I Paid $80 for ANOTHER Broken Dell Precision 3420 - Let's Fix It!
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- Опубліковано 14 вер 2023
- Hello there and welcome to my video. In today's video, I'll be trying to fix this Dell Precision Tower 3420 that I bought off of eBay where it was listed as "For parts or not working". I'll attempt to recreate the problem that the seller described in the item's description, and then I'll do what I think is necessary to diagnose and fix the cause of the problem.
Music, in order:
Beyond - Patrick Patrikios
Six Seasons - Unicorn Heads
Sunny Days - Anno Domini Beats
Papov - Yung Logos
There's a good chance that this system will show up in some more tests before I sell it off, so if you happen to be on the bandwagon that 7 hours of testing isn't quite enough, it'll probably be tested for several hours more before a sale is closed!
Testing? Did somebody say Testing? I love Testing! I am also very Testy. And Gamey!
Where do you sell your stuff?
I tried ebay, but wasn't happy.
@@mrkemblegilstrap I like to keep all of my sales private between me and personal acquaintances, but thanks for your interest! I may be moving some sales to eBay at some point here in the not-too-distant future, but we'll have to see.
I'm curious, why not install a larger M.2 and leave it the mechanical hard drive?
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials I'm not asking Who you are selling to, ya maniac. I was wanting to know what company that you listed sales on. You know, like ebay, Market place, or bathroom wall.
I'm still looking for a 3DMARK download without the 3rd party add ons.
You’re misunderstanding, because they are private sales between me and people I meet or know most of the time, that means they aren’t listed anywhere. On the occasion that I do list them, I stick to local market places but I don’t disclose details on them for security reasons.
Despite it's unfamiliarity design for some repairman, but that Modular design is what I actually love. Reduced the effort using tools 😅
The most satisfying repair that's ever existed.
Don't sell yourself short. If it was overlooked by someone else then it's really not considered an easy fix. Great video
I'm a fan boy of the Dell SFF Tower 3420, I MAX out the memory, 64 GB, and use a NVME for the boot drive Linux Mint Cinnamon and win 10 on a HDD. I'm NOT a gamer so I use the on board video and is fine for my internet surfing. The SFF 3420 is economical; small size case and have "okay" driver support from dell. Having said that. I have offered to build similar units for family/friends and every one told they were not interested in PC's anymore as they only use their cell phones with the Unlimited Data Plan. So, I don't bother restoring computers anymore as there doesn't seem to be any interest in them. Maybe that's why there seems to be an abundance of decent machines being discarded.
I got a dell optiplex 5060 for free at an e waste center! It had an i5-8500 and 8 GB 2666 MHz DDR4. No SSD but i threw in a sata ssd i had laying around.
I also took home a ryzen 7 3700x desktop pc with 8 gb ddr4 3200 mhz and 512 gb nvme from a recycling center. I threw in my 1050 ti since its the best gpu i have. I plan on doing future upgrades
Crazy to see what people throw away at these recycling centers
Whaaaaat?!? Dude those are some crazy finds! Nice one dude, hope you're enjoying em!
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials yep, they both run smooth on windows 11!
Yes. People throw away anything that has the least little bit wrong with it. Sometimes it's just dirty. Very wasteful practice.
There doesn't seem to be any computer recycling centers in my area
I have access to a lot of trashed systems too (I work for a company that provides IT services and hardware to other businesses) and it's crazy what people will throw out. Most of the stuff that's too old to properly run Windows 11 (as in, without workarounds) gets overlooked; maybe scavenged for spare RAM or whatever, but anything new enough for Windows 11 gets "taken" very quickly when it comes in.
This video helped explain the power cycles my 9020 had. I had already replaced the battery because the date and time would reset, but never knew the power cycles were because of the CMOS battery
I've had some insane deals off eBay, simply because the seller doesn't know how do fix a simple issue or because they just don't understand the value of something. Thousands of pounds/dollars worth of hardware had for just a few hundred.
like the $25 ThinkPad T430 I picked up at the local flea market. It only needed a new CMOS battery.
At least it boots with a dead CMOS battery. I've worked on Dell machines that will act completely dead if the battery is dead, and the first time I encountered it, I was going crazy trying to figure out what the problem was until I googled the solution.
The ram the seller pulled before sale may have been bad, causing the cmos boot cycle due to memory config changes. Alway check that cmos battery. 👍
Very good video. Your troubleshooting steps are spot on and I am glad that it is running smoothly and is stable. I’m enjoying the content and I’m looking forward to your future uploads.
Appreciate your kind words, thank you!
You’re welcome and I hope you’re feeling better soon.
“I really do am are be the smart”
Got me cracking up over here my guy.
Like the 240W Platinum power supply in that thing.
GREAT VIDEO mister man.
Weird how this new system has already a dead battery. I have a fat PS2 from the early 2000s which still has its original battery working :D
Yeah, oddly enough, it seems to always be the Mitsubishi ones that die.
I’ve worked in some of these dell models and they seem to suck the cmos battery dry faster than most other pcs
I just picked up a "refurbished" Optiplex 7010 SFF machine from Amazon for $140, and it came with 16GB of RAM, a Core i7 - 3770 @3.40 ghz, and a cheapy 1TB SSD with Win 10 Pro pre-installed. The only issue I had with it was the Display Port connectors wouldn't work out of the box, so I was forced to use the VGA output until Win 10 finally installed the drivers for the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics. Surprisingly, the graphics driver package from Dell didn't even work, but letting Windows update do it's own install, actually DID work.. go figure.🙄 Anyway, it turned out to be a solid little machine, and I installed a second SSD and set it up to dual-boot Win 10 Pro and Linux-Mint 21.2 Victoria. With a 4TB USB 3.0 external drive for storage, it makes a very fast, relatively low power PLEX Media Server, and general purpose everyday machine. It's been up for 6 days solid now, and not one glitch since the graphics driver thing.😉
Awesome! I love using those older computers as servers as they're incredibly well suited for the job.
Nice job on the repair.
Awesome video. Great to see it was a simple fix. If it was a power supply they sometimes can be a nightmare to find. Being a weird shape of power supply and a funky power connector.
Yeah, these non-standard PSUs can be difficult to find at times. I did a bit of research going into this one and was able to find the replacement units for these computers for around 20 dollars each which was really convenient. So, I was ready to have to buy one of those and eat the cost but thankfully that wasn't needed!
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials Nice.
$80? Nice pick up. This is a PRIME candidate for a nice single slot Quadro, WX4100... RX550... or MAYBE even an Aliexpress Yeston GTX 1650 single slot. They are a BIT expensive around $180... but that beats the heck out of bottlenecking an RX6400. That being said, a single slot GT1030 or RX550 would be fine.
I normally run Dell Command update for hardware updates and Windows Update for OS updates. If I didn’t want to run windows I would load Linux Mint. It’s excellent and will breathe life into my older systems.
Fun troubleshooting video!
cool little video! iv been out of hardware and computer repairs for years i would of never worked that out XD
6:00 Oh my 2016 Dell pc uses the same type of CMOS battery socket. It was a PITA to work with, but they actually showed in the service manual how to pop the battery out: just use a small, pointy insulation object, which is actually not so easy to find, to pry it off. Also, Dell cheapens out with the PCIe slot whose clips at the end are fairly easy to break.
got a subscriber well done script well treated voice, very professional editing just needs to improve on these thumbnails to make it look like a professional video, keep it up one day you'll get there
Thanks man! Funny story, the thumbnails are done in MS Paint lol. Definitely need to up my game there some point soon.
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials I'm going to give you one more tip, find a name for the channel, it's easy but remember it well, because the current name today is very generic if a person searches for it, your channel goes to the bottom of the search since the name is common, like the big channels are. small names are already well remembered (linus tech tips, techno tim,
Haven Hardware, Jeff Geerling
etc) just a few examples
That ssd brand is the one i brought most, it's the cheapest one too!
Maybe the previous owner had a graphics card that was putting a stress on the psu or board causing it to go in protection mode. These sff Dells actually have a wattage limit of 40-50w gpu power limit for the pcie slot so even if the card fits in it doesn't actually mean it's fully compatible. Could have been the cmos too - i had a 7010 that suddenly died and refused to power on again sitting on the orange light and a new cmos battery was all it wanted to come back to life
Yeah that is a big possibility. The PSU in these machines are not good for anything over the stock parts.
@@jsnotlout3312 It actually hold up well. The one with the power limit over the gpu is actually the board not the psu. I was playing around with a SFF 9020 which has the same psu as this. Added an i7 4790 with 16gb ram,a 512gb ssd and a 1tb hard drive using an adapter because it only had power for one drive,and an Nvidia Quadro K620 and the psu has no issue running those components
@@laur6405 Oh, that makes sense, Ashame Dell Limits he boards
@@jsnotlout3312 They are probably trying to avoid users blowing up the PSU. As an example the SFF version supports non-K processors only but the regular desktop version can take K processors easily and their boards have no GPU power restriction.
No one's getting rich flipping these, considering a fully refurbed unit lists for around $270 on Amazon at the moment. Considering the time you invested & the parts you ended up buying.....well....you can do the math :) Anyway, as an ex tech groupie, I enjoyed the experience & I'll sub to go along for the ride!
I go through my routine everytime i get my hands on "old" PCs like this:
Clean everything including the power supply with compressed air
Check the CMOS battery or just replace it
Reset the Bios
Flash the Bios to the newest version (also ensure every "Bit" in the bios is ok)
Repaste everything
I also add vrm heatsinks with thermal glue whenever it´s possible to ensure stability and longevity
Replace Fans with good ones (like Noctua or Be Quiet)
This method works most of the time to bring PCs like that back into service
I saw you struggle to get dell to see the os on removable hdd I've had this same issue these newer dells will not boot from a hdd out of another machine I've learned this l.
I've tried this very thing I replaced a PC tried to move over a hdd it wouldn't boot i had to reinstall windows on that hdd for the computer to see it. The windows os had to be installed on the hdd with that computer.
It's crazy I'll keep watching the video. If you found away around this, it would be much appreciated.
ive had a very similar issue with a dell 7010 i used to have it would automatically bootloop as soon as it was plugged into the power and it would not save bios settings or time or date and it was as simple as just swapping the cmos battery lol
I have experience with computers that are a decade old, and their batteries are still functioning well. Conversely, I've encountered systems that are only two years old, yet their batteries are completely depleted. Maxwell batteries appear to be the ones that maintain their charge for the longest duration.
Interesting, I haven't been able to observe too well what brands do best, but every single time that I've had a system with a dead CMOS battery, it's been a Mitsubishi one which I find interesting.
Has similar problem in my AMD FX, faulty was PSU. It was branded unit but die after aprox 10 years.
On the same generation of dell's I encountered the issue of random shutdowns. The problem? The power button was faulty.
Yep, if it had been doing the random shutdowns in the way that I thought it would, I absolutely would have been checking that!
Chuck in an AeroCool frost rgb 8cm fan to replace the intake fan for a touch of rgb
Yeah it works fine. Classic dead cmos battery issue. The seller probably knew that. Selling items 'for parts' is a simple trick that sellers do so that there is no possibility of a return or claim.
Random shutting down or going to sleep mode without the button been pressed it can be the fault in the power switch as I learnt the hard way after replacing everything else except the power button was the culprit
Yep, power switch can definitely be the culprit with that kind of behavior!
Anytime i get my hands on an older system, I replace the cmos battery.
Sometimes the original owners of these systems remove things like the drive caddy and never replace it, and you get one with missing parts
All my Dells do a Power applied fan test, then goes off. BTW Some HP servers do this. Pretty startling when 4 PSU all max fan in your face.
Yep, all my dells do that fan test as well. I can only imagine what a full server would sound like doing that though, I've got a few server fans, but not a full server yet. (future vid maybe? ;))
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials We have a number of Dell servers at work and yes, they're *loud* when all the fans run at full speed as part of POST. We've had a few people try to keep a server under their office desk, but the fan noise when under moderate load has usually led to them asking us to make space in one of our machine rooms for the server.
8:30 you can print an adapter for this problem there are open to find on 3d print webseites
These newer SFF precisions are picky with certain things
I have a Precision with a Core i9 9900, 64 GB Corsair LPX RAM, WD Black 1 TB Nvme (4.0 capable) SSD, 2 x WD Blue SATA 6.0 GBps SSDs, DVD RW, Nvidia RTX A2000 switching to Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 to max out the system. It’s an amazing system in a small footprint
The 4060, I know people will point out that it has to go in an x4 slot,
Here’s the rundown anyways
The SSD takes up X4
The WiFi takes up x2
The x16 slot is obstructed yes, but the 4060 only runs at X8 anyway.
You could get an extension cable like I am and set the gpu in the pc fans up with a protective back to reduce any contact shorts
The Core I9 only has 16 pcie 3.0 lanes anyways
Sounds like you've got a really solid SFF system there!
That scares me a little bit when Windows does a BIOS update. What if your version was working fine and now you have a rare but buggy version? Windows should ask you before it does that really. I can imagine one day Microsoft having their version of each BIOS that prevents running a different OS. Maybe they wouldn't do that. I don't know but also with the risks you mentioned about power turning off or someone who does not understand why the power *must* remain on until it completes or their computer may be damaged (bricked really). Or worse, what if the new BIOS has something that was compromised by a data breach? That is super scary considering that those breaches happen frequently. Why they are unable to prevent all of them is a mystery to me but for personal reasons and security I prefer to flash my own BIOS and that is *ONLY IF I NEED IT* . I am old enough to remember flashing a BIOS from DOS and that was risky. One wrong parameter or if you don't get the one for the exact model and revision of the board it could either be unstable, maybe some parts not working, or the entire board just not working. Updating a BIOS is not something that is recommended to do just because you feel like it. It is really best to do it only when you need to and that may be to enable or add a feature or just to make your CPU work with it. One other valid reason is if a new version improves stability but still you have to think for a minute. Think about whether the risk of bricking it is worth the improvement. If you need that computer on a daily basis and need it to work no matter what and it is stable enough do you really need an update that may possibly be less stable? Or if you only get a small speed improvement is it worth it to you to risk being without a computer you use for work and other critical aspects of your daily life?? Just make sure to have a spare one that still works if you truly need it but also truly feel a need to mess with the BIOS because not a lot of people are able to undo a bad flash on their own.
Could be worse; could be an HP machine. HP have a long history of bricking machines with BIOS updates, even when they apparently run successfully. Just one of the many reasons I'd never buy an HP PC/laptop for myself. At least their printers seem to have come through the "build the cheapest bit of flimsy plastic crap we can" stage and they're mostly back to being decently robust.
Yep, I have to agree with you on all of those points!
Good stuff, make some content on good used laptops, i need one and don't know about good used options
Good used laptops are definitely on the list! Thinking about picking up an older Dell latitude or Lenovo Thinkpad and making some vids on those in the next month!
I just bought a fixer upper 3420 on Ebay. Where did you get the 8gb memory sticks for $10?
I found them used on eBay
Working "still" with many automation systems that have a scada based on windows XP and yes windows embedded. restoring defect computers is by using refurbished computers, new cooling fan, new PSU, new cooling paste and repalcing the HDD for a SSD. by Dell systems i see often the same bios respons, yeah solution plug in a new CR2032. Ps a win XPSp3 on a SSD is nice fast and slik....
nice vid
There are adapters for M.2 SSD.
Most likely happen after he upgraded his Ram that was too fast for the computer so it shut off randomly.
CD Rom replace as external CD Rom Drive box if can run PC...... I have few from old PC and with SATA, some work some need tool. RAM and CPU if still use maybe can place with other PC.
If you can melt the motherboard, you can take off some part and create the new PCB with can compatible part. DELL is so annoying with their own BIOS, try to replace but install the windows it said no operation system LOL, so I try to buy the second hand with Carousell Platform (Is Hong Kong trade platform), I choose lenovo H515s first time when I studying in JP... , now I have another lenovo second hand PC stuff for move to GTR PC Case.
Uses driver booster for simple hardware like sd card
My desktop has a 7700k and it's a great CPU for the money.
Awesome to hear!
10:37 that PCB is making me ill. I need to go home and lay on the couch with a blanket and a bucket nearby.
Yeah... you can definitely tell that the engineers at WD had just learned how to rotate a component in steps of less than 45 degrees LOL
what does that small 512 SSD drive do - Is the operating system on it ? mine came with a 1TB HDD also -
Yeah, the 512GB SSD is for the OS/programs. The HDD is intended for storage of bigger things, like video files and pictures.
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials I actually put in my 1TB SSD drive from my dead XPS dell and forced that to be OS drive - works great. so now that original drive will be my slave but not deleting the OS in that just in case
I got a working one for £30 on eBay back in February
Awesome find! Same specs as this one?
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials nope its the opdeplex 3040 sff with a i3 6100 and 8gb of ddr3 ram and a 1tb ssd i use it as a nas full of steam games connected to a laptop with a ethernet cable the ssd i added to it as soon as i got it
Which site are you going to that has I7 7700 for 85 bucks?
www.ebay.com/
i7 7700? Nice!
aaa 3420.....had endless troubles with that range
What would a system like this still for?
I've got a video testing this for productivity workloads here soon, so stay tuned for that! They're great machines for office work, media consumption, and with a low profile graphics card some gaming too.
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials what would a computer simular to this cost?
Ah I read the original comment assuming you meant to ask what it would still be good for, my bad! Generally, a computer like this (minus the 1TB HDD) would sell for about 170 USD on eBay.
Why go with a spinning drive when SSDs are relatively cheap and can double overall responsiveness? Perhaps it's just what they had on hand.
I agree, SSDs are so cheap now that there's no excuse to really go with solely a spinning hard drive. They're still decent to have as a secondary drive in the system though for archival/bulk storage which is what I did here with the 512GB SSD for OS and applications and the 1TB HDD for bulk storage of videos/photos/etc.
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials Yes. HDDs still have their place as secondary storage if you have one lying around, but if you're buying a drive that's say 2TB or less, go SSD every time as there is no longer much of a price gap between HDDs and SSDs until you hit 4TB and higher, at which point the gap is astronomical. And for the love of all that's holy, NEVER install Windows 10 or 11 on a HDD.
Couldn't agree with you more on all your points!
Don't install Win 10 on a HDD WHY, please explain?@@jeffb.6642
I'm not Jeff, but I'm pretty certain the reasoning would be how slow Windows 10 is when it's put on a hard drive. Loading times are abysmal.
easy fix cmos battery ha ha . if that didn't fix it my next suspect would have been the psu. genrally those psu are steller units just low watts .
They're super solid units with low watts for sure. If it had been randomly shutting down as I thought it was I would have definitely checked both the PSU and the power button first.
I may be being harsh, but anyone who unplugs or powers down a pc during a BIOS update deserves everything that happens. What is wrong with heeding stern warnings and following simple, straightforward instructions?
Definitely a fair take! And I agree that users should listen to the BIOS update warnings and if they don't, they should learn what happens. Although, the main issue that I take with it is it could happen at an inconvenient/unfair time, like a thunderstorm. I mean, if you're going into it thinking that it's just a regular Windows update but it goes and flashes your BIOS that's not really ideal. I personally prefer the way that one of my Lenovo systems handled a BIOS update: it bugged me about it every time I turned it on until I found a convenient and good time to get it done, it got the update, and it was able to be done at a convenient time, but that's just my two cents!
Dell and their proprietary garbage lol!. Only kidding. Good video.
Now put a 4080 in it on a sata power cable converter haha
I love fireworks!
The price for a 7700 is just not right these days lol
Agreed, way too much for what it is. Still, they manage to sell super good at that price which I find a bit odd.
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials the most overpriced CPUs are def 8-9 gen
wifi porn censor lol. u got my sub with that joke.
"relatively competent" system? Well, guess being a Dell is where the "relatively" comes in. And seeing the poorly designed CMOS battery holder, and the lack of a post for your NVMe card certainly puts some doubt into the "competent" part of that statement. "Stable" system? I don't think that exists in the Dell vocabulary.
Well, the "stable" and "relatively competent" were mainly referring to the specs and the fact that it hadn't turned off randomly yet, but I will agree that some Dell systems definitely can be temperamental... This one's from the era where Dell stopped making computers that just worked, bring back the 3-4th gen Intel Dell days!
Have you ever stumbled upon a bios locked computer.
Not yet, although I do plan on doing a video about them at some point in the future!
I have. I've bought BIOS locked Dell laptops as they're an easy fix.
@@FlyboyHelosim Yeah, I want to grab some BIOS locked PCs because usually they are a super easy fix. Haven't found great deals on some yet though.
Looking forward to your approach and solution to this.
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials Do this soon as it would be great to see the results.
Send me one bro 😏
Ah yes, exactly why WINDOWS is - after 30+ years - still a nightmare around hardware driver issues. I mean Windows 3.0 was released in May 1990 and still in 2023 this crap still happens. And exactly why - even as an MCSE at the time - I switched to Mac and only Mac in 2009 and have never looked back.
Windows 11?
This CPU just barely got cut off of official support for Win 11. There are ways to bypass that that seem quite robust, but for stability's sake I always put Windows 10 on these systems. Literally every Windows 11 system I've dealt with has all kinds of weird software issues, which is much less the case with 10, so I like to stick with that one.
@@CompHwTipsAndTutorials Ok :) I didn't encounter any issues. I assume, Windows 11 is merely an upgrade to Windows 10. That's why replacing the install.esd of a Windows 10 installation works so easy :)
wow yea the seller must not be into tech lol
15 mins of doing nothing besides changing the cmos battery, which was obvious. Not worth a video.
Maybe not worth a watch in your opinion, but definitely worth a video for me. Ad revenue go brrrrrrrr