Discussion T7500 will not post - looking for some diagnostic test help

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billmce

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Sep 14, 2018
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Hello,
Yes it's a very old machine but it has dual hex cores (5680's I believe) with 192 GB of ram so I would like to put off its retirement a bit. Looking if someone can help me figure out a definitive test to isolate what has failed. Situation: thunderstorm with a power bump to house. machine is protected by a UPS (ADC Pro1500). Somehow something got through. Front panel error code is Pb7:" ACPI S0, hand off to BIOS control - System on. BIOS not execution. This is the transition state to POST states." (power button is amber with lights 2, 3, &4 blinking). Other research seems to suggest motherboard failure. Does anybody know to figure out for sure if it is the motherboard or what exactly the problem is? I can buy a motherboard for $75 and it that fixed it I would be happy to put off the replacement machine for a bit. Thoughts anyone?
 
Hello,
Yes it's a very old machine but it has dual hex cores (5680's I believe) with 192 GB of ram so I would like to put off its retirement a bit. Looking if someone can help me figure out a definitive test to isolate what has failed. Situation: thunderstorm with a power bump to house. machine is protected by a UPS (ADC Pro1500). Somehow something got through. Front panel error code is Pb7:" ACPI S0, hand off to BIOS control - System on. BIOS not execution. This is the transition state to POST states." (power button is amber with lights 2, 3, &4 blinking). Other research seems to suggest motherboard failure. Does anybody know to figure out for sure if it is the motherboard or what exactly the problem is? I can buy a motherboard for $75 and it that fixed it I would be happy to put off the replacement machine for a bit. Thoughts anyone?

It sounds like a motherboard fault.... if a voltage spike got through it could have blown a cap. The current motherboard may be fixable, I would visually inspect it and look for any visible signs of damage to capacitors on the board.

The other likely candidate for problems in that situation is the power supply might have been damaged, do you have another supply you could try the machine on (assuming Dell haven't used some weird connector)?
 
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