Dell Optiplex 9020 i5 will not boot. Fans spin on and off over and over. Tried replacing PSU, no luck.

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AParsh135i

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Hey guys,
I have a dell 9020 i got 2nd hand that is not starting up.
It came to me like this:
Dell Optiplex 9020 Tower i5-4590 3.3ghz Quad-Core 4gb DDR3 (1stick) no hard drive DVDRW.

I purchased it as part of a bulk lot and it said "no power" so i had premptively purchased a replacement Power supply to be ready when it showed up.

Before installing the new PSU i checked it out, everything seemed normal other than it would not start properly - as soon as plugging a power cord into this computer the fans immediately spun up 100% for about 1 second, then off to 0% for 1 second, then 100%, then 0%, forever....vroom vroom vroom. So it basically just pulses the fans, the power button light stays orange (i believe this turns blue when it's on for real) and no video is output.

Before installign the new PSU i tried disconnecting anything that is not required (DVDRW, sata power cables etc) and tried moving the 1x stick of 4gb memory to slot 1 (was in slot 4). That didnt work. Then i tried no memory. Same thing.

I then replaced the PSU. Unfortunately nothing changed with the new PSU.

I then decided to look around more, and thought theres a chance no CPU is even in this machine. Removed the HSF and the CPU was there, but oddly it appeared someone had scraped almost all the thermalpaste off the CPU. I then removed the CPU to take a look at the socket. Socket looked good, but i noticed a decent amount of thermal paste was on the bottom of the CPU contacts, so cleaned that off.

Tried again after reseating the CPU with new thermalpaste and cleaned off, and exact same problem is still present.

I'm thinking it's a motherboard issue at this point. Before i go out and spend more money on a motherboard i was hoping someone could give me some advice about fixing this or if you have any troubleshooting ideas?

Thanks in advance!
 

AParsh135i

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Sep 28, 2012
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No sorry there is no warranty on this computer.
 

AParsh135i

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Just another follow up - i tried using an i5-4460 in this computer and the same problem was still present. I think i've basically eliminated everything other than the motherboard, so I'm pretty confident that is my issue. Too bad, i think it'll make more sense to just sell off the i5-4590 than get another motherboard for $60 and piece it back together.
 
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