Dell Vostro 420 Core 2 Quad: Not powering on until unplugged for 20 seconds and plugged back in. PSU, MoBo, or power switch?
Linux - HardwareThis forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Dell Vostro 420 Core 2 Quad: Not powering on until unplugged for 20 seconds and plugged back in. PSU, MoBo, or power switch?
I've just recently started experiencing what might be a set of serious issues with my desktop computer, which is hooked up to a surge protector, and I've been trying to pin down the cause. My computer, which has a solid green light at the back indicating that power is coming from the plug to the PSU, refuses to power on until I've unplugged it and plugged it back in for 20 seconds. This is irrespective of which plug on the surge protector I use or if it's directly hooked into the wall plug bypassing that.
Sometimes I may have to press the switch a few times before it boots. I'm trying to look into the cause and cross off the possibilities one by one:
I don't receive any motherboard style "No timer tick" errors on POST. I don't hear/see any hardware beep codes (nothing at all sounds, no flashing lights) and I don't experience random shutdowns or lockups in the middle of operation when the computer finally does decide to get off its ass and work - I can run a 2hr file integrity check (f*** you very much AIDE) and its fine. I've run the Dell diagnostics suite and it comes back OK. I'm not smelling anything strange in my computer room or at the back of the unit, nor am I seeing smoke. My system time and BIOS settings are OK. My fans are on but quiet - so quiet that the only hum I'm hearing probably belongs to the system itself. There's no squealing noise from the motherboard, nor are there any panics. The first opinion I got from my father, who worked with wiring for a living as a home inspector, after I gave him this same checklist, is that the power switch on the front of the device might be failing. A simple mechanical problem.
If that were where my problems ended I'd be happy to take him at his word and go looking at the computer parts place near me for a new switch. But.
Today I tried powering it on as usual so I could sit down and start to work. Unplug, plug back in for 20 seconds, and that should have been enough. Right? Wrong. I saw the blue light, the desktop turned on, and NOTHING came up on the powered-on monitor. No beep from the unit, which indicates that the self test didn't even start. I waited a full minute, pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del and then the screen flickered on as normal, proceeding all the way through to boot my system normally. I'm at a loss to explain this and I've exhausted all options. I don't know if this is one issue (mechanical and related to the power button) or multiple issues. Can anyone help me figure this out before I go plunking money down on a whole new system if I don't actually have to?
Here are some file outputs that might be relevant, since I'm apparently going over the character limit in posts even with code tags I'll have to chop them up into more than one:
sensors:
Code:
root@acidstar:~# sensors
dell_smm-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
Processor Fan: 1654 RPM
Motherboard Fan: 805 RPM
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +40.0°C (high = +74.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1: +33.0°C (high = +74.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2: +49.0°C (high = +74.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3: +49.0°C (high = +74.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
it8720-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
in0: +1.12 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in1: +3.07 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in2: +3.34 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
+5V: +3.06 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in4: +3.04 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in5: +2.14 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in6: +1.12 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
5VSB: +2.62 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
Vbat: +3.20 V
fan1: 1642 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
fan2: 799 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
fan3: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
temp1: +35.0°C (low = -1.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermal diode
temp2: +37.0°C (low = -1.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor
temp3: -69.0°C (low = -1.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = Intel PECI
intrusion0: ALARM
smartctl -a /dev/sda:
Code:
root@acidstar:~# smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-39-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Blue
Device Model: WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0
Serial Number: WD-WCC6Y3TA1JV8
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 20fe5eabb
Firmware Version: 02.01A02
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Form Factor: 3.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Thu Nov 15 12:58:56 2018 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x80) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (11520) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 119) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x3035) SCT Status supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 170 170 021 Pre-fail Always - 2475
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 86
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 365
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 86
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 4
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 125
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 118 112 000 Old_age Always - 25
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 349 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 318 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 205 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 115 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 25 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 3 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
Last edited by RickDeckard; 11-15-2018 at 12:42 PM.
Reason: more information
Because it requires a power cycle of the power supply in order to restart, I would suspect the power supply itself.
And this...
Code:
+5V: +3.06 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
...looks wrong to me.
Pretty much all PSUs include internal protections which lock the unit off if one of its outputs exceeds some preset threshold - i.e. if it loses voltage regulation.
Because it requires a power cycle of the power supply in order to restart, I would suspect the power supply itself.
And this...
Code:
+5V: +3.06 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
...looks wrong to me.
Pretty much all PSUs include internal protections which lock the unit off if one of its outputs exceeds some preset threshold - i.e. if it loses voltage regulation.
Can I ask... If it's not going over maximum (4.08) or under minimum (0.00) then isn't that within an acceptable range? I'll readily admit that I'm not the person to talk to about electricity but I always thought anything outside of those values should be trouble. Is 5V here supposed to be the minimum acceptable strength instead?
I'll start looking on Amazon for PSUs and if you have any recommendations that could also help greatly.
Have you gone into BIOS and looked at the logs in BIOS? It will point out any hardware issues.
For server hardware (with BMC) I use ipmitool to review SEL, but I doubt this desktop will have BMC.
Have you gone into BIOS and looked at the logs in BIOS? It will point out any hardware issues.
For server hardware (with BMC) I use ipmitool to review SEL, but I doubt this desktop will have BMC.
I'm not sure the Vostro 420 has hardware logs in the BIOS. I can check later.
(edited to add: It doesn't. I only see "Standard CMOS features, Advanced BIOS features, Boot Config, Advanced chipset features, Integrated peripherals and PM setup")
Last edited by RickDeckard; 11-17-2018 at 12:25 PM.
Can I ask... If it's not going over maximum (4.08) or under minimum (0.00) then isn't that within an acceptable range? I'll readily admit that I'm not the person to talk to about electricity but I always thought anything outside of those values should be trouble. Is 5V here supposed to be the minimum acceptable strength instead?
I'll start looking on Amazon for PSUs and if you have any recommendations that could also help greatly.
I am not sure how to interpret those limits. Zero volts for the +5v or any other supply while powered on would obviously be a fail! I think I would put a real voltmeter on it before I threw it out in any case.
And to be clear, my repy does not constitute a valid diagnosis of the problem, so don't spend money based only on my comments!
The CPU probably operates at +3v (3.3v actually), some older motherboards have a regulator which produces that from the +5v line, but most supplies now provide a separate +3.3v line. So there is going to be a +3v supply somewhere but it is not clear to me that this is what is labeled +5v - that seems wrong to me.
But the real +5v supply is critical to many components and must typically be between 4.75v and 5.1v, so the one labeled +5v, I would expect to be +5v +/- about 0.25v - If the actual +5v line is +3v then it is bad.
Also, your description suggests to me that it may not be just the steady state operating voltage, but rather some transient voltage that occurs during either power up or power down. For example, if during power down some over/under voltage condition triggered a safety lockout, that would probably remain locked until you pulled the plug.
The fact that you must leave it unpowered for some seconds before restarting suggests a capactive charge which must bleed off to unlatch whatever is preventing the boot.
If you can find or borrow another PSU to test with, temporarily swap it out and see if the problem continues. If you cannot do that try to put a voltmeter on it to verify the actual voltages (you can find connector pinouts online). Reseat all the connectors and continue your general troubleshooting approach which seems thorough.
FWIW, I have a PC that has pretty much the same quirk, but I'm having a problem remembering for sure which PC. I think it's one of my Dell Optiplex 780s, which has an E8400 Core2Duo CPU, Q45 Eagle Lake chipset and is the same age as a Vostro 420 (with G45 Eagle Lake chipset). I've been thinking the problem is either a borderline PS coupled with an A15 BIOS that poorly deals with an edgy PS, or the BIOS is simply buggy. Since it works fine once started, I've not had motivation to do anything about its mildly annoying quirk.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
