optiplex 960 SFF Boot problem blinking 3

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William Rider

New Member
Hello everyone.

I'm William and I'm new to the forum and not the best with computers, but I wish to get more knowledgeable on this forum in the future. Now to the problem.

I have a DELL OPTIPLEX 960 SFF (Small Form Factor) and it won’t boot up. It’s my home computer and when I went to sleep one night I left it on. In the morning when I woke up it was shut-off, and when I pushed the power button, the only thing that lit up was a small amber 3 to the left off the power button, but nothing else powered up. So I looked on the internet and saw that it meant ”a possible motherboard failure has occurred”. So I took off the cover and looked at the board for anything wrong (blown up Capacitors or other' black marks etc. etc.) but I didn't find anything.

So I unplugged the PSU from the motherboard and tested the voltages with a multimeter while pressing the diagnostic switch on the back of the unit. Everything tested good, but I cannot read it while it’s under load but I assume everything is good there. I tried swapping PSU’s with a different one, but it had a different main connector. After that I went on eBay and bought the identical motherboard, installed it, hit the power button, and still nothing. I've tried booting it up without the hard drive, ram, and I even took out the CPU and nothing changed, I've tried taking out the bios battery and putting it back in and nothing changed. So I was wondering if anyone knows what I should do. Any and all help would be appreciated, Thanks!!!!

P.S. computers PDF
https://www.manualowl.com/m/Dell/OptiPlex-960/Manual/187365
 
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If you say its number 3 then that means its a processor issue. Try removing the processor and reinserting it.
 
Also, I would look at hardware shorts. What was the computer doing on all night? Any usb drives plugged in? Disconnect all hardware not needed to boot and see if it works correctly. This could be anywhere from a bad usb port to other hardware. Any new hardware recently?
 
I've already removed and reinserted the processor and it did nothing. But the weird thing is when I removed it and tried to boot it it was the same amber 3 as normal, but on the PDF manual it says that if the processor is removed it shows a steady amber 1 2 and 3 and the power button is also a steady amber. I don't know if that's relevant or not. As for what it was doing all night, I had a google page, a pdf, and a youtube IIRC. I've looked for hardware shorts, but I couldn't see any. As for things I had connected to the computer, I had a USB headset I've been using for years, a USB mouse I've used for a couple months, a monitor I've used for about a year, and a PS/2 keyboard. I've disconnected everything besides the main power feed but still nothing. Thanks for your suggestions!
 
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Cowboy303 said:
In for the fix. Free bump for ya!
Click to expand...
There's no need to bump this. It's not like we're [H] and a thread with a post from Friday is on page 20.

OP, have you tried starting it without the CMOS battery installed? Remove the power cable and battery, press the power button for 10 seconds, then plug the power back in. That's about all I can imagine doing now.

If that doesn't do anything I think you may just need to throw in the towel on this one. Buying a new CPU could be a crapshoot.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
There's no need to bump this. It's not like we're [H] and a thread with a post from Friday is on page 20.

OP, have you tried starting it without the CMOS battery installed? Remove the power cable and battery, press the power button for 10 seconds, then plug the power back in. That's about all I can imagine doing now.

If that doesn't do anything I think you may just need to throw in the towel on this one. Buying a new CPU could be a crapshoot.
Click to expand...


I tried that and now the only thing that happens is the power button blinks amber rapidly. I can't find that diagnostic light anywhere on the PDF Manuel.
it might be time to throw in the proverbial towel, I might try looking for a new computer if no one has any more ideas on my problem, \

Thank you for the suggestions all help is appreciated.

One more question could I take my two corsair ddr2 xms2 from my computer and put it into the new one?.
 
PC's use DDR3 and DDR4 these days, so not unless you buy an (older) computer that uses DDR2.
 
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