Dell Optiplex 990 start up issue.

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Coby

PCHF Member
Jun 21, 2017
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To fix this issue I basically hold the button on the PSU at the back of the PC. The light blinks faster and faster the longer I hold it until it eventually turns blue and I can turn the PC back on normally; so almost as if I'm recharging something till it has enough power to boot on its own. I'm not very hardware savvy but my only assumption is it could be that coin shaped battery (CMOS?) is dead and needs replacing. I am unsure so asking here for your thoughts. Thanks!
 
There are four different versions of the Dell Optiplex 990 desktop but they all have one thing in common, none of them ship with a PSU that has the required power output or amps on the +12V rail that is needed to be able to support an add on GPU.

Couple of questions;

Which version of the Dell Optiplex 990 do you have, Desktop, Mini Tower, Small Form Factor or Ultra Small Form Factor.

Have you ever upgraded the PSU, if yes, what is the brand and model name or number of the upgraded PSU.

In addition to the low amount of free storage space on the HDD;

Power Profile
Active power scheme: High performance

I suggest that you change the Windows Power Plan to Balanced, High Performance is a form of overclocking that is known to cause stability and overheating issues and the setting should only be used for gaming type notebooks that have a discrete GPU that needs the extra power.
 
There are four different versions of the Dell Optiplex 990 desktop but they all have one thing in common, none of them ship with a PSU that has the required power output or amps on the +12V rail that is needed to be able to support an add on GPU.

Couple of questions;

Which version of the Dell Optiplex 990 do you have, Desktop, Mini Tower, Small Form Factor or Ultra Small Form Factor.

Have you ever upgraded the PSU, if yes, what is the brand and model name or number of the upgraded PSU.

In addition to the low amount of free storage space on the HDD;

Power Profile
Active power scheme: High performance

I suggest that you change the Windows Power Plan to Balanced, High Performance is a form of overclocking that is known to cause stability and overheating issues and the setting should only be used for gaming type notebooks that have a discrete GPU that needs the extra power.


I have the SFF tower. I have not upgraded the PSU. The GPU I have installed is a low profile GTX 1050 which is low voltage and gets power directly from the PCIE slot. It is a very common upgrade that is done to these pre-builts. This issue only arise recently. I do not believe it to be a low storage issue since I've deleted some games leaving me with 50GB of storage and the issue still occurs.
 
Entirely up to yourself whether or not you take any notice of our guidance but fwiw Zotac state 300W here the stock Dell PSU is 60W and 10 amps on the +12V rail too low and this is damaging all of your hardware not just the GPU.

Below is an explanation as to the dangers of being low on free storage space.

For Windows to be able to run efficiently and to be able to update you need to have between 20 and 25% of the partition or drive available on a HDD and an SSD between 10 and 15% as free storage space at all times, if you don`t you risk Windows becoming corrupt or not being able to update which puts you at risk of malware attack.

Data only storage devices should not be allowed to get any lower than 10% of free storage space of the full capacity of the drive/partition on the drive, this also to avoid data corruption.

Please note that storage devices can physically fail if the amount of free storage space is allowed to drop below the required 10 or 20/25% minimum.
 
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