Troubleshooting and Fixing a Dell Optiplex I bought for $35 that Doesn't POST! 

I like this type of videos

Was there an alternative video-out method?

I tried multiple onboard video outs (off camera mainly) and I slotted a dedicated GPU into the system at 9:06, so sadly I don't think it was a video output issue.

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials Thanks, I was working while listening and obv missed the discreet GPU attempt!

I really like these type videos of the step-by-step troubleshooting. Good practical info as well as enjoyable.

I might contact Dell support to see what they have to say on BIOS recovery for these. As far as I've been able to research, the 7020 doesn't seem to be capable of restoring the BIOS using this method, but I'll probably reach out to Dell within the next couple weeks to see what they have to say on the matter!

Great idea! I'll keep that in mind and maybe purchase some of that in the near future!

​@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials I'm going to look for this product as well. I had some luck with and old 486 MB that would not post, by giving it a complete spray with isopropyl alcohol(a complete bath as I've seen in some vintage mac restoration channels is prob. better) and scrub with a toothbrush. It brought my first computer back to life!

I swear by DeoxIt. I have saved a ton of boards with this stuff. And I shudder to think how many I sent downstream to recycling before I discovered it. 🤦‍♂️

Tech Yes City has a can of something that he sprays ALL over the electrical parts, not sure what the name of it is…..

Thanks!

​@@CompHwTipsAndTutorialsHave you ever encountered bad caps? I know the surface mount caps were garbage after a few years i have a Dell that has solder through hole caps with blown tops on them and yeah she's a "no post" condition. I read some of the other posts, it is an absolutely possible that the solder resin is slightly electrically conductive. My main rig has an ASUS Cross Hair and one of my hard drives would randomly connect and disconnect (SATA 2 interface), I washed (thoroughly soaked via spary bottle) motherboard with an 90% isopropyl alcohol brushed carefully with an old tooth brush then spray flushed it again with more alcohol. Let it dry thoroughly (alcohol is electrically conductive too). After all was reinstalled all 4 of my hard drives went through a check disk and that one hard drive has not randomly disconnected sense the alcohol stubbing/cleaning with the alcohol bath. Perhaps that will be worth a try for this motherboard.

Awesome upgraded office PC!

I'm considering doing that when revisiting this board in the future, thanks!

Nice one! I've used these old systems to play around with linux before, and it's pretty fun.

Hey there, thanks for reminding me of that! I forgot about that step while troubleshooting this computer. I've made sure to remind myself of that step and to add that step to my troubleshooting checklist. Cheers!

That’s a good point! I forgot to check that. I know now that it wouldn’t be the cause of the issue as it causes no problem with the new board after extensive testing, but I need to remember that for the future!

@CompHwTipsAndTutorials That's true, but if there were a problem with how it was connected on the mb. Maybe give the pins of the old board a check over in case there was a short or cracked joint before ditching it. 👍

I haven't tried that yet, but I'll add it to my list for when I eventually revisit this board!

That's a really interesting way for a board to die, I'll keep that in mind! And yeah, I found it a bit confusing that the motherboard wouldn't work but it still gave a proper error code when I pulled all the RAM out.

Yeah I agree. The fact that it does give beep codes probably means that the BIOS isn't mega screwed. I'll be picking up a POST code analyzer soon and will hopefully be able to get a hot air station to reflow the chipset sometime soon!

Wish that these boards had bluged capacitors, I have tons of replacements on hand, but sadly that wasn't the case this time. As for what I do with these old systems, I generally try to sell them, sometimes it can be a bit hard, but at least where I am finding buyers usually doesn't take that long for me! I know that selling on eBay is a pretty surefire way to get a quick buyer if you're priced competitively, though, they do have their fees which can be annoying.

Thanks for your support! I haven't actually worked with a 9020 SFF yet, but I believe it's quite similar to these 7020s. You can certainly get some decent milage out of one of those computers for relatively cheap. Other RU-vidrs are right about low-profile GPUs being unreasonably expensive for the performance they offer, and because of that the only option that I'd consider to be quite worthwhile to think about would be a used low-profile RX 550 4GB (~$40-50 US). Throw that into the system, as well as maybe 16GB of DDR3 which you can find quite cheap on eBay or even brand new on Amazon if you're in the US, and you've got an alright computer. I have a video about putting one of those 550s in this exact computer on my channel, check it out if you're interested in some performance tests! Overall, though, depending on the deals you can find on a non-SFF system and something like a GTX 1650 which doesn't require external PCIe power, it could be worth it to just sell that 9020 for cheap and buy something different.

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials Awesome advice, TY for replying.

I'm honestly not sure about that one. My best guess would be to check that you don't have a jumper over the CLRRTC jumper on the board? I'm unsure if the system would boot and work if there was something over that, I am yet to test that, but it may be constantly resetting the CMOS every time you power cycle?

Ahaha, good point, I forgot to do that!

Great troubleshooting techniques! I believe I actually covered all those bases in the video, although I may have somewhat glossed over them in maybe 20-30 seconds because I had to cut some length of the vid somewhere. Can be easy to miss, sorry about that! But certainly good tips, thanks for your comment. It's late, but I do remember that the timestamp for a PCIe video card test should be 9:06

I've had several people suggest a debug card and I've looked into them a fair bit. I can't seem to find any that are PCIe, all of them seem to work with just PCI and ISA. Please point me in the right direction if I'm missing something though, because I'd really like to give that a shot!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials There is a reason that you will struggle to find them - they are a relic of much simpler motherboards and can throw up tonnes of red herrings with modern motherboards and UEFI. All the stuff out there will be PCI dead stock

Yeah, that's kinda along the lines of what I was thinking. It really seems like a BIOS issue, but the chipset's been brought up a few times now and that also makes a lot of sense... I'll probably set that board aside and maybe come back to it sometime in the future with some tools to try these things! Would it really be worth my time? Probably not, but it seems like it could be a fun project at some point!

you learn from the fails as well, gotta make the attempt @@CompHwTipsAndTutorials

Ahh that actually makes a lot of sense. Wish I had the gear to give that a shot! Hot air station someday!

I'll add this to my list of ideas that commenters have suggested to fix this!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials Thanks, but if chipset is hot as hell, is faulty, only reflow may help in this case. Little chance but better than nothing.

Nice find!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials also got an older gx620 at the weekend for £4 , works as is ,has a 500gb hard drive which i doubt is the original !

They really won't burn up your power supply except for very few and rare cases. Worst they could reasonably do is damage the fan header on the motherboard, however with several years of experience regarding dead fans and how their current draw behaves, it's very rare that they fail in a way where they draw an extensive amount of current. Most of them have logic inside of them that can sense when the impeller isn't spinning and cut power to it (this fan features this circuitry). But unplugging a broken fan is still definitely a good idea! I did do that, just not immediately after noticing it.

Yep! CPU was all good.

Not in this model. In 2012, Dell removed the 1, 2, 3, 4 POST code LEDs and replaced the POST code LEDs with a color changing/flashing power button light.

Yeah, that's definitely something I want to try out when I revisit this board. Apparently, it'll be even more advanced on these boards because they're split BIOS (two chips that have parts of the code), and it'll get all messy with serial numbers and Windows licenses etc. I'll definitely be looking into it though!

Sadly not, tried off camera with the side panel on and still nothing.

At the time I actually had two broken ones with the same issue, and one known working one which I borrowed a few parts from to test (namely the PSU). I also put the CPU from this broken one into the known good system to give it a test :)

Good idea, I've never had issues with 1600MHz RAM in these systems but it was silly of me to not try 1333MHz! Thanks!

That's not good! Sadly, there's a good chance the BIOS got entirely corrupted when that happened, so unless you're able to manually flash the BIOS chip with a BIOS flasher, that board may be out of luck

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials unlike my custom pc that has a msi my sisters old custom pc cannot be saved! My PCs motherboard is able to flash a bios as it has a bios flashback port!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials and I tried BACKUP bios(it had dual bios chips) and that one was also bricked

I've seen a few people now mention those diagnostic cards, will definitely be picking one up!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials it is worth a shot. I bought the wrong one so make sure you get the right one appartly on eBay Pci-e on laptop are differnant the PSi- on desktop. I don't even know where I could plug this laptop pci-e card into laptop board oh well it was like 5$ but there are a variety. I don't really want to spend 50$ so I think I'm going to try the USB diagnostics card at like $10.00.

Probably won't do that, I just don't feel that it fits my style of content that well, but thanks for asking!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials ok

Haha, nice one! Loving that you're engaged with the video, however my only ask is that you please try to refrain from spamming the comment section. Thanks!

Also the cmos may only clear with the battery remove then the system power cycled

Checked the four pin but didn't mention it in the video (my bad). Also, I'm doubtful that a power cycle without a CMOS batt would have been what it needed to reset the CMOS as I've done a CMOS reset on these exact models just by removing the battery for about 15 seconds before, but I'll most certainly give it a try in the future when I have the stuff to try all the things people have mentioned to fix the board!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials some boards just removing the battery doesnt clear the cmos properly, instructions should be in any service data, maybe remove battery, make sure no mains connected and push power button in a few seconds, or look for a proper reset jumper, some boards data say to power up with this linked some say dont or it will damage it, so need to check the manual

Had a few people here mention reflowing it, and I very well may end up doing that at some point!

Had a few people mention this, I'm considering it!

Any idea what that jumper might be labeled? I'm looking over the board right now and the only 3 jumpers that I can see are the SERVICE_MODE jumper (nothing on that one), the PSWD jumper (jumper across that one), and the RTC_RST jumper (nothing over that one) so nothing that seems out of the ordinary unless I'm missing the one you're talking about?

These guys make great home servers, I used one as a home server for a while. They also still work pretty well as basic daily machines when an SSD is put in them. I'm going to have a video coming out at some point soon demonstrating what these older machines are still capable of so stay tuned for that!

Interesting, I hadn't heard of that issue before, thanks for sharing!

Interesting, I hadn't heard about that method before

Nope, faulty motherboard!

I put a socket cover on it off camera.

I spent only a couple of seconds on it in the video, but I actually did give that a shot at 9:06!

I've had a look at the Dell website after seeing this comment and it doesn't appear that the OptiPlex 7020 supports this feature. Shipped before December 2015 and isn't listed in the "Which Dell computers and tablets support BIOS Recovery?" table here: www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000132453/how-to-recover-the-bios-on-a-dell-computer-or-tablet#faqs Thanks for the suggestion though! And feel free to let me know if I'm wrong here and it does actually support BIOS recovery.

what about a bios chip flash with a programmer?@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials

I definitely am considering trying this. I don't have a programmer right now, but I may buy one soon. The only thing that somewhat scares me about this is the fact that it's a split BIOS board and, at least from the limited research I've done, apparently those can be quite hard to flash.

half of the time they'll provide you with the files you need to do it, eitherway it's "BAD" and chucked away, if it breaks more than it already is you won't be able to tell haha. Make sure you get a programmer that supports the correct voltages (if it has a selector it is better) since some give ANY chip 5v and that can be very bad since iirc these are 3.3v~! @@CompHwTipsAndTutorials

I was originally going to do that, but the standard 4-Pin PWM connector uses different pins than the proprietary dell one so it wouldn't have worked out.

I only oiled the back, as there wasn't a way to detach the shaft from the bearing to fully clean it. Same went for this Sunon fan that I replaced here too, sadly.

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials You should be able to, but it's not easy. It's like an open washer from plastic that sits in a groove on the shaft end (where you've put the oil). There could be hair or something inside. I'm not saying you should, only if you want to keep an original fan for example. Good luck and thanks for sharing your experience. Edit: For oil I use a tiny drop of sewing mashiene oil.

I tested the CPU in another system to verify its functionality, so I didn't need to try a known good CPU in the broken system as the CPU from the broken system did work in another one.

It's very possible, I've got the board set aside and won't be sending it to a recycler until I am able to try out some of the ideas you commenters have provided me with.

9:06

Thanks for your comment! Noticed that a slider on my EQ for the voiceover mic was off after recording stuff... Woopsie by me there haha!

Fair enough point, and yeah, I probably did overpay a little bit in hindsight. I should be able to break even though, as at least here in the US these computers seem to fly off the shelves on eBay and local marketplaces. I'd never sell one of these as a gaming PC unless I put some kind of decent GPU in one, but I sell them instead as home/office PCs. There are a surprising amount of people who will pay ~75 bucks for one of these with a small SSD and Windows on it to use as a cheap home PC/server/even a base for a light gaming PC that they can add a GPU to. It's a shame that these older broken guys can't be easily found for cheap here (at least from my experience). I'm trying to get as many computers for free as possible haha, but it's surprisingly difficult where I live!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials There's a local website in my area called freecycle where you offer your unwanted or broken items for free to anybody who is willing to collect it. You can also request items and more often that not somebody will have what you want. Payments are not allowed, everything has to be free and it's better than useful going to the junk yard. It's a great source of old pc and pc parts.

I've heard of freecycle and I've checked on there to see if anyone's giving away computer stuff but to no avail... Probably time to make an account and post some requests like you said!

I should have put a voiceover note in it, but I did place a little text blurb on the screen regarding me testing the DisplayPort outputs on the system as that's absolutely a troubleshooting step that needs to be taken. Edit: Found the timestamp, the little blurb was at 7:12. Should have made that a more stressed point, that's my bad!

Maybe I'll have to open a P.O. box someday ;)

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials welcome! 🤓

I assume you mean reseating the CPU? Apologies if you meant something else and I misunderstood that, but I did end up reseating the CPU in this video! Thanks for your comment!

How so? I did a CMOS reset to reset anything there that could have been an issue, and since I couldn't get the computer to output, there was no way to put a new BIOS on there. Also, I'm 99% sure that this system doesn't support any kind of BIOS recovery from a USB (something another commenter has mentioned). Would love it if you could clarify a bit and possibly provide something that I could try on this board later!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials there are two pins by the PCIe slot marked RTCRST (real time clock reset) I believe that is to clear the bios

General consensus is that anything below 2.6-2.7 volts is on its way out, but it really depends on the particular board and the way its circuitry is designed. This one was too low at 2.3V because the board wasn't saving its BIOS configuration after power had been removed, so it needed to be replaced.

9:06

When we say that a system "Doesn't POST" it usually means that the system can't get past its Power On Self-Tests (POST) and output a display. It's sometimes also referred to as a "power but no display" issue.

Thank you @@CompHwTipsAndTutorials

I did slot a GPU into the system at 9:06, but thanks for the suggestion!

woops my bad@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials

Lol, I'll not use electrical tape to do that in the future ;) No promises for other things though like securing SSDs!

You make a good point that's absolutely worth taking into note. I personally have a different policy when it comes to hardware decommissioning, but your reasoning behind yours is absolutely fair. I base my decommissioning decisions off of how competent the hardware is at modern day computing tasks. Since the i5 4590 is still quite capable as a home server, office PC, and even a light gaming PC, (and windows 11 sucks, 10 is fine, and it'll almost certainly keep running for years to come with security updates) I don't scrap systems that have 3/4th gen chips in them (with the exception of systems that may be very destroyed and/or poorly designed, or systems with i3s). Little side note - at least according to PassMark Software (cpubenchmark.net), the i5 4590 is incredibly close to the i5 6500 in performance which I find interesting as people seem to value the 6500 immensely higher than the 4590 (yes there are reasons for that in terms of 1 year of age and slightly newer architecture). I get your point about the age of the hardware and the number of hours that are on it, as it is a valid one. I find it rare - at least in my limited experience - that these systems are actually ran 24/7 without any breaks, at the very least they're in sleep a lot of the time and it's not too uncommon to find one that comes across as being shut down often. It's a shame that it's rare to get these systems with their original hard drives in them, as they can provide an alright estimate to the amount of time that these computers have been powered on. I do these little repair/refurbish jobs to keep capable hardware out of the landfill for as long as possible, even if that may mean only prolonging its life for another year or two. If I were in charge of an organization's IT department, decommissioning systems and buying new units after they've been in service for around 8 years would make sense as to keep the volume of maintenance down. Thanks for your comment!

Did that a few times as a hard reset like that can help (although holding the power button actually just discharges caps and doesn't do anything for "static build up") and sadly this one wasn't as simple a fix as that would have been. Wish it was, this time it wasn't.

like a gt710 gt730

Ended up doing that at 9:06, but thanks for the suggestion!

Haha, check out my latest community post that I just made to share a photo of it with you!

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials ahhh, so that's what the community thingie is. That's a mean Mad Max/Darth Vader looking machine, Bro. Quite impressive. See, you should have put that up a long time ago to give us the illusion that you know something about computers! ahahahaha, Burn! Savage Burn! But, seriously. I'm serious. 😁 ahahahaha, Another one! Ouchies! Muahahaha

@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials I was looking for a response to my post with questions about your R23 testing?

Ahaha, in hindsight you’re probably right in that I could have posted that to show that several years of PC tinkering has taught me something, oh well!

I think that I covered it in a response to our original comment thread but maybe something didn’t work with notifications or something? in any case, my main desktop manages to score about 16500 in cinebench r23 multi core. don’t have single core numbers on me right now, but I may be able to provide them later!

I don't believe I generally have this issue, this video is different from most of my videos as most of my videos are done with voiceover. I find it a lot easier to talk clearly and without the creaky voice at the end of what I say when reading from a script. Check one or two of the more recent ones out, I'd like to hear what you notice about how I could improve my speaking skills in them!