Question Cmos on a Dell 7010 SFF

[mikeford]

240 days ago I finished up doing fresh clean installs of Win764 pro on a pair of Dell 7010 SFF, running all the diagnostics and benchmarks etc I could think of, then got busy and they sat until today unpowered on a back corner of my desk. Today I decided to put a bit of non win software on them and give one to my wife for a CD ripping station as well as misc tasks. The nicer system with a video card and more ram, that I want to hoard for myself works fine, the intended wife system is giving me the blinking amber power light (3/2 or 2/3, either basically means something is wrong, and I am almost certain its corrupted CMOS).

Many attempts to power on/off, no video, system powers on immediately with AC plugged in, blinks amber.
2032 coin battery tested a "little" weak, but still good, I replaced it anyway.
System powered on again when AC plugged in, screen showing needs bios setup. I foolishly selected run diagnostics, which passed 99% until the last of the memory tests which overwrote screen memory and froze.

I've popped out the coin battery a couple times, tried putting a jumper on the RTCRST, every time system starts as soon as power cord is plugged in, goes to blinking amber a second later. I've looked at the manual, and don't feel educated, more like I am still doing something dumb wrong, hints or tips welcome.

Thanks

 

[DAPUNISHER]

What is the age of this system?

I'd start by swapping for known good ram, 1 stick at a time, progress to different slots if needed. Do all the usual stuff - Reseat CPU, new paste, borrow parts from the working system. If the CPUs are the same generation, swap for troubleshooting, including the PSU.

And of course one thing at a time, so if it gets working you know what the culprit was.

 

[mikeford]

Every experience I have with Dell makes me like them more. My two 7010 SFF are from about 2013, so spotty support might be expected, but not with Dell. Since I purchased these used and reinstalled OS etc and did some upgrades, I missed the new user experience and warranty support, but the information I needed was readily available in the Dell forums and elsewhere.

Both systems are now fully functioning, updated, passing all diagnostics etc.

Features used;
Had I pressed F2, which was one of the suggested actions when first booting the troubled system, all the drama would have been skipped. Instead I picked run diagnostics and the video test overan memory and made the system largely unresponsive.
The power button shows status, blinking a diagnostic code in amber when there is trouble, this told me there was a problem, but I couldn't really tell if the blink was 2/3 or 3/2.
The rear of the power supply has a button and LED, hold the button down and the PS powers up I think without starting a boot and LED shows status, solid green is good. Unfortunately I made a guess that this button was the reset button and pushed it foolishly too many times, with no idea how that affected anything.
Once the CMOS issue was fixed I used the Dell Support Assistant running under windows a few times.

What "fixed" it.
I pulled a stick of memory, and left one 4GB simm, the idea being any change in memory size would force a chance to press F2 and reset BIOS. It worked, I pressed F2, and basically walked through the setup making few and minor changes. System booted to Win764 pro without issue, I ran a few diagnostics, the powered back down and reinstalled the second 4GB I have removed earlier for a total of 8GB, ran through BIOS setup again, booted to Win and ran more diagnostics, win update a few times, then added Avast and Malwarebytes and put it on my wifes desk ready for her to start using. Honorable mention, I did replace the CMOS 2032 as it did measure slightly low, not impressing me since it was a 250 from new Energizer.