Dimension 4400 BIOS POST Code D4

Question

I have a Dimension 4400 that appears to start (power button is solid green), but the screen remains blank and the diagnostic LEDs on the back show GGGY (Other Failure). I stripped the system to mobo, CPU and power supply only. The diagnostic LEDs are YYGG (memory failed), the beep code is three beeps (memory failure in first 64K), and back probing the power connector shows all voltages are within a few % of normal (including Power_OK line at +5.09v). Reinstalled one bank of memory and tried a good video card (both AGP and PCI) with different monitor and the initial status returns (GGGY). Also tried a good power supply with no change.

The problem originated after a power blackout, so I'm thinking an electrical spike when power returned damaged something.

I dropped in an Ultra-X P.H.D. PCI2 diagnostic card (works like a POST card but also has firmware that allows component testing without BIOS, memory or video). Checking onboard BIOS POST codes the system freezes at D4. Bypassing onboard BIOS all subsystems and components cycle through the test regime fine. This would lead me to believe the BIOS is the problem.

I tried resetting the NVRAM, but no change. I can't get to the BIOS setup screen to reset the defaults. Does anyone know what the Dimension POST codes are, and how to reflash (or at least reset) the BIOS?

RoHe · Answer

4400 error codes are here but it seems that you already know what they mean:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4400/codes.htm#1101572

Did you try booting with only one RAM module installed in the first slot? And if that fails switch that module with the other one.

Did you reset NVRAM by removing the battery from the motherboard?

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 07-07-200610:27 PM

Majestic · Answer

Nelson_9, if by chance the D4 is actually a 04 then the error code would mean..... 8254 programmable interrupt controller failed

Nelson_9 · Answer

Ron - thanks for the idea on the memory. I only had one stick of memory, and I tried it in both banks. Same issue regardless of location. I made the bad assumption that since the diagnostic LEDs correctly indicated missing memory when the DIMM was removed, and didn't generate a memory related message when it was installed, the memory was good. Just to make sure I covered everything, I went out a bought a new stick of memory, popped it in, and everything worked fine. My bad for not methodically checking everything individually and just relying on the system diagnostic messages.

BTW, I reset the NVRAM by removing the battery and letting the system sit overnight (12 hours). I think that did actually reset the entire BIOS as when I was able to get into the setup program the system date had reset to default. Unfortunately, the BIOS wasn't the problem at all.

Majestic - I was starting down the same path towards a mobo chip failure, and for some reason thought Dell used the Phoenix BIOS (it's actually a modified AMI BIOS) and D4 for Phoenix is a Pending Interrupt Failure. It was definitely a hex 'D' as the PCI2 display is a seven segment LED, so it actually was in lowercase and read 'd4'. I still have no idea what d4 is, but I'm guessing it's a memory related error code.

Thanks both for responding with useful suggestions and making me think things through logically.

Message Edited by Nelson_9 on 07-10-200602:21 PM

RoHe · Answer

Nelson_9
You're welcome. Do we conclude from your last post that the system is fully up and running again?

Yes, removing the battery resets NVRAM to default values and the date/time have to be set again.

Ron

Nelson_9 · Answer

Ron,

Yes - the system appears to be fully functional. I'm running a 72 hour full diagnostic burn-in to exercise all of the memory and subsystems and make sure there's nothing else that might be damaged. So far everything seems to be functioning normally.

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Dimension 4400 BIOS POST Code D4

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