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

[@CHWTT]

I'd love to hear what you all think of this different style of video for these "Fix it" videos. Did you like it? Did you hate it? I'd love to know! This probably won't become the new norm for all my videos, but if it's received well by you guys it'll probably pop up more often in my troubleshooting and fixing videos!

[@MinuYTkanal]

I like this type of videos

[@tjtaygee]

Was there an alternative video-out method?

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@tjtaygee]

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

[@dleigh80]

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

[@M0UAW_IO83]

This board is far from dead, if it beeps with no RAM then you've proven the PSU is working, that the motherboard is mostly working, the CPU is coming out of reset and executing BIOS code, the BIOS *might* not be entirely cleared by removing the battery so it's always a good idea to look for a reset jumper as well. BIOS flashing a board that beeps is generally pretty easy, you don't need a programmer, just the BIOS recovery instructions and BIOS recovery files downloaded from the manufacturer website then puit onto a FAT32 formatted UsB stuck. Dell are pretty good at supplying these.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@donixion4368]

I suggest having a can of DeOxit/contact cleaner handy. Sometimes hitting the RAM slots with that stuff will bring a computer back from this condition. You can still have contamination or oxidation in those RAM slots even if you take the RAM out and put it back in.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@BENDER_TECH]

​@@CHWTT 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!

[@atariforever2002]

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. 🤦‍♂️

[@ChristianGutierrez]

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

[@brunomaxd4th]

Your subscribers have been adding up just in the half hour I've been watching your videos. Thanks for the SSD brand tip in your first vid and good luck with your channel!

[@guaiqueritech]

It’s good to show that troubleshooting rigs is a systematic process. Nice vid

[@CHWTT]

Thanks!

[@darinb.3273]

​@@CHWTTHave 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.

[@darthbubba866]

Appreciate your verbalizing your thought process during the trouble shooting.

[@BENDER_TECH]

Great job! Keeping used computers out of landfills is def always a plus.

[@icantthinkofanameformyusername]

I love your videos mannn since from the start! It is very entertaining and very educational! keep up making these type of videos 😄

[@christop_bader]

I have one of these Optiplex 3070 PC's upgraded it with new 1tb hard drive and new ram its running Win-10 for now, its a reliable spare PC its alway good to have plenty of redundency and a spare PC in case of problems with my main unit, Good video Thanks

[@FrustratedApe]

A nice upgrade for the 7020 SFF would be a Core i7-4770S and 32Gb RAM. Dell produced a 3.5 caddy insert that takes 2x 2.5" SSDs on either side, this model supports RAID as well.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

I just stumbled onto your channel. I love your content and subscribed. You’re off to a great start. ❤

[@walterlegere1403]

Had an HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF 4th Gen system I purchased off EBay for $123 back in 2016. Upgraded it to a Core i7-4790K, GTX 1660, 24GB DDR3 RAM, 256GB SATA SSD and a 1TB storage drive. I used that little PC up until two weeks ago when I finished building a 9th Gen custom PC using all used parts off EBay and Facebook Marketplace.

[@CHWTT]

Awesome upgraded office PC!

[@kacxe]

Thanks for the video it helped me diagnose my dell 7050. I found the problem was the little pins on the motherboard where the processor sits. Had to straighten them out using a needle.

[@breakfastwitherik]

Really enjoying the videos. I can sympathize with trying to fix something and talk it though. Keep up the good work.

[@jonos138]

Did you check the reset switch? Sometimes a faulty or bad connection power switch or reset switch can cause a problem.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@jonos138]

@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. 👍

[@franzbeckenbauer242]

Check if chipset is overheating. I had same issues with hp mobo, chipset was too hot to touch.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@franzbeckenbauer242]

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

[@user-wj9xq7ig2v]

Love the video. A different approach is to use your good system to isolate the issue. Take the suspect cpu out of the bad system put it in the good one if it work check then repeat this until you find the component that doesnt work.

[@asv5769]

I would read BIOS from that replacement board and write it in the BIOS chip on the „faulty“ board. I am pretty sure that would bring that original board back to life.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@georgeandrews2839]

On a dead motherboard check the capacitors. If the tops are bulged up they've been blown. Usually by a voltage spike. What do you do with old systems after you fix them up? I can't find anyone around here that will buy them.

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@nathanmoak1515]

i bought a working refurb a couple of years ago. i pulled the harddrive and replaced it with a ssd and installed linux. it is now my test computer for different distros.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@i_am_not_a_pro_but_lets_try]

I'd have tested the board with almost nothing connected - unplug all USB and internal connections. also agree with the comments about cleaning the board.

[@magictuxcn]

BIOS or southbridge chip, but it is very difficult the locate the faulty root, maybe try to flash a working board's rom into the faulty one, and there are two bios chips on board.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@outtakontroll3334]

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

[@SuperChocolateCocoaBear]

Did you try powering up the motherboard outside of the case with a working Power Supply and RAM? Sometimes there is a short with the case, very rare but it happens.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@EastAngliaUK]

wonder what broke the board could not have been bad power as the PSU was fine.

[@Felshish]

i have a dell optiplex 3070 who cames without the power supply and when i plug the screen in and try to turn it on it doesnt beep but the power led comes orange then stays white the screen isnt showing anything maybe its because of no ssd inside of it

[@Spiderman_addict]

My 9020 I turn it on it starts beeping and then goes into sleep mode and the the orange light starts flashing and doesn’t stop is there a fix

[@kens-jr2vv]

Oh, I forgot to turn on the monitor lol.

[@foetato9565]

hey bro can you help me?, my unit runs as soon as i plug in the psu to the mobo with 2 amber lights blinking repeatedly, i tried removing the ram like u did in the vid but it doesn't beep, also i tried turning off the unit it stopped supplying power to mouse and keyboard but the blinking doesn't stop

[@maleeshapriyanjana7604]

I suggest use a debug card which is a diagnostic tool that can connect to PCIe port(most of the time). This debug card can use to diagnize any errors during the period of POST. These cards have a LCD display which shows a set of numbers and you can refer the guide book come with this card to find the error

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@Thepaddster]

@@CHWTT 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

[@robsonrobbi1763]

As the mainboard still beeps its still fixable i think. Need to check ram voltage and some signals. Also a post code analyzer would be useful. It may hang at the ram but it could also hang at video card. Chipset is without cooler is also a hint that its getting too hot and then it cracks the solder balls.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@wobblyboost]

Hey, good video and I appreciate the real-time narration. Wondering if you've worked on/upgraded/reviewed the Optiplex 9020 SFF before? I purchased a refitted one with only 4 GB ram and very low end GPU (onboard) and processor but it does have a 500 GB SSD. Most of the vids I see on YT point to it being possible to upgrade from these specs; but because of the SFF limitations, not financially feasible. Love to hear your thoughts if you have any. The 7K series and non SFF builds seem far more upgrade-able. I hate throwing things away even though it was dirt cheap, but I wont bother upgrading Win 7 OS if I really should just bin it. Subbed.

[@CHWTT]

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 KZbinrs 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.

[@wobblyboost]

@@CHWTT Awesome advice, TY for replying.

[@archangelappel8566]

I would have unplugged the bad fan the second I saw it was bad. Do you know how fast those can burn up your power supply

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@xerejuneseve6333]

Fujitsu E500 is wery similar,with 8GB and 4 core cpu it is good for Win10 ,but i didn't knew how to turn off usb when it is shut down.

[@shawnstillman736]

The dead mobo prob needs the north bridge reflowed the dells w/o the Nb heat sink all tend to crack solder joints over time.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@sylvainmathieu1386]

have youn tried asking the computer to turn on when it was unpluged from the power?

[@CHWTT]

Ahaha, good point, I forgot to do that!

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

I had my sisters old custom pc and the bios bricked after the boot logo exploit! I tried resetting the bios, remove external gpu and using onboard, putting ram in different slots keeeps bootlooping then when it does boot no post!

[@CHWTT]

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

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

@@CHWTT 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!

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

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

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

@@CHWTTI did find out later the ram sticks were the problem as it kept power cycling

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

@@CHWTT Update I did find out the ram itself was faulty now as I put that ram in another PC and it beeped memory issue!

[@talos86]

That "bad" motherboard have clearly life in it, because it gave you error code, when you pulled the RAM out. If the mobo is dead, then it wont give you any error code. Check the CPU socket looking for bent pins and give the board a good IPA clean. Sometimes a simple grain of dust can cause weird issues. Louis Rossmann had a bad macbook, wich was killed by a grain of dust. It shorted the LCD backlight pin with the CPU dataline, and killed it(the MB had a cpu integrated VGA).

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@andygozzo72]

i picked up an optiplex 3020 that looks same if not identical for £5 from a car boot sale, seems to work ok, just missing the hard drive

[@CHWTT]

Nice find!

[@andygozzo72]

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

[@2009numan]

the case intrution button wasn't the issue was it ?

[@CHWTT]

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

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

Reloading the bios with a clip may fix the problem as it may be corrupted but thats getting into rather advanced solutions.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@Toby1952]

A little late to the party but one of the very first things to do is to pull the battery and reset the CMOS. In addition, always check the battery for proper voltage. I have fixed systems for customers that would not post or boot and all it turned out to be was a dead or nearly dead CMOS battery. It just depends on the motherboard. Some will just give you an on screen error if the CMOS battery is dead or nearly dead, others will just not boot or come up with intermittent problems. It may not be the problem with this board, but it's worth checking. Also, it would have been interesting to see if the board would successfully boot if you installed a PCI-E video card as a test.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@RenatoG1848]

I see an LTT screwdriver, a man of quality

[@linksmith1057]

Bake it. Pop it in a toaster oven, anything surface mount should handle ~400-500 degrees for a couple minutes. Might fix broken solder joints and melt tin whiskers. Might not work long and/or may destroy a connector maybe, but interesting experiment. Also a POST card might be worth the investment. On the fly check the PSU and post codes on a little LED display.

[@KoolBreeze420]

The mghz of the ram does'nt really matter as much as the DDR# you can use DDR 3 1333mghz and it will run and if you pair a 1600 with it the 1333 will drag the 1600 down to its clock speed. I bought a motherboard recently that I knew worked before it shipped. I was getting the 3 beeps no RAM code when I took the ram out. I still have not been able to revive that board I'm going to buy a diagnostic board that goes into a PCI-e slot

[@CHWTT]

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

[@KoolBreeze420]

@@CHWTT 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.

[@Jamicron]

Hey there, I used to work the phones for Dell business support in the UK. I don't know if you addressed this off camera but you didn't disconnect the front io and power button as part of your troubleshooting. As it was turning on from the power switch on the psu there could have been a loose connection there.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@dgorry]

Front panel has numbers 1,2,3,4 as post codes.

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@justsumguy2u]

I'm actually quite surprised---Dell mobos are usually quite reliable. Maybe it had a ton of hours on it?

[@colinreece3452]

You had two of these so didn't you take parts from the other just to test?

[@CHWTT]

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 :)

[@ShawnClarady]

Sometimes there is a jumper that for the BIOS that will cause this issue.

[@CHWTT]

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?

[@garymallard4699]

​​@@CHWTT they either have a jumper on them or are not jumpered....the jumper is used on the " unjumpered " ones to do the work you are going to do ... a " jumper " isn't required unless needed to do your work.... Dell will have the info on those to help you understand how to use them or what they do when used.... 🇨🇦🤓✌️

[@garymallard4699]

Real-Time Clock (RTC) reset The Real-Time Clock (RTC) reset function allows you or the service technician to recover Dell Inspiron, OptiPlex, Dell Precision, Vostro, or XPS Desktop computer from issues such as No POST, No Power, and No Boot. Examples of these issues include; Failure to successfully complete the Power-On Self-Test (POST) with a power LED error code (2,2 or 2,6 for example) Stops responding at the Dell Splash screen with no keyboard functionality Failure in BIOS updates Inability to select any boot device

[@helinghaus]

reflash / reprogram bios?

[@CHWTT]

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

[@outtakontroll3334]

it'd s next level to be able to troubleshoot it from where you left off. i'm at that point myself, can do what you did there but not make the leap to the board level.

[@Sunnernite]

You can scrap the mobo because of the rare earth metals

[@EcoHamletsUK]

I've got a 7010SFF that came with a dead CMOS battery. I replaced the battery but it won't store the time, although everything else works. The time corrects itself when it's been running for a while, but it annoys me that I have to press F1 every time I turn it on! Is this likely to be a hardware problem, or have I missed resetting something when I changed the battery? If it's hardware, is it a easy fix, or a replacement motherboard?

[@CHWTT]

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?

[@reddirtoutdoors7660]

it wasnt a faulty CPU?

[@CHWTT]

Nope, faulty motherboard!

[@Mrflash222006]

Make sure you have the 4 pin power is properly connected, the board is alive as you got beep codes for the ram, memory should be a matched pair in the white marked slots

[@Mrflash222006]

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

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@andygozzo72]

@@CHWTT 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

[@gerydblackmore5484]

did you put the cpu in the known good board?

[@CHWTT]

Yep! CPU was all good.

[@MisterAnderson91]

This era of Dell has a (rare) issue where you get no video output during boot until an OS is loaded and takes over the GPU. Not a problem while the OS still boots. If I remember correctly, hitting F12 repeatedly during boot may get the boot menu to suddenly show up on the monitor.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@dylanlindsay1993]

try using ddr3 1333mhz ram sometimes computers wont postif the incorrect ram speed is in it!

[@CHWTT]

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

[@alanaspinall9273]

I have worked on these in the past and found out that if you take out the ram and cmos bat and leave it overnight then that normally sorts out the blank screen

[@CHWTT]

Interesting, I hadn't heard about that method before

[@catherinemorgan2741]

Sometimes heating up board re-solder stuff rare it work

[@CHWTT]

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

[@CaptSkidmark]

I'm a big fan of shipping motherboards, cards, CPUs, etc in pink b'wrap.

[@2009numan]

you could have just added a little oil to the bearing on the original fan

[@rigsbyrigged1831]

Maybe cover the socket... Just incase. ? That really pulls my chain.

[@CHWTT]

I put a socket cover on it off camera.

[@x.....p-x7j]

I'd throw in a low profile video card to see if maybe the VGA port isn't bad.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@siscocolin9482]

i have the same issue with a 6th ,7th motherboard with i5 7400

[@oktc68]

That looks suspiciously like my sister's pc, it'll probably be less frustrating if you don't fix it 🤣

[@michaelgleason4791]

Seems like it'd be easier to depin the fan connectors

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@ThatOneGuy72381]

why did you not try a different CPU

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@EinSwitzer]

these black boxes are great micro gaming rigs. my boss doesn't know i play cod and halo inf GTX 1030 TI modded by me

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@zacharyaumasawdu]

Are you going to make videos of when you end up selling a system like include clips of when yall meet or something?

[@CHWTT]

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

[@zacharyaumasawdu]

@@CHWTT ok

[@scvic2006]

You didn''t test with a dedicated gpu. There were no error beeps.

[@CHWTT]

9:06

[@mrkemblegilstrap]

Ok, great job on the video and I'm looking forward to more. I hope you don't take any offense to the crazy stuff that I say. I'm only teasing you. I am just really, really obnoxious. It's mostly your fault for actually talking to meeeeeee ahahahaha

[@andygozzo72]

i have a few various 'dead' motherboards that do similar, pretty much nothing you can do with them

[@Poodlehere]

You failed to try the display ports

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@johnpaulbacon8320]

Nice job

[@OKuusava]

Intersting video, thou wondering what is the use on such a pc anymore? Make a firewall of it?

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@Shylockza]

should have followed a failed bios recovery procedure which you didn't to be entirely sure that the board was dead. 50/50 but still a possibility...

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@nahventure3873]

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

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@nahventure3873]

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~! @@CHWTT

[@Kundalini12]

I don't think that board is completely dead because it complained when you removed the RAM. There's probably a failed capacitor or other surface mount component that needs replacing.

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@BS-my2ky]

@@CHWTT Did you ever figure out the problem yet?

[@NoodlesTBograt]

Would have reset bios before buying another board

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@NoodlesTBograt]

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

[@lastinline1958]

The voice-over mic seemed a little thick to me. Personally I like the natural sound of this mic.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@dusanmilovic7421]

Good

[@beltanewalk8797]

Good fun but you probably overpaid seeing has you had to buy a replacement motherboard. I don't know about the US but non working old computers like these Dells can be had for free in the UK. On ebayuk sellers ask silly prices for them, often calling then gaming machines, no idea if they actually get sold.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@beltanewalk8797]

@@CHWTT 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.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@BrainHurricanes]

When you re-oiled a fan before and it didn't last. Did you take the fan off and cleaned the bearing, or only oiled the back ?

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@BrainHurricanes]

@@CHWTT 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.

[@catherinemorgan2741]

Try resending CPU or replace CPU

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@cdurfee4858]

Why wouldn't you try a graphic card??

[@CHWTT]

9:06

[@j.lietka9406]

I may gave some PC parts you might be able to use!

[@CHWTT]

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

[@j.lietka9406]

@@CHWTT welcome! 🤓

[@wilhelmsmit7828]

cmos battery is fine at 2.3 v even at 1.0 v dont need to repalace it.

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@declanjamesbateson]

Try upgrading to Windows 11

[@TechOnFixedIncome]

onboard graphics could be shot. try a graphics card

[@CHWTT]

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

[@TechOnFixedIncome]

woops my bad@@CHWTT

[@gregbennett2437]

Troubleshooting and Fixing a Dell Optiplex I bought for $35 that Doesn't POST? What do you mean by POST?

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@gregbennett2437]

Thank you @@CHWTT

[@tonykeltsflorida]

Now you can put Linux on it and it should work.

[@StarRise-w1b]

Test caps

[@miguelaitken5185]

All you had to do was was unplug it from mains, hold in the power button for five seconds (releasing the static build up) and it would have been fine

[@CHWTT]

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.

[@davidplaster4576]

These systems are 9 years old, in 2024 they will be 10 years. I decommission and salvage components at 8 years and purchase new systems, due to the fact that the hardware breaks down at that point; especially for these systems as they typically don't shut off, and run 24/7. The used boards will have close to the same time running, and won't be running much longer. These systems are running 3rd and 4th gen Intel, and are pretty much past their prime; especially for Windows 11; unless you kick the can down further by getting a Rufus burn of Windows 11 without the requirements, just know that at any point Microsoft can pull support on unsupported OS's; so it's a gamble. What people do with this bit of information is up to them, I am only making a point that at some point....it's best to retire the hardware at a certain point, and typically that is at 8yrs old.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@robertJfontaine]

I'll subscribe if you promise to quit using electrical tape on everything LoL. For securing the wires I would have used hot glue.

[@CHWTT]

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

[@mrkemblegilstrap]

Hey, I looked at your channel for video of your baby, but there's nothing. Most people are excited to show baby pictures. Aww, baby is not pretty? ahahahaha

[@CHWTT]

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

[@mrkemblegilstrap]

@@CHWTT 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

[@mrkemblegilstrap]

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

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@gerydblackmore5484]

buy a saberant drive cady much neater

[@scvic2006]

Grab a crappy gpu that you know is in working order.

[@scvic2006]

like a gt710 gt730

[@CHWTT]

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

[@derghiarrinde]

I'd love to watch your videos more, but you're making "creaky voice" at the end of some of your sentences, it's quite noticeable. It's just a bad habit and it's possible to quickly get rid of it. Please look into it, as presenter you should not have this problem.

[@CHWTT]

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!

[@c_Gmz]

Had the same issue with my optiplex 7020 and i troubleshooted and saw the issue which was dead psu because whenever you plug in the power cord to pc it should not run. It is because of the ac power recovery if it just always run while plugging in the power cord here is a simple fix to get display without replacing anything. When you plug in the power cord if the cpu turns on just simply hold the power button so it manually turns off and then turn it back on and it will eventually output display to the monitor