[SOLVED] Optiplex 3020 total boot failure

[acampbell87]

My Optiplex 3020 sff refuses to boot. It stops with the Dell logo and a message about preparing a one-time boot.
I've had the machine for 18 months and it's worked fine until now.
I'm not on Windows; I use OpenBSD (Unix-like system). I tried a bootable memory stick but no luck.
Neither F2 nor F12 do anything.
I suspect the machine is not salvagable but is there anything else I can try? Would a new hard disk work?

 

[SamirD]

I have one of these. I had a problem with it booting when I had a usb drive inserted and once I removed that it worked fine. I would check that first.

And then if that doesn't work, since the system has a built-in cd/dvd drive, try booting a linux live cd and see if that works.