Equipment:
- Dell Optiplex 320 Tower
- Bad HD: Seagate 160 GB Barracuda ST3160815AS 7,200 RPM 3.5″ Drive
- Replacement HD: Western Digital 250 GB Caviar Blue SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM WD2500AAKX
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| A really dusty Dell Optiplex 320 that will not boot or even show anything on the monitor |
One of our machines would not boot and would not even show anything on the monitor (no bios). There are diagnostic lights on the front–numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 and initially #1 was flashing and 3 & 4 were solid but the power light was green like normal. Because the computer wasn’t even going to bios I thought it might be the RAM so I swapped it with another identical box but that didn’t solve the problem. I then found the dell troubleshooting site and diagnostic light definitions on page 134 and 135 of the dell manual pdf found here. Eventually after disconnecting the power and swapping out memory the 1, 2, and 3 diagnostic lights stayed on and that indicates something is going on with one of the drives (HD or CD).
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| Dell Optiplex 320 with Diagnostic Lights 1, 2, and 3 on constantly — HD Failure |
After listing really close I could then hear that the HD was making a very quiet clicking and it is now obvious that the drive is going bad. I have one on order from amazon.com.Update: I put a new HD in it and reinstalled the OS and everything works fine again–it was just the way the HD was going bad and the way that the Motherboard detected it that made this problem appear unusual. Nevertheless, case closed.
Here are all my other Dell Computer Repair Postings:
- Computer Randomly Shuts Off Power Supply Issues on a Dell Optiplex GX520 (Small Form Factor)
- How to Replace the Power Supply Fan in a Dell Optiplex GX520
- Dell Optiplex 320 Will Not Boot or Go to Bios (this post)
- How to Replace the Memory in a Dell Latitude D830
- Dell Optiplex GX520 Randomly Shuts Off
- How to Replace the Power Supply in a Dell Optiplex GX520
- How to Fix a Striped Display on a Dell Optiplex 320
- How to Troubleshoot Dell Optiplex GX520 Power Supply Issues
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