StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Ok I was brought two dells GX270 to base line, however when we turned them on the bios would not post. We made sure all the components were connected and they were. We tried to disconnect all components from the motherboard and it still would not post.

These two computers were stuck in a storage room for a while and the users have no idea what the previous users did to these machines. I was wondering if anyone here has had any clue on what to try. And of course these computers are not under warranty anymore.

Is the PSU definetly working?
Does the fan in it or on the proccessor start?
Do any of the LED's etc turn on?

If you can strip it back to PSU/motherboard/cpu/ram and it still won't start, check for shorts. Reset the bios with the onboard reset jumper (or remove the battery and wait a bit).

It powers up, fan turns on. The power led on the mother board turns on. Stripped the board as far down as possible and still does the same. where is this jumper locacted?

How the fuck should I know? Look at/download your motherboard manual and find out. It's usually near the front panel connectors, it's a threepin with a block shorting two. You move it, turn it on, and your bios is cleared. It won't start with this block shorted, so you'll have to move it back. It's always worth taking the board out and putting it on some non-conductive surface and try to start it: who knows what the Dell monkeys left stuck under there.

Ok reset bios and it works for a min or two. It will go to the boot up screen and say entering IDE configutration and then it stops working.

Hum even tried flashing the bios with new ones from dell and no go. Its weird that I now have three pc's that are doing this.

Please define "stops working". Does it hang? Does the screen black out? Does the computer abruptly shut itself off completely?

Also, those Optiplex computers should have diagnostic lights on the back. See if they're flashing you a code. (look up the codes on the Dell website)