Dell optiplex gx280/no boot

[welcom]

my gx280 won't boot at all. Amber power lite and loud fan, no video to monitor. in 100 trys it has booted up twice and ran just fine,(xp-pro) this is the small desk top model. i have ratteled and shook everything, reseated memory,(checked) power supply voltages. Somebody Help don't know were to go at this point. Welcom.

 

[T_T]

Have you tried breadboarding your system? This is accomplished by removing everything from inside the case and rebuilding outside the case. What you're experiencing could be either of these reasons:

1. Case short
2. Failing integrated chipset
3. Failing GPU
4. Bad RAM
5. Bad PSU
6. A shorted peripheral device

Granted that you've checked the PSU voltages, you didn't post what the results of the test were. Also, simply reseating RAM doesn't always mean that the RAM is good. I suggest you do a breadboard and add only one component at a time while testing. If you still don't get a display, see if you can either borrow parts to check in your system, or use your current parts in another system. When you find the failed part, replace.

 

[fullofzen]

my gx280 won't boot at all. Amber power lite and loud fan, no video to monitor. in 100 trys it has booted up twice and ran just fine,(xp-pro) this is the small desk top model. i have ratteled and shook everything, reseated memory,(checked) power supply voltages. Somebody Help don't know were to go at this point. Welcom.

You have bad capacitors. You'll need a motherboard replacement. This is an extremely common problem with the gx280 and gx270. I would note that you can find gx280s used online for next to nothing -- I picked one up on eBay for $13.50 and it works just fine; no bad capacitors.

Here's a link to explain what leads to your woes:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic109649.html

Here's a link about the 2005 capacitor plague:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Capacitor_plague

 

[choffman41]

I had the identical problem today with my GX280 right down to the last detail. I pulled 2 of the 4 memory sticks and it is now working perfectly. By the way, all the caps look fine.

 

[Masteru]

my gx280 won't boot at all. Amber power lite and loud fan, no video to monitor. in 100 trys it has booted up twice and ran just fine,(xp-pro) this is the small desk top model. i have ratteled and shook everything, reseated memory,(checked) power supply voltages. Somebody Help don't know were to go at this point. Welcom.

I'm having the same problem with many of the gx280, cause we sell them. The problem is that the processor does not make fine contact with motherboard. Try pushing the fan down with your hand and start it up. You will see it's working. Put something on top of the fan and close the case. Many of them have this problem, dunno why

 

[Sam@KLC]

You, my friend, are 100% correct! Masteru's trick worked like a charm. Another reason not to buy Dells, and this is a corporate level machine!!! Imagine if you buy a consumer level!!!