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January 28th, 2025 10:28
Booting difficulties on a Dell Inspiron 580 desktop PC
Good morning,
1- I have an Inspiron 580 PC from 2010.
About 1.5 months ago the PC would no longer turn on.
I opened it, cleaned the dust inside and changed the CR2032 battery.
It didn't change anything.
Here's how I managed to boot the PC:
- PC unplugged, green light on the back of the central unit off
- plug into the mains, the green light does not light up spontaneously
- long press on the Power button, until the green light comes on
- when the green light is on, short press the Power button
- the PC starts
Since then, I no longer turn off the PC.
2-However, the PC is set to go to sleep after 30 minutes of non-use.
Under these conditions, in the morning when I arrive at my office, the Power button on the front panel is orange.
In principle, by briefly pressing this button, the PC wakes up as expected.
Unfortunately, sometimes you have to make several attempts before the PC wakes up.
I'm afraid that one morning I won't be able to use the PC anymore.
3- What do you think?
What could be the origin of the problem? Faulty power supply? Defective motherboard?
Is there a way to find out?
Would it be better to change the sleep timer setting from 30 minutes to “never”?
Thank you very much in advance for any help.
Patrick
RoHe
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January 29th, 2025 00:17
With power cord unplugged from rear of PC, move the voltage selector switch back/forth a few times. Then make sure it's set correctly for the voltage in your area. If not set correctly, you could seriously damage the PC when you reconnect the power cord to PC.
Now run the BIST to test the PSU. Don't think this model has the PSU test button on the back, so follow the BIST instructions for PCs without that button.
patrmich-G
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January 30th, 2025 09:47
Thank you for your response.
Here is a photo of the back of the Inspiron 580 PC.
1-It seems that there is no Bliss button.
2-So I did the following test (several times):
Turn off the computer.
Connect the power cable to the computer.
Green LED does not light up
If I long press the Power button, the green LED lights up
Then, if I briefly press the Power button, the PC does not turn on, but the fan located at the back of the central unit starts silently for 2 or 3 seconds, then stops
PC does not start
3-I opened the central unit
I noticed that after connecting to the mains an orange LED lights up (LED located a few centimeters from the RAM sticks)
If I unplug the power cord, the orange LED turns off after about 30 seconds.
4-I have a second Inspiron 580 which works normally.
On this second PC, when you plug in the power cord, the green LED lights up immediately (without needing to press the Power button)
Could you tell me what this could mean?
Thank you in advance
RoHe
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January 30th, 2025 20:44
Amber LED on motherboard is normal and should always be on when PC is connected to a working outlet. It goes out after a few sec when you unplug PC from the outlet.
If PSU LED doesn't light up for a few seconds when you plug it into the mains, without pressing the power button, the PSU has failed the BIST and needs to be replaced.
Inspiron 580 is pretty old and even if you're running Win 10 (Win 10 support ends in Oct'2025), is it worth putting any money into this PC? Maybe you should just keep it for spare parts for the other one...
Not sure if you have the 580 Desktop or 580 Small Desktop, but read this (old) thread about replacing the PSU. The links probably don't work any longer, but the thread can give you info on what type of PSU you'd need.
(edited)
patrmich-G
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January 31st, 2025 10:46
RoHe
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January 31st, 2025 20:00
Sounds like the PSU is failing under the extra load from the HDD.
Since you have another Inspiron 580 PC, you could swap in the PSU from that one and see if this PC boots now with the HDD connected. If that works, then you know you have a PSU failure....