Top 20 Dell OptiPlex GX280 PC Desktop Questions & Answers

That GX280 is today 14 years old and came new with XP right> still stuck at XP? if yes, doom is all there is. XP is (as you learned) a huge virus magnet.(worse every day) some were built with windows 2000, win2k, hopeless extreme... windows xp recovery or restore fails because sure the recover software is corrupted and infected too, so erasing HDD is the only path as your discovered. (page 30 in your manual at dell will fail) but not the dell disk install same page. BTW , ive never seen an XP PC not infected, ever..... so..... bingo. . ever google.? older post but and others will find this useful. There are many pitfalls to OS installs I will bullet them.

• The HDD is bad, (but if only infected it will be erased first)
• Your PC has OEM COA license from Dell for MS windows.
• Using most Microsoft install media will fail using your COA.
• W7 will fail, W10 used to work this way but not now.
• You failed to buy your DELL windows media kit long ago so is lost or gone or, never bought.
• that means you have 2 choices, buy new windows 7 or 10 or run linux, I am sure you will not wont to run free linux. Ubuntu v17
• SO buy windows 10-32b, (say) from MS.com and install it.
• During the install , pick custom or advance setup and delete all partitions. click CUSTOM now. see links below.
• then do as it says here.
• https://www.groovypost.com/howto/clean-install-Windows-10/
• then do the full install, as documented at microsoft dot com.
• end story but not all pit falls,
• Pit fall 1 is HDD is bad, fails Crystaldiskinfo , app.
• or fails Linux demo boot, run disktests and fails.
• on dead pc, I run this.
• http://www.pcdied.com/linux.html#smart
• if the C6 (198.) is not ZERO, the HDD IS NO GOOD AT ALL.
• All drives (most) end up like this, runs but has no spare sectors left and can no longer self heal itself, and is a bad HDD.
• Better is to upgrade to SSD, for sure , you will never go back to HDD ever again I promise.!!!

Use your system restore disks to repair your computer since the OS is FUBAR Without those disks you are SOL. And if you never made them or lost them, now you have learned first hand why it is so important to have them. Go to the dell site and see if they have your original OS in an iso file for installation. If so that will save your sorry b---.

It's a pretty common issue with the 270 & 280. More times than not it is blown capacitors at the root of the problem. Replacing the caps is simple if you know how to solder very well & makes for an easy fix. Also, make sure you're pushing enough power through your supply.

Do the fans run? If not the power supply is most likely bad. Hopefully it didn't trash the motherboard, memory and any installed cards. If you can't hear the hard drives spinning up, then it has to be the power supply

Paulji786, Below are the specs you requested on these 2 systems. Optiplex GX280 Memory Type 400 & 533 MHz DDR2 SDRAM 400 & 533 MHzMemory connectors small form-factor computer: 2small desktop computer: 4desktop computer: 4small mini-tower computer: 4mini-tower computer: 4 Memory capacities 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1 GB non-ECC Minimum memory dual-channel: 256 MBsingle-channel: 128 MB Maximum memory small form-factor computer: 2 GBsmall desktop computer: 4 GBdesktop computer: 4 GBsmall mini-tower computer: 4 GBmini-tower computer: 4 GB BIOS address F0000h Dimension 5000 Type 400- and 533-MHz DDR2 unbuffered SDRAM Memory connectors four Memory capacities 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1 GB non-ECC Minimum memory 256 MB Maximum memory 4 GB System clock 800-MHz data rate Memory speed Thank You, Dell-Jesse L Dell Social Media and Communities

Paul, Hi....The Dimension 5000 is definitely an older machine, but depending on what you plan to use it for and assuming everything still works ok, the PC can still be useful. You can still get parts for the machine, especially if you go to Ebay. www.ebay.com For everyday computing like word processing or spreadsheets, it should still work ok, but will be slower than a newer machine.

Hi Asfand, My name is Pradeep and I work for Dell's Social Media Team. Please let us know the issue details we can check what best can be done to address your concern. Pradeep Lokesh Social Media and Community Professional Order Status: http://del.ly/61822hij Download Drivers: http://del.ly/61832hid

MOORE INFORMATION.

THIS IS NORMAL. AMBER LIGHT IS SHOWING ACTIVITY ON THE HARD DRIVE

Make sure your bios is set to boot from cd and use a bootable installation cd.

Its telling you that a cable is loose Other failure has occurred. • Ensure that the cables are properly connected to the system board from the hard drive, CD drive, and DVD drive. • Check the computer message that appears on your monitor screen. click here and go to page 5 http://cms.springbranchisd.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=CpNj5Xk679I%3D&tabid=4319&mid=9311 here is the manual to this computer so you can look inside and see the cables http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_optiplex_desktop/optiplex-gx280_user%27s%20guide_en-us.pdf hope that helps

Windows XP has EOL April 2014 suggest another version!

Either your hard disk drive or the controller on the motherboard is bad or your OS (operating system software,i.e. Windows 7) is corrupted and needs to be re-installed.

if you open the case there are things called capacitors little cylinders on the mainboard with x shape or k shape on the top sometimes they will blow if the tops are not flat they will need replacing. Very common problem with the gx models

Go to Dell. http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19

Need to Change the Motherboard, it's blown out

The only thing I can think of is that you might have some muck under the keyboard. See if you can get someone to clean out the inside of your keyboard. Hope this helps.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/nonworkingcomponent/ht/beepcodestb.htm HELP TO TROUBLESHOT

Restart it or get off of gamesites or things like, Minecraft, Call of Duty, Terraria, and others like those. If a game takes a little to load and after a while you can hear the fan getting louder you can do something else until the fan starts to slow down a bit.

the drivers are here http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/optiplex-gx280