Problem with a Dell OptiPlex.

Working on this mutha for a friend.
Will not boot up.
Says hit F1 to continue or F2 for Setup.
Neither key gets any reaction.
After several minutes it goes to another page that says "Previous fan failure" and "System battery is low"
Friend knows nothing about any fan failure, and replacing the CMOS battery with a known good one does no good.
Will not let me go to Safe Mode, Setup, nothing.
Machine is a Dell OptiPlex 520GX running Windows XP.
And there is a yellow LED light burning at the bottom of the motherboard.

 

You could try reflashing your BIOS. Dell uses Pheonix for the most part I think, so this might help out:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5218098_recover-phoenix-bios.html

Failing that, you could try removing non-essential peripherals, and maybe give the 'ol RAM dance a try. Probably not likely it'll solve the problem, but worth a shot anyway. May be a shot mobo though....

 

BIOS is another place that is not accessible.
Already tried the RAM trick.
Suspecting motherboard or CPU due to the yellow light.
Knew it was going to be Hell when I saw Dell.

 

Previous fan failure means the case fan isn't spinning. I had to fix a Dell on Sunday with that error. Open up the case and check that the wire isn't binding and the fan is plugged into the motherboard.

The F1 and F2 keys could be unresponsive if there is a problem with the keyboard; try another keyboard just to rule that out.

Are there 4 lights on the back of the case labeled A, B, C, and D? If so, you can troubleshoot a bit more by looking at what the lights are showing.

 

to plodr.
1: Fan is plugged in and wire isn't binding.
2: Uses USB keyboard and mouse, both supplied by friend. Mine uses different connections.Translates to can't try another.
3: Is no lights on the back to go by.

 

1. Can you tell if the fan is spinning? It sounds like it needs replacing.
2. I hate only USB connections for keyboard and mouse; if something goes wrong, you can't get into the BIOS to change anything as you've discovered. I don't have a solution for that problem but I'll look to see what people have done in that situation.
I was able to look in the log and get a clue as to what was going on as well as looking at the diagnostic lights on the back.

 

Fan is running, but no diagnostic lights on this so-and-so machine.

 

One solution for USB keyboard: update the BIOS. That is too drastic, IMHO.
Another solution:

If the computer doesn't have an internal card reader, that won't help. If it does, it is worth a shot.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the settings in the BIOS were reset and without being able to get in to see and possibly change things, you are screwed!

 

Possibly a failure of the PS fan? Maybe just enough power to spin the fans.

http://www.thecapking.com/gx520sff.html

 

Doesn't matter now.
My friend picked it up and are going to trash it and buy a new machine.
Tried to get it from them, but no go.
The PSU fan was operating, by the way. Thanks to tgell for the link,though.
And thanks to all responders.