Your new ram frequency doesnt match with the older ones.. you should purchase the same frequency else you will not be able to use it

Had the Amber light problem with a refusal to boot up .. Called a knowledgeable friend and was asked to unplug all of my USB components just leaving the keyboard plugged in.
My Dell booted up in it's usual manner .. I shut down and plugged in the printer and it booted up OK .. preformed this procedure until I tried starting with my USB Hub, this is when I got the Amber light and a refusal to boot .. if you are having this problem, this procedure maybe helpful, it's an easy, fast, and cheap trick if it works .. gl Don R

I encountered the infamous “orange flashing light” on my Dell two days ago.

Tried the following with no success: Unplugging computer from the wall outlet (and waiting for a few hours), switching to another outlet, resetting power strip etc. The machine refused to reboot or even start.. no fan, no sound.. nothing.. just a blank screen.

Then I Googled and came across a blog with probable causes/solutions mostly pointing a "electric shorting" kind of causes.

The problem was (believe it or not) bent pins inside one of the USB ports in the front panel of the machine. I think the pins were bent when “someone” carelessly tried to insert an ipod jack into the port. The plastic pices that protects the pins was also missing.

I straightened the pins out with a small screwdriver and voila.. the machine was alive once again. No more blinking lights!! Of course I taped off that port so that no one will try to use it again.

Thank You .. to whoever discovered this solution first. I wish the DELL site also provided the tip to check the USB ports!! (I do understand that there are other problems that may cause the orange blinking lights.. but atleast we could get the simple possibilities checked out first).

So before you open up the computer and mess with unplugging the hard drive and other components, do take a moment to unplug ALL usb devices and check the ports to see if any of them have bent pins (use a flashlight!!).. the pins ususally get damaged when someone uses force to insert a usb plug the wrong way!!

Hey guys,

Thanks for the answers.

I have a similar problem, with the blinking orange power light, and no boot. My USB ports turned out to be fine.

I unplugged all drives except my boot drive, and there was still no booting. I tried to unplug my boot drive and leave one of my backup drives plugged in. The PC booted (but no OS).

Here is where it gets interesting: I plugged my boot drive back in, and it booted fine, as if nothing happened. I am sure i havnt seen the last of this yet.

If this persists, I am going to try and install windows on one of the other drives.