Optiplex 9020 Boot Failure

Question

I've got a 5 year old Optiplex 9020 that is failing to boot. By that, I mean when power is applied to the CPU, the unit appears to be powering up for about 2 secs, beeps once and restarts, repeating over and over. It never gets to the point where the diagnostic LEDs power on or you can run pre-boot diagnostics.

I tried swapping out the power supply from a working 9020 but that had no effect. I tried disconnecting the hard drive and DVD drive but that had no effect either.

Seems likely this is a motherboard issue but I've never had one fail so I'm not familiar with the symptoms for that.

Any suggestions?

JOcean · Accepted Answer

Try replacing the CMOS (coin cell) battery. I am not sure which form factor you have but the following is for the MT.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/ca/en/cabsdt1/optiplex-9020-desktop/opt9020usffom-v2/removing-the-coin-cell-battery?guid=guid-c7a959d8-e82c-4119-a88a-06f8250f83c2&lang=en-us

bhartung · Answer

I'll have to admit I was skeptical that changing the CMOS battery would make any difference but it did.

It stopped the reboot loop which allowed the power button LED blink diagnostic to run. I am getting a 2 then 3 blink pattern which the manual says is "system board, memory or CPU failure". That's about the worst message because it's the least specific.

As luck would have it, the warranty just expired in August so I'm afraid after stripping out some useful parts this PC is headed for the recycle bin.

Thanks for your suggestion.

JOcean · Answer

Glad  I was able to help!

Nordic_Ape · Answer

We have multiple 9020s at our school that have the same issues. What I have found is if you go in remove and replace the RAM and do the same to the CMOS it should clear the error. I am not sure why but it seems to only be the 9020s that have this error. I am not sure why only this model does this.

bradthetechnut · Answer

Nordic_Ape's other thread

Lwow · Answer

Please explain where the coin battery is located.  And, did that replacement solve the boot loop problem.  My computer is experiencing exactly the same symptoms.

Lwow · Answer

Does replacing the battery solve the boot loop problem described earlier?  Our Dell won’t boot, tries over and over with beeps in-between — I am cautious as that battery is for date and time, so why would date and time correct a reboot looping problem?  I am a layperson who knows very little about hardware

speedstep · Answer

Where the coin cell is depends on which size 9020 you have.

https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/uk/Dell-OptiPlex-9020-spec-sheet_Final_V2_G13001038.pdf

Duracell DL2032 works in all models.

https://www.amazon.com/Duracell-Lithium-Battery-Lasting-Count/dp/B07GN8ZYZR

Richard Responder · Answer

The 'coin' battery not only 'holds' the date and time in the PC, but also certain BIOS/CMOS settings. These settings can be reset by removing the battery, waiting 15-60 seconds, then re-installing the battery. After this you have to go into BIOS to reinstate your desired settings. The weak battery described may not be holding all of the settings.

bhartung · Answer

In my case, indications were that the system board had a problem.  This is an older PC that is out of warranty. We decided to recycle.

Yo man · Answer

Yeah today my dell 9020 MT won't boot just because I moved around my ram. Did you find an answer to your issue?

Yo man · Answer

I might be out of luck huh? So what pc do you have now?

bradthetechnut · Answer

Moved around your RAM? Did you add new RAM? With PC powered off and unplugged anytime working on the inside of it, remove RAM down to the 1st stick. Power up and see what it does. Powering off and unplugging again, insert RAM one at a time and powering up until fault reoccurs.

Another troubleshooting method is to take a stick of known working RAM and try it in each DIMM slot. This rules out any bad DIMM slot(s).

If you have just 2 sticks of RAM, try it in slots 1 & 3 and/or 2 & 4.

We did have one recently that didn't have his RAM pushed in all the way.

Optiplex Desktops

Optiplex 9020 Boot Failure

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