Amber Light of Death (ALOD) Troubleshooting on Dell Computers

Dealing with customer computer troubleshooting for significant period of time, somehow, I was lucky not to get the “Amber Light of Death” before. But, obviously, this problem is quite frequently discussed in the online computer-related forums and message boards, thus is quite common.

Problem Description

The computer power is pushed, and the power light is continuously blinking, you see power monitoring leds are ON, and fans are working. But computer does not proceed to the OS boot, and even does not go to the BIOS. The computer monitor is essentially blank.

Problem Source

Based on the Dell users manual description the following problem points out on the power distribution failure inside the computer, while the computer does receive the electrical power from the power outlet.

Troubleshooting

Unfortunately, the problem has multiple explanations, and there are many things that can go wrong in its relation. Therefore, I will propose the following troubleshooting plan, starting from easy-to-do items and continuing to more complicated. Following every step, verify the computer performance. This way, you will know exactly, what the problem source is.

1. Check the power selection switch at your computer and ensure that the voltage selection is set properly to match the AC power at your location. Switch it back and force to ensure that it is indeed at the right position.

2. If you use UPS, reset it.

3. Try different power outlet to ensure that the problem is coming not from your external power supply.

4. Perform the computer “cold reboot” - shut it down, wait 5 minutes, and turn it again.

5. Shut down your PC, open the case, and verify all the cables are connected properly. Ensure that the processor power cable is securely connected to the system board.

6. Examine all your USB ports (front & back) for pins that are bent or pushed in and fix any that are bent. This appears to be the most frequent reason of the problem appearance.

7. Reset 3V battery on the Motherboard.

8. Replace 3V batter on the Motherboard.

9. Remove one-by-one all the nonessential hardware elements in the computer by disconnecting them from the motherboard, like non-essential boards, Floppy, DVD, network cards, etc.

10. Blow carefully with air blower inside the computer case. That will ensure that no pieces of metal or debris could cause the short circuit.

11. Swap the power supply in from another PC. Dell claims the power supply replacement is the #1 solution to this problem.

12. If there is no improvement, there is a good chance that the Motherboard should be replaced. Several users reported that the Motherboard was a core source for the problem appearance. But, in most cases, it means that it might be easier and cheaper to shop for a new computer.

How to Revive Computer Failing to Boot Up?

Troubleshooting of the dysfunctional computer is not an easy task in general. But when software or firmware problems do not allow booting the PC Operation System, the repair process becomes even more challenging. In some cases, the data on the Hard Drive is undamaged, but the corruption of the boot sector prevents from normal proceedings. Like, you have a door to your virtual flat, where everything is normal, but your key to unlock the door is damaged.

The common step in the computer troubleshooting in the case is using the OS disk, which was received with the computer, or any other boot up disk available on the market. One of the most popular legally-free boot disks is the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD). This software collection has just about everything needed to diagnose hard to find low level problems, and also some other tools that every PC technician should have available. Ultimate Boot CD includes memory checkers, CPU stress testers, system information tools, boot managers and tools for hard drives, partitions, password resets, and more. For a full list of capabilities you can check out the UBCD developers’ page.

As all other boot up CD’s, utility is offered as CD image in ISO format that is used for bootable disk preparation. However, it would be much easier to carry it around if it would convert the regular USB external drive into bootable disk with all goodies on it. The directions on how to make your USB drive bootable through UBCD, were developed by pendrivelinux:

1. Download the Ultimate Boot CD ISO file and place it into its own directory.
2. Download the UBCDfix.exe file and run it, extracting into the above folder.
3. From this folder click fixubcd.bat and follow the instructions.
4. Move the contents of the /dir/USBUBCD folder to your USB drive.
5. From your USB drive, run makeboot.bat to make it bootable.

Now you have a bootable USB drive. Any machine you wish to boot with this drive must be set to boot from USB, requiring alteration of the boot menu (F2 during initial loading screen).