XPS 400 Stopped Working, Please Help!

BrokenComputer5

Check the reading of the power button LED [page 20], is it solid green, blinking green, solid amber, blinking amber, or off?

Also, check the sequence of the four Diagnostic Lights [page 21] on the front panel?

 http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_xps_desktop/xps-400_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf    

Bev.     

BrokenComputer5

As none of the four diagnostic lights are lite and there are no 'Beeps', then it could be a motherboard issue.

If you are comfortable working around computers, you could try the following:

Note: The only 100% method of testing a PSU, is to install a known working power supply.
          
Unplug the cord from the power supply, hold the power button in for about 15/20 seconds, open the case, unplug the 24-pin power connector from the motherboard and jump the Green wire to one of the Black wires, reconnect the power cord and power the system on, if power supply, case fans and the hard drive run, then the PSU may be good.
      
Note: Do not remove any wires from the plug, use a small piece of wire or a paper clip as a jumper.
       
Power supply checks out and the system still does not work, again remove the power cord, hold the power button in for several seconds to discharge the residue power, reconnect the 24-pin connector to the motherboard.
         
Remove all the PCI cards, the video card [if applicable], memory, all peripherals, disconnect the data and power cables to all the drives, check that the front panel cable is connected to motherboard, with nothing else connected to the system, reconnect the power cable and power the system on.
      
If there is no difference in the diagnostic lights, 'Beep' codes and/or the LED indication of the power button, then it would appear that the motherboard has died and/or maybe the processor.
            
Note: The good news is, processors rarely fail, as the only method I know of checking a processor, is to install it a compatible working PC, or use a known working processor.

Bev.

The Power Button is solid amber.

None of the four Diagnostic Lights turn on. 

"Unplug the cord from the power supply, hold the power button in for about 15/20 seconds, open the case, unplug the 24-pin power connector from the motherboard and jump the Green wire to one of the Black wires, reconnect the power cord and power the system on, if power supply, case fans and the hard drive run, then the PSU may be good."

I am on this step.  I jumped the green and a black cable with a paper clip.  I do hear some sort of sound when I plug the power cord in but the power button does not turn on when I press it.  How do I tell what is running?

Solid Amber = Bad power supply and or BAD CPU.

If the cpu is removed and not properly reinstalled this happens.

Precision 380 and XPS 400 are one and the same machine and can be had on ebay for $99.

This kind of failure also happens when cheap $20 non dell power supply is used to replace the original 375W OEM power supply.

The cheap supply frys everything including the cpu.

I never removed the CPU and never replaced the power supply. 

Note:  I do not hear this sound when the cables are not jumped, but the 24 pin power connector is unplugged. 

Is this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-380-Intel-LGA775-System-Motherboard-G9322-/361014257266?pt=Motherboards&hash=item540e206672

fully compatible with the xps 400?

I am thinking of buying this new motherboard and a faster cpu for $20.  If I do, how likely is it this exact problem will happen again?  i.e. the cause of the problem lies potentially outside these two parts.

The boards are very similar but NOT the same if you look closely.

Electrically though they are the same. The connections on the bottom Right corner  and Output side of the board are in different positions on the same board.  The 380 has the parallel /Serial port/PS2 Mouse and Keyboard the XPS400 does not.

Its better to start with Known good parts aka a system for $99 than going with a board that may or may not work.  You can transfer your hard drive and it should boot and work.

DELL Dimension 9100 DXP051 XPS400 is MotherBoard X8582 CN-0X8582

 DELL G9322, CJ744, XH407, MM096 is the Precision 380

 The 380 basically is good for at least another 5 years.  It uses a full 8 gigs of ram, it has a 375W power supply and full size video slot.  The particular one that I have now has the Audigy2 sound card and the Firewire card for front panel firewire.  Clean install of 8.1 finds everything and then once online the sound card is found via windows update as is my Radeon HD5750 video card. 130W cpus require the Copper Heatpipe Heatsink.

I'm willing to guess that it does work for everything including 5150 because it works on the xps gen 5.

Parts from the Dimension 9100/ XPS 400  including ram and cpu etc easily move to the newer boxes.

The 380 also properly takes 8 gigs of ram whereas the 520/620 is limited to 3.5 gigs period.

It works with pentium D 9XX series on precision 380 and XPS Gen 5 and XPS 400 with latest bios and copper performance heatsink.

I used to think it required a core 2 duo and latest bios but I have proven to myself that it just needs Pressler CPU 900 series.

http://ark.intel.com/products/series/20864/Intel-Pentium-D-Processor-900-Series

960
http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SL9k7

http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SL9AP

950

http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SL94P

  130W

http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SL95V 

130W

http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SL8WP

  130W

http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SL9K8

  130W

945

Intel Pentium D 945 advantages
http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SL9QQ

seems to be a 95W part

This microprocessor is 27% more energy efficient 95W
than the Intel Pentium D 950 processor 130W.

Intel Pentium D 950/960  advantages

The microprocessor includes Virtualization VT-X
that allows hyper-v virtualized programs.

I have seen inexpensive Pentium D's on Ebay and Amazon

SL9QQ seems to be the max for a 5150

Intel Cpu Pentium D 945 3.4Ghz Fsb800Mhz 2Mbx2 Lga775 Dual Core Tray

Intel - P-D 3.4GHz/4M/800 Dual Core CPU SL9QQ 

6 used from $12.00

Intel® Pentium® D Processor 960
(4M Cache, 3.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     130 W 
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 950
(4M Cache, 3.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     130 W
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 945
(4M Cache, 3.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     095 W
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 940
(4M Cache, 3.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     130 W
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 935
(4M Cache, 3.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     095 W
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 930
(4M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     095 W
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 925
(4M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     095 W
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 920
(4M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     095 W
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 915
(4M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)     095 W

Select     Intel® Pentium® D Processor 840
(2M Cache, 3.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)    130 W
Select     Intel® Pentium® D Processor 830
(2M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)    130 W
Select     Intel® Pentium® D Processor 820
(2M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)    095 W
Select     Intel® Pentium® D Processor 805
(2M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)    095 W