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Dell Optiplex 3020 blinking orange light

Dell optiplex 3020 started rebooting randomly for some days and then shut down by itself while booting up and started showing blinking orange light. When put in sunlight for some time, it starts normally but shuts down by itself before even reaching lock screen and again starts showing orange light again.

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Hi @dhsiejbs

A blinking amber Power LED is an error code telling you what the problem is.

Here's how to interpret what the error code is:

"Amber LED blinking scheme – The pattern is 2 or 3 blinks followed by a short pause then x number of blinks up to 7. The repeated pattern has a long pause inserted in the middle. For example 2,3 = 2 amber blinks, short pause, 3 amber blinks followed by long pause then repeats.

Here's the Dell Optiplex 3020 SFF owner manual and the Dell Optiplex 3020 MT owner manual (you didn't specify which type you had) that will help.

Go to p.42 (SFF model) or p.39 (MT model) to view the possible causes for all the error codes.

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Thanks, but I took it to a repair shop, and they said the motherboard was done for. They tried messing with some pins and running the fan, but said it wasn’t worth fixing. So, I brought it home, left it in the sun for a bit, moved the pins, and now the fan’s working again. I’m not sure how long it’ll last though.

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There is an issue again. Now it gives 2 amber blinks, short pause 2 amber blinks, pause and repeats. User manual says "system board, PSU or PSU cabling failure" but idk how to fix it🤷‍♀️

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@dhsiejbs

Here's a link that shows how to test if the PSU is working OK.

If the PSU tests OK check that the PSU power cables are securely connected to the motherboard i.e. disconnect the power from the PSU and then disconnect/reconnect the PSU cables on the motherboard.

Reconnect the power to the PSU and check.

If it still doesn't work then there's a motherboard problem

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@jayeff Thanks alot. So the issue is with the power supply and i disconnect the PSU cables from the motherboard and reconnect after about half an hour. After that the pc turns on fine and works but after some time, it starts to restart by itself and eventually it shows 2 blinking amber lights again.

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@dhsiejbs

Did the PSU pass the BIST test, you never said?

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