  I saw a couple other videos showing a 3-pin configuration and moving the jumper from two of the pins to the other two pins.  This does not appear to apply to my model of computer.  The video that appeared to match my computer showed placing a 2-pin jumper on the 2-pins, wait 5 seconds, and then remove.  Sound about right?  If so, my next purchase will have to be one of those 2-pin jumpers.  Thanks.

Chadley07 · Answer

Thank you for the reply!  I replaced the CMOS battery with a brand new Panasonic battery and the system fired-up and worked perfectly.  Turned it off.  Waited a couple minutes.  Turned back on and the orange power light on the CPU is back.  Any further thoughts?

redxps630 · Answer

Re: They are just two pins with no jumper currently installed.

there is a pair of adjacent password pins with a blue jumper on them. you pulled out that jumper to put on RTCRST. when you are done put the blue jumper back on the password pins.

Chadley07 · Answer

Thank you for this additional guidance.  All of these steps were followed.  Unfortunately, it did not make a difference.  The orange power button is still present upon turning the computer back on.  At this point, the only thing that has worked is to remove the CMOS battery, wait a short period of time, and then reinsert.  Hopefully, there is a better solution so I do not have to do this every time I want to use the CPU.  Any further thoughts?

redxps630 · Answer

Re: Over this past weekend, the removal and reinstall trick of the CMOS battery is no longer working. I am stuck with the orange power button on the Dell Optiplex 740.

test motherboard using a spare working psu. this would help rule out a failing dell 740 psu.

Chadley07 · Answer

Yes. I ended up going to a Arcade Game forum and received this awesome advice that worked perfectly for me. The wording is a bit tricky to follow, but my system has been working just fine ever since:

The wiring harness gimmick that Raw Thrills uses goes in-between the motherboard power plug and the motherboard. it's like a pass-through connection. the end that actually goes into the motherboard however has the power button wire removed, so you can't turn it on and off with the power button this way. I'm uncertain what the technical explanation for that is, but that's what it is.

You'll have to open the case up and unplug the motherboard power from the power supply out of the pass-through connection and plug it straight into the motherboard. you'll be able to power it on then, but not to play the game obviously, as you're disconnecting it from the cabinet then. what you do now is hook up a keyboard and enter the BIOS settings mode and under the power category you have to change it to Power on AC I think they call it. this means whenever AC power is applied to the computer it turns on automatically as it should for a BuckHunter. once you've done this you can unplug the computer or flip the on/off switch on the power supply if it has one and wait about 10 seconds. plug in/turn it on again. if it powers up, shut it down, unplug motherboard power from motherboard and reconnect the pass-through harness. enjoy the game then.

bjagos · Answer

Hi @Chadley07 .  I have the exact same issue with my Guitar Hero setup.  Optiplex 740 and all.  Were you able to solve?

Optiplex Desktops

Optiplex 740 Orange / Amber Power Button

Was this post helpful?