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Repair information and support for the Dell Precision 5520. Released in January 2017.

My dell precision is not turning on and when I turn it on it rolls the

My dell precision is not turning on and when I turn it on it rolls the fan for few seconds and stop and later start blinking amber yellow 3 times and white 5 times what can cause it

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Hi @mayowaajibola

After consulting Dell's website (linked here), you can see that three amber five white indicates a "power tail failure".

On some further research google lists three main causes:

  1. faulty CMOS battery
  2. Faulty component on the board (ie shorted component)
  3. Bad trace on the motherboard

NOTE: All I am about to list below requires you to have the tools to enable the repair of the device (screwdriver, multimeter etc). If you do not have any of those take it to a repair shop instead and get them to diagnose it.

First thing to perhaps do is to remove your CMOS battery if you're able to access the inside of the device, then see if it will boot.

Failing this, it's time to get your multimeter out and check for any shorts to ground or dead capacitors on your board

If it all comes back good (ie no chips or capacitors or fuses are blown) your board may be dead and it's time to hop on ebay and purchase a new motherboard (not computer, difference). The motherboard will come without RAM, storage or a chassis so you just swap in the motherboard you purchase.

I would like to know: what were you doing right before this started blinking. Was the computer left overnight on a charger (or off a charger)? Did it turn off while you were using it?

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