New XPS 8700 WIN 8 won't start up when button pushed

I meant to say "with the printer turned off" above.

Update: so I tried it again without the printer turned on and it powered on and booted up just fine. I guess that was the issue after all, but if anyone knows why, please share. I am still having an issue, though, but will post that separately.

REPLY!!!

SOLVED

We have the same exact setup, Dell XPS 8700 and an old Dot Matrix Printer that we use in conjuction with VMWare->Win98(DOS). Our printer is a Panasonic KX series. We use a USB-to-parallel adapter to connect it to the computer. It works really well. We didn't know that if you power down the computer it will not turn on. That took us a little by surprise. After I found your post, I disconnected all the peripherals and the computer started right up. We narrowed it down by then plugging in all the components and shutting down the system again. Same situation, dim orange light and no power with the button. The button in back worked and supplied power/fans for the power supply. There was an orange light on inside the computer this whole time. Then we turned the printer off while everything was plugged in. Low and behold, 5 seconds later, the computer turned itself on.

The printer works fine if it is turned on after the computer is started up. And we can recreate the issue if the printer is on after the computer is shut down.

I am going to try to mess with the bi-directional settings in the bios and see if that has any effect on the situation. I will report back here with anything I find.

Thank you for your post, and hopefully that is the answer you were waiting to hear.

Take care, happy holidays, and good luck.

V/r,

Kennyroody 

Hi,

Just following up on your last email... I have the same issue after I plugged in my old (but still working great) HP LaserJet 4L, via a parallel-to-USB cable (which worked fine on my XP Compaq for years)... when I shutdown, I couldn't power up my new Dell 8700 (Win 8.1), with the orange light only (etc)... I pulled out the USB connection to the 4L and the Dell 8700 powers up fine.  

This is weird, right?  Why would it do this?  It would be a big pain to have to continually plug in my USB connection for that printer when I want to use it; especially since I also share it to the my wife's laptop (and the my college son and daughter's laptops) -- it's on the only "laser" in the house.

Any further thoughts on this issue?

Thanks,

Scott

What fixed it for me was to use the driver that came with Windows 8. Also, make sure you are plugging into the USB 2.0 instead of the USB 3.0 (the newer, faster ports). They don't always work with older equipment.

Run BIOS Setup (reboot and press F2). Look for the USB Boot Support option and disable it. And then makes sure your boot drive is first in the Boot Sequence. Save the changes and exit Setup.

See if that solves the problem.

Thank you!  I will try the BIOS change this morning and report back.

Scott

Thank you for the quick response!  Right after I got your note, I did change it from a USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 port ... ran several tests, but it didn't seem to help.  Each time, I would press the power on button which did not work, then I would pull the USB cable off the Dell 8700, there would be a pause, then the system would start up. 

I see another response with a BIOS change and will try it as well.

Thank you!

I thought all USB ports on the 8700 were USB3, and there are no USB2...

I believe there are at least two that I can quickly see on my 8700 that are USB2... believe both are top of the box with one being "active" for charging when the system is off...  I have allot more "blue" (USB3, right?) ports.

I had a similar problem with my new Dell XPS 8700 running Win7.  When I shut the computer down (click: Start, Shut down), the computer would shut down normally, and then about 15-30 seconds after shutdown, the power button would glow steady amber.  I started trouble shooting the problem, disconnecting various peripherals, and discovered the cause was a powered USB hub that I had attached.  Apparently the powered hub was interfering in some way with the normal shutdown or startup. Without the powered hub attached to the USB port, the computer shut down and started normally.  With the powered hub attached, it would not start after it had been shutdown for more than around 15 seconds.  If I disconnected the power to the hub, it worked normally.  Apparently the powered hub was causing the startup problem.  Check to ensure you do not have any power feedback through attached USB peripherals.

As this problem seems to be widespread and, depending on your particular configuration, can be caused by any of a number of different peripheral interfaces feeding back power to the PC, I thought I would share my particular instantiation and solution of it in the hope it might help someone. I have just purchased three XPS 8700s (with Windows 8.1 Pro and AMD Radeon R9 270 video cards) and three Dell U3014 monitors. I connect to the monitors using DisplayPort, DVI and HDMI ports from each of the PCs. And all of the PCs experienced the same "amber power light on and no start up problem" after the first successful power up and display.

To cut a long story short, the problem was caused be the DisplayPort cables: the amber light went off, and I was able to start up as long as I disconnected the DP cable prior to starting up. The cable can be plugged back in after start-up, but needs to be disconnected again after shutdown. This is a little known, but increasingly experienced problem with many systems (not just Dell XPS) that use DisplayPort, and it is caused by DP cables that connect Pin 20 (DP_PWR) between source and sink plugs, contrary to the VESA standard. This pin provides power back from the sink, and is not meant to be connected on cables with normal connectors. It would seem that this connection is being made even in some cables that have passed VESA certification, and not just in cheap (like mine) cables. (I should note that the Dell DP cable that was supplied with my previous Dell 3008WFP monitor correctly doesn't connect Pin 20, and doesn't cause the problem) See the links below that helped me diagnose my problem.

Solving the problem without buying new cables - and checking whether they implemented the standard correctly before buying them - was simple. I used a 0.8mm screwdriver to press down on Pin 20 in one plug of the cable so that it straightened and sank to the bottom of the plastic groove and didn't spring back up to touch the corresponding pin in the connector when plugged in. Thus no power is transmitted back from the monitor, and there is no power-up problem.

Here are some links to those who actually discovered and documented this DisplayPort cable problem:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost.php?p=1337147463&postcount=82

http://www.rage3d.com/articles/amd_eyefinity_displayport_difficulties/

http://sepczuk.com/techblog/2013/07/displayport-sleep-resume-problem-resolved/ (I think my solution is much simpler than Damian's :emotion-1: )

Hope this helps someone.

@ajarkey

Excellent info which should certainly help others! 

Thanks for posting your findings :emotion-21: