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Dell XPS 8500 orange flashing power button, 4 short beeps
Have just come back from holiday and powered on my XPS 8500 PC and instead of powering up, I heard 4 beeps in a row and a flashing orange power light. I have searched for the same issue and found a few similar for this model but they were dated back in 2012 and nothing more recent. The machine is significantly out of warranty having been purchased in 2012 and would appreciate any advice as to how I can boot this machine up. HAve never built or opened up a PC before so if that is needed, please can you give some simple guidance,
Many thanks for any help!
M73
DELL-Jesse L
Moderator
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August 24th, 2017 09:00
mobile73,
The 4 short beeps refer to RAM Read/Write failure Memory failure Reseat the memory or replace it.
Dell xps 8500 Online Manual
RoHe
10 Elder
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August 24th, 2017 11:00
Assuming the PC worked ok before the holiday, and it was off while you were gone, it's possible the motherboard battery died.
So you may also want to remove the old battery, then reseat the RAM as Jesse suggested, and lastly install a fresh battery. CR2032 3-volt lithium ion battery.
Be good idea to blow out all the dust bunnies with canned air while your in there.
mobile73
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August 24th, 2017 13:00
Hi, yes the PC worked perfectly before going away so not been used for about2 weeks. Is that just s standard R2032 coin type battery? If so think have some of those in the house. Will try this over the weekend and let you know how I get on. Thanks for the advice and lets hope it is as simple as you suggest as reallt don't want to have to buy a new PC.
RoHe
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August 24th, 2017 15:00
Is there such a thing as an R2032 battery? They're usually CR2032, 3-volt coin cell batteries.
Reseat the RAM, and probably the add-in video card too, after removing the old battery, before you install the fresh battery. Instructions to do both are in the manual that Jesse linked for you.
Hope that's the fix!
speedstep
8 Wizard
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August 24th, 2017 15:00
Flashing AMBER Power button = Bad Power supply. You must address this first.
mobile73
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August 28th, 2017 11:00
Just reseated the momeory and PC boots up. Had an issue where I couldn't access my MS profile but Youtube helped with that one! Seems to be all ok now though for some reason my antivirus has completely disappeared so need to reinstall. Machine also seems slow.
Is there anything I need to do after reseating the memory? Thanks a lot for the advice.
RoHe
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August 28th, 2017 12:00
Is all the installed RAM recognized in BIOS setup and by Windows?
Reboot and immediately press F12. Look for option to run Diagnostics and run RAM and extended hard drive tests.
Scanned thoroughly for malware recently?