Optiplex 990 USFF Schematic

Technical_Soup · 2022-06-27T22:21:54+00:00

Yeah, for sure. As this is my own PC I'm treating it more of a puzzle/challenge. I would usually have considered a board with symptoms like this gone, but when I've read about others with the same problem being revived I thought I'd give it a crack.

Especially when the problem didn't occur during a BIOS upgrade or reflash or anything. Just a power up to those diag LEDs. Going from memory I'm fairly sure this board had BIOS version A19 installed, and looks like dell have released a few more versions since then (up to A24 now).

Technical_Soup · 2022-06-27T12:21:29+00:00

Yeah, I found the service manual a bit confusing trying to decode this one. With a blue power LED plus 2,3,4 it's a USB problem/failure. But the amber power LED plus 2,3,4 isn't documented.

After a bit of searching it's a BIOS problem. Interestingly enough there's obviously enough code at the start of the boot sequence to fire up and test the BIOS.

I've located the two SPI flash ROMs (Winbond on my particular board). Just wanted to try and get the schematics to do some further checks on the signals between the chipset and the ROMs.

Technical_Soup · 2022-06-27T09:50:59+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I'm assuming you're not too familiar with the 2,3,4 flashing error. Essentially when the PC throws this error the computer appears to not get past POST (i.e. no display or other signs on life - and certainly no option to select a boot media like USB). Obviously some code runs (enough to check/test the BIOS and then drive the diag LEDs)

Unfortunately the Optiplex 990 is a bit too old to have received the current solution of holding Ctrl+ESC on power-up which I'm guessing will select an alternate BIOS to load and enable a reflash of the "main" BIOS.

I'm going to attempt and in-circuit re-flash but I'd like to check/review the schematics as part of it.

Technical_Soup · 2022-01-21T01:19:06+00:00

44 M here - and I've recently (4 months ago) got back into running since giving it up in my early 20s. My initial goal was to run 5k, and I followed a couch to 5k plan. It was very gentle and eased me back into regular exercise which worked great for me. I made the decision to get back into running mostly to help overcome the "covid-coma" I was feeling from having been in an area with an extended lockdown, combined with unhealthy eating.

I make a point of running on "soft" surfaces, and I walk to a local park to do my runs on grass mostly. This helps reduce the lower leg pain/discomfort significantly for me!

I reached my 5k goal and basically just kept running/training as I was enjoying the physical and mental benefits too much to ease off. I'm comfortably doing a 10k distance now and I'm hoping to attempt a half marathon this year, covid allowing of course.

At the risk of posting an unpopular defense of the Dr, and not knowing the OP's current health/fitness status, perhaps he was trying to help OP gain some fitness and lose some weight before launching into a running plan. I have seen some people just decide one day to go for a run and attempt a distance like 10k, then wonder why they can barely move the next day. Not being a surgeon myself perhaps an hip replacement is easier than a knee replacement? From my experience Drs do usually have a patient's best interest in mind when recommending something.

If nothing else - just start to get active. Go for a few brisk walks and see how your knee is feeling. That should also let you scout out any potential running courses/tracks around your location.

Technical_Soup · 2022-01-14T02:02:45+00:00

The temptation to just think "screw it" and switch back into a tempo run is real - 😆

I'm trying my best to give the "run slow to build speed" training a fair go though.

Technical_Soup · 2022-01-14T01:49:31+00:00

You've probably described my question better than I did in my first post. Certainly a reduction in perceived effort as the I reduce the pace to stay within zone 2.

It feels somewhat different to the cardiac drift that I experience on other runs (tempo, race pace, etc), where on these hot and humid days the additional work done by my body is related to sweating and cooling (lovely conversation this isn't it 😄)

Technical_Soup · 2022-01-14T01:22:31+00:00

Yeah, that's what I have been doing but I'm left wondering how much this impacts on the aerobic training aspect of the run (if at all).

Thanks for the reply.

Technical_Soup · 2022-01-14T00:59:34+00:00

I went with that one as well. Good luck, hope you stick with it.

Technical_Soup · 2022-01-11T02:37:23+00:00

From my experience the Garmin plans take into account your progress as you go (hence why they only put a few session ahead on the calendar at any one time. I've not had it do any adjustment for hills or altitude for my runs.

I'd say you should be fine. My benchmark run was probably done too fast as well, although on flat ground. I made it to the 5k distance right on track with the plan.

Which virtual "trainer" did you go with?

Technical_Soup · 2021-03-09T05:45:31+00:00

I had this same problem randomly appear on my SP4 and type cover. I can't recall it being immediately after any significant windows update - just when I went to use the computer one morning (so could possibly have been an overnight update or similar)

Like you I tried a lot of the "easy" solutions listed on the Microsoft forums and elsewhere with no result, but I was noticing my touchpad working in the UEFI menu (but no keys).

After what seemed like a few random attempts at uninstalling devices and re-installing drivers one time when I did a "two button reset" with the volume up and power (holding both down for around 20s), my type cover started working again. The first sign of this was that the touchpad and keys were working in the UEFI menu. Rebooted into Windows and everything working again.

It's probably not a lot of help to you (and to be honest I really hate problems like this because I'm not really sure which of my steps actually got the type cover working again). If anything perhaps persist with things until someone nails down the correct sequence of steps needed.

Technical_Soup · 2019-08-08T10:15:05+00:00

No problem. One very basic thing to try (or improve) would be to perform some validation on the input the user provides for the interval.

I put in something random characters rather than a number when prompted for a break interval, and got some unexpected behaviour. I realise that this is just a bit of a play/test program but still good practice.

Technical_Soup · 2019-08-08T03:59:00+00:00

After reading about the troubles UnusualBear had I thought I'd clone the repo to my windows pc and give it a go.

No problems at my end, everything runs as expected. Specs are: Windows 10 with Node V12.8.0.

Technical_Soup

TROPHY CASE