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Optiplex 980 Problem
Hi - my optiplex was running fine when suddenly it seemed to reboot but upon reboot it entered into an endless cycle of the fan spinning up and then down and the monitor entering sleep then waking. I can't seem to find any reference to the type of error code being displayed in the video. I have replaced the motherboard but the problem remains which is odd.
Has anyone seen something like this before ?
Thanks
RoHe
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January 2nd, 2016 14:00
3,4 (blue or amber power button) is a RAM problem. Remove all modules except the one in slot 1 and see if it boots now. If not, swap the other module(s) into slot 1. If none works in slot 1, try another slot.
2,4 (blue power button) is video card problem. Test with known working video card and/or test this card in a different PC.
Always power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec before working inside. Remove motherboard battery and press/hold power button for ~30 sec before reinstalling battery, after making any hardware config changes.
Chewymix
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January 2nd, 2016 15:00
Thanks - I have tried this before with regard the ram but nothing seems to make a difference. I will remove the graphics card to see what happens.
Can you hear that the fan speed increases and decreases while it's going through this cycle. Could this possibly be a psu problem?
Chewymix
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January 3rd, 2016 04:00
Ok. Tested each ram stick on its own and same problem. Removed graphics card and same problem. Put a stick of ram that came from spares and now the monitor displays optiplex 980 series at the bottom of the screen. Nothing else happens. The power button is lit up blue and the 1-2-3 lights are on solid. I changed the coin cell battery as the 1-2-3 lights were referenced for this but that was with a blue light.
Any thoughts? This is with an additional gfx card. If the main display is the onboard what will be on the secondary display?
Thanks
RoHe
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January 3rd, 2016 12:00
First, which form factor is this: Desktop, Mini-Tower, or Small Form Factor?
What CPU is in this system? According to the manual for the MT, onboard video is not supported on systems with Intel i7 and Intel i5 quad-core processors. So unless you have an i3, onboard video doesn't appear to be an option for you to test.
What does "additional gfx card" mean? If you have a MT with i3 processor and an add-in video card in the x16 slot, the onboard video is automatically disabled so the onboard ports won't work, unless you remove the add-in video card.
1-2-3 with AMBER power button suggests a battery failure. 1-2-3 with BLUE power button is "other failure". Did you leave a non-bootable disk in the optical or floppy drive? Have you checked the power and data cable connections for both HDD and optical drives at each end?
If there's any other add-in card installed, eg modem etc, remove those and see if that helps.
JPM123ny
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January 3rd, 2016 16:00
I have seen something like this and if you go to your manual it will tell you what that exact sequence of lighted numbers going on and off and also in the color amber so search those terms and you should find answer. When you put the new ram in did you reset the motherboard. I know you said you replaced the motherboard but in Bios F2 as it is starting up does it recognize the ram. I have had similar problem. I asked if my XPS 8300 could only accept 16 GB of Ram and I was told yes by Dell but other people told me if in a 64 bit OS you should be able to handle up to 128. So I installed 32 GB and it was seen in Bios and worked fine running Windows 10. Then I purchased a Sandisk 1 TB and tried to build it and it kept freezing up on me so I removed every drive and tried to install again kept freezing. So I did the diagnostic long memory test in bios no errors. So the last thing I did was put back in the original 16 GB of Ram and I had no problems installing Windows 10 on any of the drives. So now that have running stable I am going to see if I can put back in the 32 GB of ram sometime in a week or so and I hopefully won't have a problem. Let me know what you find out as I will you.....Also somebody might have a better answer it is a great site and free www.spiceworks.com when you sign up just let them know you were refered by me James Mclaughlin JTech Computers. Thanks
Chewymix
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January 5th, 2016 09:00
Chewymix
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January 6th, 2016 05:00
It was the CPU. Swapped it out and now all good.