Yesterday morning I plugged in my computer. I reached for the power button on my Dell Dimension 8400, but then noticed that the tower’s power light was flashing orange. In my Dell manual, I found the section about power light signals and read:
If the power light is blinking amber – The computer is receiving electrical power, but an internal power problem might exist.
Ensure that the voltage selection switch is set to match the AC power at your location (if applicable).
Ensure that the processor power cable is securely connected to the system board (see page 73).
Well, I was sure that the voltage selection switch was in the right place. And I found it highly unlikely that the processor power cable would suddenly unseat itself. Ugh.
Then I had an idea. I flipped off the surge protector and then flipped it back on.
Tada! No more orange lights. Weird.
The moral of the story: try the simple stuff first.
Many visitors have provided additional solution ideas in the comments section below.
After encountering the dreaded Dell flashing yellow light i was greatly relieved to find this little oasis of useful information.
This Dell GX270 would boot and run for hours on some occasions and on others would only show the flashing yellow light. The situation was worst when the machine had not been properly shutdown.
After trying all of above, i plugged in another power supply and problem was immediately solved. Used just a standard ATX power supply to test, but this would not fit in the case without some cutting of the case. Ended up using a power supply from HP Pavilion.
Good luck to anyone encountering the dreaded amber lights!
“Used just a standard ATX power supply to test, but this would not fit in the case without some cutting of the case. ”
I’ve been able to use a standard ATX as replacement here…
Hi Guys,
I have THE solution.
I have an Inspirion 8100 with the YYYYG flashy disease. I also have earned a living from working with computer systems for the past 30 years. This old Dell has been running for years without a problem. BUT recently I was provided with a new Toshiba by work and after removing Vista, I have been using that for the last 4 months. I bought a larger disk for the 8100 so that my daughter could use it and before I could even put it in I thought I should check for any remaining stuff on the HD. I turned it on, after 4 months, and 10 mins later it turned off. I turned it on and 5 mins later it turned off. Now it won’t turn on. I have stripped the whole thing down. I have checked connections and voltages on everything. All looks good. It just continues with the YYYYG flashy message.
So I stopped and had a beer. As is often the case after a beer (or two) life suddenly makes sense. Y = I am p***** off and G = jealous. Now it is obvious, Dell computers get jealous and will sit and yell it at you if you understand the YYYYG message. I have obviously been….. unfaithful.
So I am taking my 8100 away for a nice weekend. The Toshiba can stay at home and hopefully I can sweet talk the 8100 into taking me back. This is about the only thing I haven’t tried yet, so it is worth a shot.
Thanks for the effort in this page (disappointing Dell can’t do similar). This one has me stumped.
By the way, if the weekend away doesn’t work I think I will try to teach the 8100 to fly.
Fred
I hate Pcs…..I had the same issue, was on hold with Dell India for hours…..I got mad and kicked the computer down. I took the cover off, cussed it out and….viola green light comes on and now works fine. Im guessing the drive was frozen. I suggest trying this before paying the 50$ to dell. I feel like tommy boy, its a gaurenteed piece of crap……
Looks like ALL hardware problems will make the led flash orange, unlike home brewed PCs as they will behave differently depending on the trouble.
Maybe it’s a way for Dell to keep their support team profitable.. who knows
Hi, i’ve worked in IT for the past 5 months and seem to cope with most things that get thrown at me. There is one thing that bugs me though.
I’ve got a flashy orange light on a Dell Optiplex GX270
Only seems to happen when it’s shutdown in the normal manner. As time is precious in the morning to me at work i’ve come up with the following solutions.
Holding the power button down till it goes away.
Taking the plug out the back counting to five and then plugging it in again.
Swearing under my breath.
After a lot of holding the power button down and taking the plug out and putting it back in again it seems to go green.
The other posts seem to give a wide spectrum of answers though.
Cheers
Hi all,
i’ve been very happy to find this site, it gave me lots of hints on the way to fix the problem on a Dell Optiplex GX machine. None of it solved the problem though, so I had to open the chassis, disassembled and removed HD, cooling unit, speaker and fans etc to view how the surface of the board and its components look like (besides, I’m kinda recreation electronics). For my case, user ‘gctech’ was right (entry at dec’07), there were leaky capacitors! They looked like they got hot, there was a tiny bulb on top of them. I carefully changed two of them (both 6,3V 2200µF), assembled all together again, connected power, pushed the power switch and…. YESSS!!!
cu CO
Well, what can I say?
I have checked absolutely everything on this site, picked it apart with a fine toothed comb, and still this light.
I thought I had beaten it when I replaced the 3V battery, untill I pushed the power button in, then the blinking started again. I began to feel like it was mocking me.
Just to have a look, I wondered if the processor had been fried, although no signs were shown upon first opening the cover (burning smell, black around the heatsink), this was untill I carefully unclipped the housing holding the processor down, and gently removed it from it’s slot. This is where I realised what the problem was, there was a severe lack of pins on the underside of the processor, they were all still nice and neatly in their seperate slots on the motherboard!
I have no idea how this would have happened, but thought I’d like to share it with everyone, who may have tried everything and getting nowhere, but I really do hope that this isn’t your problem.
One of the strangest issues I’ve run across. My problem ended up being the 3V battery. I replaced it and it works fine now.
Thanks for the help!
I unplugged my Dimension 8200 from it’s monitor, keyboard and mouse in order to work on a new Optiplex GX280. I simply wanted to use the Dimensions hardware to install XP on the new GX280.
Well after that, I tried restarting the 8200 after I plugged in it’s peripherals and it wouldn’t start up…. all I got was the amber (orange) light.
It was pretty dirty so I gave it a run through with the air compressor and what do you know, that did it. It was just too dirty and didn’t want to start.
Just posting so that others should start with something so simply.
This is such an informative site that I just had to post my mini-ordeal with this issue. Thanks to all for all the info!
i too had the orange blinking light problem on a dimension 5150… i was able to get the computer to “reset” itself by unplugging all of the usb devices, but leaving the power cord plugged in for about a minute or two… the computer would boot up but, the orange blinking light would eventually come back… since i had 2 of these computers i was able to replace the components in the bad computer with those that i knew worked fine in my other… it turned out the power supply was the culprit & had to be replaced… i purchased a new one from BestBuy for $60, and replaced it myself… i have had no problems since then…
Interresting info James, thank you!
I love you all. I was in a panic until I found this blog post and subsequent comments.
Thank you all. Just got back from a 4 day hiatus. Got the orange blinking light syndrome. Follow the power supply and the self powered USB devices,which I have 2, unplugged all including power cord and turned off power supply. Restarted the computer and everything is fine.
I never had this problem before I have shutdown and rebooted before, but never left it off for that many days.
The two powered devices I have are external hard drive and a Realtors key card for lockboxes.
Thanks for all help you probable saved me countless hours of time with tech support.
I got the same problem. Disconnected all USB devices and the computer booted normally.
If the issue comes up again – what kind of PSU (as specific as possible, please)should I be looking for?
I have a Dell Dimension 5100.
Thank you all.
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I have a Dimension 5150 and this happened to me for the 2nd time tonight after a power outage. The first time I had a problem with a bent USB pin, that fixed it instantly. This time I just removed and reinserted the internal battery and that seemed to fix the problem for now. The computer is about 3.5 years old now and I probably just need to buy a new battery for the thing. Thanks for all the advice.
List of items to check (from my experiences)
1) Visual check – Look at all the capacitors on the motherboard. Ensure that none of them are swolen (bulging) or leaking. If any are then you will be looking at a motherboard replacement or repair. (repair is relatively easy if you are competent with a soldering iron)
2) Visual check – Look at all power cables leading from the power supply. On some GX270′s the build quality was awful, especially around the hard disk/floppy disk/dvdrom area. Power cables were sometimes stretched around the sharp metal interior causing the occasional short circuit. If the copper within the wire is not damaged then suggest using electrical installation tape around the damage and re-route the power cable so that it doesnt foul on the chassis.
3) Power off – Remove the memory from the system and attempt to boot up without it. (you should hear a low tone beep type noise). Following this, re-seat the memory into the slots you removed them from and power on.
4) Replace CMOS battery – even though some systems battery’s test ok (even with a multimeter) in some cases this actually worked !
5) Check all usb ports for fluff/fragments/dirt (anything really that shouldnt be there).
Some of these have already been mentioned above but I hope this prevents the frustration of scrolling the whole thread.
Blinking Dell Optiplex GX270
Here the problem only occured when i shutdown the machine. The led starts blinking….. I just took a PowerSupply (just for test) from an another machine and it worked like a dream….
Place the “defect” PS into machine and the same problem was there. In this case it was the PS. I looked at the components, but can not see any defect cap’s in the PS.
We startup problems before with this type of pc’s, but those problems where fixed by Dell by changing the Motherboard!
…
We have to agree that we can disagree!
If swapping with a know good power supply did not solve the issue then follow the next steps: (Remember to unplug the power and to drain it by holding down the power button for 10 seconds once you’ve disconnected power every time you’re working inside the computer.)
1.- Disconnect the ribbon cable for the I/O panel to the motherboard by pulling upward using the plastic tab attached to the cable.
2.-With the I/O panel still disconnected, remove the CMOS battery. Connect the power cable and check if The computer starts automatically without the I/O panel. Test..
3.-Reconnect the I/O panel cable and Unplug the data and power cables from the back of all drives. This includes hard drives, CD or DVD drives, and floppy drives. Reconnect the power cord, and then turn on the computer. Test..
4.- Remove all expansion cards. Expansion cards include modems, sound cards, video cards, controller cards, or other cards plugged into PCI, ISA, PCI-E or AGP slots on the system board (motherboard). Also Remove all of the memory from the computer. Make sure that when doing so, you do not touch the contacts (gold edge). Afterward, plug the computer in and turn it on.
5.-Reseat the ATX 20-pin connection and the 12V 4-pin (2 black and 2 yellow or 2 black and 2 brown) connection from the power supply to the motherboard reconnect the power cord, and start the computer. Test..
6.- Disconnect the chassis fan power connector from the system board Attempt to power up the system. Test.
Anthony
About a week ago I also got the dreaded “blinking amber power light” on my Dimension 5100 I got back in Oct of ’05. I used my ‘puter to check my local movie times, went to see the movie, and came back with the blinking light. Pressing the power button did nothing, but I did notice the green motherboard light in the back was still on. I’ve read that a dead motherboard light is usually worse news then a dead Dell but with the blinking amber+green light still working. No green light usually means a bad power supply or motherboard.
I had the no green light issue only 8 months ago. I left to go to a friend’s house during a cold winter night. I forgot to turn my house’s heater on and it got down to 50 degrees in my room. I believe the cold condensation/temperature or something killed my original power supply. I’m not sure if leaving the computer on would have kept the power supply safe (steady power heat), but just wanted to include that info here in case anyone’s having heater problems during winter
. Anyways, got another Dell power supply off Ebay and have been fine since.
Now, how I solved my amber blinking light of ungoodness: I first checked the breaker on my surge protector and indeed it was tripped. So, I pushed the little button in and fixed that. Then I disconnected all the external connections to my computer (speaker wire, usb mouse/keyboard, monitor, etc.) and plugged the Dell back in. No blinking amber light. Pushed power and it started up normally. When I had disconnected my usb mouse and keyboard I noticed that their connections were sorta halfway inout. I assumed that’s what the problem was. Apparently, one of my kittens must have ran behind my computer and jumped or something and knocked the connections loose.
I know Dell has the little green blinky codes on the front of the case for many different problems, but I wish they didn’t have the amber blinking thing as the general purpose error for everything else. It can mean either a simple replugging of your mouse, or your motherboard blowed up real good-like and fried everything with it….what a range!!!
Dear g-d. in all my years of IT. I’m even Director of IS at my company. Quick google found you guys. Here’s what happened.
Client gives me the computer saying lightning storm.
test powersupply and HD and both are dead.
1.5 hours with dell chat, yes Indian, to get powersupply and HD replacement sent to my work, since under warranty. After Dell screwed up and put clients name and DHL corrected it, replaced parts.
Orange blinking lights.
Google you guys and think you guys are crazy.
Check the back, no problem.
Check the front, one of the mother usbs had the black part missing and a bent pin.
Straightened it with a knife.
Installing OS now.
As for the HD, gone. sata, esata, sata enclosure, on three different physical machines (vista and xp) mount, prompt for format, and drop the device. At least I can move on now. Thank you all.
About a year ago I also got the dreaded “blinking amber power light” on my Dell 5150 but my PC was running for more than weeks with no complete shutdown (reboots were fine).
Now, how I solved my amber blinking light of ungoodness:
1. Remove the power cable, waited till green led on motherboard was off
2. removed the 3V battery
3. I disconnected all the external connections to my computer (speaker wire, 5x USB mouse/keyboard, monitor, etc.) and Video Adapter + Firewire PCI card
4. Put back in the 3V battery and Power cable and touched all cables inside PC
5. Now orange blinking turns into green….yes…PC is booting
But last week the PC was for 1 week with power off due to a holiday. Now the green LED on the motherboard was burning, but the orange blinking power led was gone and the PC was not responding at all!. Help….
Next day I went to the local PC shop and had to buy a new power supply (350Watt) for 25 Euro. Up and running within 15minutes after replacing this crappy power supply. With ‘cold start’ the power supply was not healtly anymore.
Buy a new power supply!
my led on the motherboard of my dell xps 720 is glowing amber not green. could this be due to the fact that i need to replace my motherboard’s battery?
thanks
I see this frequently, It’s almost always caused by bad capacitors. If you discharge (unplug the power and press power button) the computer it will work for a short while. I generally recommend buying a new power supply however you can replace the faulty capacitors for $2 in parts + shipping. I wrote a guide explaining what to look for and how to do it. How to Fix a Dell CX305N Power Supply
No voodoo, no magic unplug sequence (first keyboard, then…mouse?)
In my 5150 the cheapo-chinese power supply was exhausted after two years of almost 24/7 power on. It just can’t start the devices of the computer.
Maybe the guys at Dell saved too much cost on this part.
I replaced it with a brand new bigggg-fan 420W power supply (40€) and now it works like a charm and more silently.
Hi everyone!!
Googled & found you guys.
Have tried everything listed above and my Dell Optiplex GX150 just won’t start up.
Mobo light is on and power button light is still doing the orange flashy thing.
Opened up the system – no dust, no bent pins on usb or lan connector. CD & floppy connectors are ok. Unplugged everting one by one and attempted to start. Also tried a new cmos battery – but still have the orange flashing light!!!
help please
Hi there!
Nice to have all this info over the Internet. I was another orange blinking light victim
Let me share the way I diagnosed the problem based on the comments above:
1) Remove all power disk cables. Try to turn on the PC. Blinking light again.
2) Reconnect all power disk cables.
3) Remove all the video, audio, modem and network cards.
4) Eureka! The PC starts.
5) Add one by one the cards and test if the PC starts. At the end, when I connect the network card the blinking light appears again.
6) I had another network card but when I add it, the problem appears again. I tried any combination of installed cards but always the same result: the network card cause the blinking light. Strange behavior.
7) Then I saw the Jeremy Brock article “How to Fix a dell CX305N Power Supply” and I can found a leaky capacitor… for less than a dollar (1000uF capacitor) I can fix my Power Supply, even though my power supply is not the same as the article describes, I mean, it is a good example.
8) I added the network card and the PC is up and running now.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
Have a nice day!
BENT Usb Pin !!!
The gentleman was correct
Well done.
Just passing by to say thanks to everyone in this thread, very helpful, had a problem with an Optiplex 620, I checked most of the stuff here but it wasn’t the problem.
It was finally the Power Supply which died. Could force another standard one in there and the client was glad.
i need help i have a dell dimension 3000when i press the power button the fan comes on,but both lights they power and hard drive lights stays on and nothing comes up on my flat screen.Can any one help me i triedall kind of things.
I’ve been struggling with mine all day today. I took the 3V CR2032 batteries from 2 other working system, since I didnt want to drive to Radio Shack, and that didnt do it.
I inspected the system for bent pins, bluging caps, I tried swapping the memory around, removed all IDE/Floppy/SATA cables, removed graphics card (just for the heck of it), swapped in a new Power Supply, re-seated the CPU, and who knows what else.
I am currently getting the system to boot for a 1/4 second, then back to the blinking light. The fans all spin up, then right back off. I am under the impressions that I simply have a dead motherboard. My brain hurts now!
Grrr. Good luck out there, and if you fixed you problem by adjusting a USB port, I envy you.
I have suffered the BLINKING ORANGE light twice with my Dell Dimesions E310.
First time I took off the cover and watched the inside (motherboard, etc). I was so frustrated with this occurrence so I watched the motherboard and the “innards” while playing with the power switch, power cable, and the 125/220 volt switch on the power supply. I did not and do not receommend touching anything inside at this stage of troubleshooting, unless you are a well insulated superhero.
Anyway with this first occurrence I saw something like a spark that seemed to be associated with a bug burning or dust particle burning. Hawaii is a rather hot climate and bugs grow easily.
The computer started working.
Then a couple of days later after I had started system mechanic, registry mechanic, or one of those other computer mechanic programs, left the computer running, wife was at home and I was at work — mny wife said that the computer POPPED and quit running. I have had it unplugged since then and started looking at it today, 26 Oct 08. I went through the ame “troublewatching” that I had done bore and this time I saw a flash of light not a spark. I’ll explain this — if I can uplad a picture. I do not know which step caused the LIGHT but n=now the co[uter is working. My guess is that my DELL DIMENSION E310 will do this again in a week or so. SO I am glad that DELL CUSTOMER Service left their email address (customer_advocate@dell.com )and I will inform them of my problem and THEIR COMPUTER. Don’t see any button that will let me upload a photo.
I have the orange blinky light problem.
I have read the ENTIRE thread, and I have a question.
I’ll be doing whatever on my computer, surfing the web, editing some music with Sonar Producer, whatever…and it all of the sudden shuts off with the Orange blinky light.
Here are things I have noticed when it does this.
#1. Most of the USB peripherals are still powered up. This includes things like my keyboard, mouse, etc. I checked the back for bent USB, I didn’t see anything. They did look kind of dirty, though.
#2. The lights on the back (GGGG) are off and not lit.
This happens WHILE I’M WORKING on stuff. Could this be the power supply? I did notice though that when it goes on “orange light” mode, one of the USB devices stops working while the rest continue to work…
Thanks guys
Big Izzy, if your power supply isn’t sufficient to handle the workload, then it could be causing this problem.
My first thoughts:
- eMachines and other bargain computers are notorious for weak power supplies
- Graphics cards can be power hogs
- Make sure your power source is good (if your computer is on the end of a daisy-chained power strip sharing the circuit with twenty other machines, consider finding a way to get it “clean” electricity.
- Make sure your RAM is properly seated and your hard drive power cables are not loose.
Replace the 3V CR2032 Battery 4$ bucks and your back in business. I replaced everything else Power Supply, CPU even prayed to the dark gods of PC Hade’s with no success. Slapped in a four dollar battery and the clouds parted the sun shined and singing songbirds danced around me.
Dells orange blinky light this has just started to happen to my works computer (Optiplex gx520)so as I like to fiddle with things I opened up the case and found the hard drive to be very hot.
The hard drive is incased in a plastic holder which I think adds to the build up of heat and since running the computer with the cover removed the dreaded orange blinky light has not returned hope this helps.
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Hi
Just suffered the same flashing orange light on my Dell Precision 390 desktop.
It also turned out to be the damaged usb port as mentioned by numerous others. A simple straightening of the pins, a deep breath and hey presto… computer boots ok.
cheers all
A skeptic converted.
Dell 5150, dreaded slow bleeping blinking amber beacon….
Powered down….and unplugged from wall AC
waited for green LED inside PC to fade to black
Removed CMOS battery, did the Hokey Pokey, and reinstalled the SAME one.
When I plugged it in it was immediately a new RAPID and short lived amber blink, followed by a 1-2 second green light, then quiet.
Then I initiated a restart by depressing the power button, and it came right up.
I replaced the CMOS battery with a new one just to be safe.
Wonder how long this will hold.
I bench tested the old CMOS, and it still had 3.2Vs…..
You guys are sooo awesome!!!! I went thru lots of headache trying to get my Dimension desktop fixed.
2 repair tech was going to charge me $250 to replace the MB; the other to replace I/O input & power supply for $200. After reading this posting, I tried several things, as it turns out, it was my USB keyboard. Too weird, but it worked.
Thank you for posting the suggestions.
Yea, I just started messing around with the usb ‘s (Keyboard, Mouse) and it just booted up!! Don’t give up!!
I had this problem with my uncle’s Dimension 5100. After trying all of the smaller fixes listed above to no avail, I picked up a 500 W PSU for $20. After switching it in, the computer booted right up. It’s really disgusting that Dell can get away with selling such sub-par components.
Can I just say what an amazing resource this is, thought we would need a new PC – as the DELL Dimension 5150 was out of warranty, but after trying some of the suggestions we put in a new PSU and it was fine.
Thanks.
Dell Optiplex GX270. I had to disconnect everything and found that the faulty part was the connector for the floppy. Once the connector was properly connected, everything worked as it should.
This fault was not possible to see, as the FDD connector is some kind of special flat cable with out it’s own hardware connector at the end. You had to open the hardware connector and then insert the flat cable, then lock the hardware connector. Easy to fix, however also easy to get wrong since there are so many connectors in the cable that need to allign with the hardware connector. Not able to describe it better, and I believe Dell is no longer using these cables w/o it’s own connector at the end.
Cheers,
xMan
thank you to everyone in here. i have had the blinking orange light right when i insert the power cord. i have tried everything above, and the only thing that worked was replacing the power supply. works now. thank you everyone
One more to add to the orange flashing light Syndrome.
Gx620 working perfectly, shut down correctly, only sign of life orange flashy light. Looked at the suggestions here and finally tested with a generic Power supply and the thing works fine.
I’ll pull the original supply and blow it out etc and see if I can resurect it. If I can’t, I’m somehow betting that there won’t be any other generic supplys that fit and the Dell replacement with be stupidly expensive.
If that proves to be the case, I’ll just mount a regular supply to the computer case on the outside and be done with it.
After always owning clones, I can’t say im at all impressed with the couple of 2 yo dell that were given to me. All I can say is i’m thankful I didn’t pay for the things!
If any of the above solutions don’t work, try this:
Open up your CPU case and check for any cards that may have been jolted out of place, and slot them back in snugly.
I had the same amber light problem and tried everything – unplugging USB devices, checking USB pins, surge protector off an don, etc. Finally solved the problem when I opened up the CPU case and saw that one of the I/O cards had been nudged slightly out of its slot. Fitted it back in securely, and the system worked perfectly.
Hi Everyone,
I had the same problem. I had the orange blinking light and no lights came up at the back (ABCD status indicator). I switched the PSU and unplugged all the devices (IDE drives, HDD etc). I plugged the HDD and tried to boot up but to no avail. I finally took my PC to a local computer store and they told me what I didn’t want to hear: the mother board was fried. Hope that’s not the case for others here.
Dell Precision server was knocked over on its side, resulting in the Flashing Orange Light of Doom. Light on motherboard would illuminate, none of the four error LEDs on the front would light, power button would flash orange. Swapped out a PSU and that fixed it. Opened damaged PSU and couldn’t find any obvious problems. No fuses in this one – PSU has a circuit breaker on the outside. I’m surprised the PSU could fail internally just from a moderate jolt.
I had the orange blinky w/a Dell 5150 desktop after a power surge in the building my office is in. Started removing USB devices… mouse, keyboard, backup drive: still blinky. I disconnected the monitor (a refurb HP 22″) and all was green. Computer booted up; I held the power key to shut it down again and plugged in a 17″ monitor and all the usb devices… and all was well.
Immediately backed up the computer and will figure out what to do with the HP monitor.
If you have this problem: start simple, USB devices first, then the $4 battery, then power supply, then motherboard. Keep trying things one at a time until the problem goes away.