Old Dell Precision 380 Workstation -- SOLVED
I know this is a long shot, but you RV buddies have help me out in the pass. I have an very old Dell Precision 380 Workstation -- must be 10 years old. I have not used it for about a year. It worked ...
Forum Discussion
TenOC wrote:
Today I was able to turn on the PC. I did not do anything different from a few days ago when it would not turn on. As it came on at the "black screen" I got a low system voltage warning which I think refers to the round BIOS battery. This surprised me because I replaced this battery (with a newly purchased battery) a few days ago when I first had the problem.
I plan to let the PC run overnight or until it dies and then check the voltage on the BIOS battery.
The black post/BIOS screen IS normal whenever the BIOS battery has gone dead OR in your case replaced.
Typically you simply need to enter the BIOS, accept the defaults then Save and exit.
Once that is done it should boot to the OS.
If you do not go into the BIOS then save and exit you will get that same message again and again each time you boot it.
After saving the BIOS settings you will be able to verify that the BIOS battery is OK by shutting down the PC, remove the power cord then wait several minutes..
Then you plug back in then press the power button.
PC should startup without BIOS or battery errors.
If no errors then BIOS battery is fine and it kept the BIOS settings.
If you do get the same battery error, you may need to check to see if the BIOS reset jumper is in the correct place (there should be a diagram of jumpers on the inside of the PC cover). That jumper is used if you have passworded the BIOS and forgot the password. The jumper does nothing more than disconnecting the battery!
You may have gotten lucky, but I suspect the bad cap issue is alive and well on that PC so it may be a short victory..
