DELL T1700 SFF, No POST/BIOS

Question

Hi,I have a Dell T1700 (D07S) Xeon Workstation (4 x 8Gb RAM) that will power on but doesn't get very far. No display, no BIOS, nothing. The machine currently has no hard drive or CD attached, but should still be able to get to the BIOS.Oddly (to my mind), even without the CPU installed it acts the same, i.e. powers on and just sits there seeming to do nothing by which I mean its behaviour appears to be the same whether there is a CPU installed or not. There are no LEDs that I can see, the power light comes on (steady white) and there is an internal speaker which doesn't emit any beeps.  I have tried removing the onboard battery and unplugging the system for a couple of hours in case the BIOS had some bad settings or something, but no improvement. If it weren't for the power light and the fan spinning, I'd assume it wasn't working at all. As things stand, I appear to have no way to test the machine apart from the power light and the fan. Is this a hopeless case (effectively a dead machine)?  Thanks James

JOcean · Answer

The fact that it 'powers on' with or without a CPU and the BIOS can not be accessed is troubling and leads me to believe the MB may be the cause. If you pull all the memory do you hear any beeps when trying to boot with the CPU installed? There is a slim chance that the PSU is the cause. If the PSU has a test button on the back does pressing it cause the green LED to light up and do the fans start up? You can also try unplugging everything from the PSU except the 2 MB connections then try to boot.

Joyfik · Answer

@JOcean, I have a similar issue. The unit boots, solid white LED, and all fans spin fine, but no video output. The unit also boots when I plug the power cable back in.

However, I have the 2,3 flashing amber LED state without a CPU. Also, I get the 1-3-2 beep and amber flashing LED if the RAM is removed.

I've tried a different working PSU and GPU, removed all the RAM modules but one, and changed the CMOS battery.

I am baffled at what the source of the issue can be.

JOcean · Answer

Do you also have a T1700 SFF and if not what is the exact model number of your system?

"

@Joyfik wrote:

@JOcean, I have a similar issue. The unit boots, solid white LED, and all fans spin fine, but no video output. The unit also boots when I plug the power cable back in.

However, I have the 2,3 flashing amber LED state without a CPU. Also, I get the 1-3-2 beep and amber flashing LED if the RAM is removed.

I've tried a different working PSU and GPU, removed all the RAM modules but one, and changed the CMOS battery.

I am baffled at what the source of the issue can be.

And if the BIOS is set to boot when power is restored than that would be normal operation.

fircroftstar · Answer

I have just had a similar problem - T1700 Xeon, power light is white, no LED state lights, frequent intermittent hard disk activity light for some time then stops, no video.

This machine usually boots to the network sign-on screen in less than a minute, now both displays blank.

fircroftstar · Answer

I left my T1700 in its start-up state and eventually it came up with a Boot Options menu, showing

Boot mode is set to: UEFI; Secure Boot: ON

UEFI BOOT:

Windows Boot Manager

OTHER OPTIONS:

BIOS Setup

Device Configuration

BIOS Flash Update

Diagnostics

Change Boot Mode Settings

Is this correct for normal startup? If not, which should I select/change?

bradthetechnut · Answer

It can mean a boot drive wasn't found.

First, a bad size 2032 CMOS battery can cause boot problems, so try replacing that first. If it's still the same...

Run diagnostics from that menu and/or try a different boot drive in case the boot drive failed.

Precision Fixed Workstations

DELL T1700 SFF, No POST/BIOS

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