No PC startup, flashing light only...

[chewie8008]

Girlfriend left her PC at her parents house for them to use. They left home one day, came back and the PC was turned off(basically), only the little orange light was flaishing(like it's in standby). And PC is unresponsive to anything(Cntrl+alt+del, pressing pwr button). So I did a hard reset. Turn the PC back on, same thing, orange flashing light. No one was here at the house and there were no storms or anything like that. Have unplugged the PC and plugged it back in, no dice there either. Opened up the case, nothing physically burned, which wasn't really expected. PC is old, a Dell Optiplex GX200.

Any ideas on how to get this thing to at least start back up to take a look at it? Or any ideas what could be the problem. PC was rarely used before she left it at her parents, but always worked normally when we did use it. They know how to use the basics of a PC, so I don't think it's anything they did...

Any help would be great. Thanks!

[Barnabas]

Do you hear the start up "beep" when it starts?

[redwudz]

I would also wonder if there is a BIOS beep. That's the first thing that loads from the MB. If no, next pull the BIOS battery with the computer unplugged. Put it back in after about 5 minutes and try to boot.

If still nothing, unplug all drives and cards except the boot HD and the video card and try again.

No? Next, substitute the video card, after that substitute the RAM memory.

If no, substitute the power supply.

At this point you only have the hard drive, the MB and CPU; But the PC would still load BIOS if the HD is dead. And you should have your beeps.

From there, bad motherboard or CPU dead. If it's old, junk it.

[greymalkin]

if the orange flashing light is on the pc itself then the p.s. is gone. happened all the time with our dell optiplex gx110's at work. they work fine one day and the next day poof! flashing orange (dell calls it "amber") light. replace the power supply. since its dell they are proprietary.

[tgm4883]

Same thing happened to our dell's. Was a faulty power supply. They are proprietary so you need to order from dell. For some reason, when we ordered our replacement from dell, I forget how much it was, but they send you two. I asked the guy at the time of ordering and he said thats how they sell them. It didn't seem that expensive and you get a backup, good deal

[lordsmurf]

That computer is at least 6 years old. Computers die.

A new power supply will probably run you $50-100. Is it worth it? That's assuming it's the problem. I see newer computers as low as $200 these days (granted, not big powerful systems, but it is compared to a P3 system).

On a side note, leaving computers running while nobody is home is not smart. Sure, "people do it all the time" but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. It's not better than leaving on lamps or box fans. Lots of homes have burned down this way. Be sure you give them the 3rd degree on this.

[Faustus]

Dell? Only Pulsing orange light? I'd be on system board.

[Bjs]

If psu has gone ... there will be NO light's at all ...

Check reset switch on pc case ... could be inopperative (system check's before bios post) .

Flashing amber more due to video adapter (no signal) ... so system halt's (stuck in vga post check loop) .

Check monitor ... both power cable's on pc , then confirm vga cable is firmly connected to video adapter .
If these check out ... replace video adapter and test again .

[MOVIEGEEK]

Check the videocard and RAM,make sure they are seated on the mobo properly.My HTPC does the same thing when it's moved.

[greymalkin]

I should have been clearer in my previous post. I did not mean the p.s. was completely dead, just that it is no longer putting out an adequate amount of power. It's certainly possible that the flashing orange light could mean something else. I'm just saying that the cause of this flashing orange light has always been because of a faulty power supply in the past when I've experienced it, and the power supply would therefore definitely be a viable candidate.

[tgm4883]

That computer is at least 6 years old. Computers die.

A new power supply will probably run you $50-100. Is it worth it? That's assuming it's the problem. I see newer computers as low as $200 these days (granted, not big powerful systems, but it is compared to a P3 system).

On a side note, leaving computers running while nobody is home is not smart. Sure, "people do it all the time" but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. It's not better than leaving on lamps or box fans. Lots of homes have burned down this way. Be sure you give them the 3rd degree on this.

I agree, while a new power supply could run you around 100, in our business setting, it was better to replace the ps than get a new computer and resetup the software

[mujahid7ia]

On a side note, leaving computers running while nobody is home is not smart. Sure, "people do it all the time" but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. It's not better than leaving on lamps or box fans. Lots of homes have burned down this way. Be sure you give them the 3rd degree on this.

I guess I'm in the category of "people who do it all the time", with 3 PCs running at all times, but what are the chances of a component actually going up in flames? Is it really a large risk?