XPS 420 Boot up code failures.

Question

I have 2 XPS 420's that started showing flashing number codes on boot up. Both mysteriously started showing these codes after the video cards were replaced. These flashing number codes are located on the top of the box to the left of the mini view LCD screen. Only half the codes are decipherable in the dell manual. All deal with memory faults.

Both machines had NVidia 8800GTs. I replaced both with modern day NVidia 2GB cards. One has a 640GT and the other has a 550 Geforce series. The 550 requires additional power from the PSU. The 640 does not. Both are double slot PCI Express cards. Additionally, both machines were ordered with 3GB of RAM. I replaced both sets of 3GB with DDR2 PC6400 800MHz 4GB total chips of RAM. That is two matched sets of 2GB for a total of 4GB in each machine. The PSUs are the original 375 Watt Dell units. I replaced one of them with a 600 Watt Thermaltake, thinking maybe enough amperage was not being shared around the board. This resulted in no change at all to the boot up flashing codes. One machine has the Bios update of A07 and the other has the A02 release. Both reflect 4GB of RAM in the BIOS and system breakdown in the control panel. I do not have any errors in the device manager for either machine. The machines used to startup very nice and clean, a surge from a fan, and then roll through the process. Now, I do not get any surge of a fan on startup and get several sets of flashing codes from the numbers before the bootup completes.

I have searched the end of the internet and this community for simlar symptoms and cannot find a fix. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. BTW, running, Windows Vista 32 bit Home Preimum on both machines. Machines were purchased new in 2007 by me from Dell.

Here is one set of blinking light codes:

134, 123, 34, 14, 234, 123, 14, 123, 14, 123, 14, 23, 12, and then the miniviewer comes on with a splash screen.

Thank you in advance!

speedstep · Accepted Answer

Those are not error codes unless it sticks on one and doesn't finish post.

They are codes sent to port 80.

You can get a PCI card that shows these on most machines.

Phoenix BIOS Plus or v1.0 BIOS Post Codes:

01	CPU register test in progress
02	CMOS read/write failure
03	ROM BIOS checksum failure
04	Programmable interval timer failure
05	DMA initialization failure
06	DMA page register read/write failure
08	RAM refresh verification failure
09	First 64K RAM test in progress
0A	First 64K RAM chip or data line failure multi-bit
0B	First 64K RAM odd/even parity logic failure
0C	Address line failure in first 64K RAM
0D	Parity failure in first 64K RAM
10	Bit 0 first 64K RAM failure
11	Bit 1 first 64K RAM failure
12	Bit 2 first 64K RAM failure
13	Bit 3 first 64K RAM failure
14	Bit 4 first 64K RAM failure
15	Bit 5 first 64K RAM failure
16	Bit 6 first 64K RAM failure
17	Bit 7 first 64K RAM failure
18	Bit 8 first 64K RAM failure
19	Bit 9 first 64K RAM failure
1A	Bit a(10) first 64K RAM failure
1B	Bit B(11) first 64K RAM failure
1C	Bit C(12) first 64K RAM failure
1D	Bit D(13) first 64K RAM failure
1E	Bit E(14) first 64K RAM failure
1F	Bit F(15) first 64K RAM failure
20	Slave DMA register failure
21	Master DMA register failure
22	Master interrupt mask register failure
23	Slave interrupt mask register failure
25	Interrupt vector loading in progress
27	8042 keyboard controller test failure
28	CMOS power failure/checksum calculation in progress
29	CMOS configuration validation in progress
2B	Screen memory test failure
2C	Screen initialization failure
2D	Screen retrace test failure
2E	Search for video ROM in progress
30	Screen believed running with video ROM
31	Mono monitor believed operational
32	Color monitor (40 columns) believed operational
33	Color monitor (80 columns) believed operational
34	Timer tick interrupt in progress or failed (non-fatal)
35	Shutdown failure (non-fatal)
36	Gate A20 failure (non-fatal)
37	Unexpected interrupt in protected mode (non-fatal)
38	Memory high address line failure at 01000-0A000 (non-fatal)
39	Memory high address line failure at 100000-FFFFFF (non-fatal)
3A	Timer chip counter 2 failed (non-fatal)
3B	Time of day clock stopped
3C	Serial port test
3D	Parallel port test
41	System board select bad
42	Extended CMOS RAM bad

Phoenix chipset PCI BIOS Post Codes:

02	Verify real mode operation
04	Get CPU type
06	Initialize system hardware
08	Initialize chipset registers with initial POST values
09	Set in POST flag
0A	Initialize CPU registers
0C	Initialize cache to initial POST values
0E	Initialize I/O
10	Initialize power management
11	Load alternate registers with initial POST values
12	Jump to user patch 0
14	Initialize keyboard controller
16	BIOS ROM checksum
18	8254 programmable interrupt timer initialization
1A	8237 DMA controller initialization
1C	Reset 8259 programmable interrupt controller
20	Test DRAM refresh
22	Test 8742 keyboard controller
24	Set ES segment register to 4GB
26	Enable address line A20
28	Autosize DRAM
2A	Clear 512K base memory
2C	Test 512K base address lines
2E	Test 512K base memory
30	Test base address memory
32	Test CPU bus clock frequency
34	Test CMOS RAM
35	Test chipset register initialize
36	Test check resume
37	Reinitialize the chipset
38	Shadow system BIOS ROM
39	Reinitialize the cache
3A	Autosize the cache
3C	Configure advanced chipset registers
3D	Load alternate registers with CMOS values
3E	Read hardware configuration from keyboard controller
40	Set initial CPU speed
42	Initialize interrupt vectors
44	Initialize BIOS interrupts
46	Check ROM copyright notice
47	Initialize manager for PCI options ROM's
48	Check video configuration against CMOS
49	Initialize PCI bus and devices
4A	Initialize all video adapters
4C	Shadow video BIOS ROM
4E	Display copyright notice
50	Display CPU type and speed
52	Test keyboard
54	Set key click if enabled
56	Enable keyboard
58	Test for unexpected interrupts
5A	Display prompt "Press F2 to Enter Setup"
5C	Test RAM between 512K and 640K
5E	Test base memory
60	Test expanded memory
62	Test extended memory address lines
64	Jump to user patch 1
66	Configure advanced cache registers
68	Enable external and CPU registers
69	Set up power management
6A	Display external cache size
6C	Display shadow message
6E	Display non-disposable segments
70	Display error messages
72	Check for configuration messages
74	Test real time clock
76	Check for keyboard errors
7A	Enable keylock
7C	Setup hardware interrupt vectors
7E	Test coprocessor if present
80	Disable onboard I/O ports
82	Detect and install external RS232 ports
84	Detect and install external parallel ports
86	Reinitialize onboard I/O ports
88	Initialize BIOS data areas
8A	Initialize extended BIOS data area
8C	Initialize floppy drive controller
8E	Hard disk autotype configuration
90	Initialize hard disk controller
91	Initialize local bus hard disk controller
92	Jump to user patch 2
94	Disable A20 address lines
96	Clear huge ES segment register
98	Search for option ROM's
9A	Shadow options ROM's
9C	Setup power management
9E	Enable hardware interrupts
A0	Set time of day
A2	Check key lock
A4	Initialize typematic rate
A8	Erase F2 prompt
AA	Scan for F2 keystroke
AC	Enter setup
AE	Clear in-POST flag
B0	Check for errors
B2	POST done
B4	One beep
B6	Check password (optional)
B8	Clear global descriptor table
BC	Clear parity checkers
BE	Clear screen (optional)
C0	Try to boot with interrupt 19
D0	Interrupt handler error
D2	Unknown interrupt error
D4	Pending interrupt error
D6	Initialize option ROM error
D8	Shutdown error
DA	Extended block move
DC	Shutdown 10 error

speedstep · Answer

Put the old power supply back and the old cards.  Both of your replacements are not compatable and not supported by Dell.  Only Good Quality $100+  650W or better power supplies should be used and they should be EPS12V VERSION 2.94 or better.

speedstep · Answer

I have personally used Radeon 7750 and 7770 cards just fine. Dell is not responsible for supporting 3rd party vendors cards. If an 8800GT worked then you had a 375W or greater power supply that has 1 PCI-E connector and would support a Radeon 7750 or 7770 just fine. If you are worried about power use a 7750 which does not need aux power connection.

SAPPHIRE 100358OCL Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card

SAPPHIRE 100357LP Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Video Card

3rd party power supply's are not as good as DELL OEM especially if they are not EPS12V 2.94 certified.

ATX 12V 2.2 IS NOT SUFFICIENT. You need at Least a 550w EPS 12V supply to replace the Dell unit.

buschent12 · Answer

So I understand, yo are saying both video cards are not compatible?  If so, in what way?  The 8800Gt cards are toast.  Both have failed and that is why the replacements were installed.  So how am I to determine what video cards will be compatible?

buschent12 · Answer

I understand what you are saying about the PSU.  I took a stab at the PSU as the issue and nothing changed.  Both machines are back to the original PSU with 375 watts.  That being said, the cards only require 350 watts from the manufacturers.  So what do all the lihghts mean?

buschent12 · Answer

So, basically I am back where I was.  Anyone else have an opinion?  If I can only use Radeon cards, then I will ignore the errors.  I find it hard to believe that I cannot use a NVidia AGP card in the PCI Express slot of teh XPS420 and it will cause so many errors.  Its not like NVidia is low level card maker.

speedstep · Answer

AGP And PCI-E are NOT compatable at all. You can only use PCI cards or PCI Express cards.:emotion-3:

buschent12 · Answer

OK, Faux pas, I called it an AGP.  They are PCI Express cards Video cards.  A little help here and not a tongue lashing would go a long way!  And you have not answered the initial question.

buschent12 · Answer

Additionally, the video cards are exactly models NVidia GT 640 and GTX 550Ti.  Both memory RAM upgrade are Kingston brand.  Can anyone describe what all the flashing codes mean?

speedstep · Answer

Code Cause 1-3-1 through 2-4-4 Memory not being properly identified or used 4-3-1 Memory failure above address 0FFFFh

speedstep · Answer

The cards did not come from Dell and are not supported here.:emotion-3:

Mary G · Answer

The 420 is supposed to show flashing codes at boot. You must not have noticed it before. After a successful boot, all lights should go out. Any lights that stay on indicate the error.

from the manual-- NOTE: After the computer completes POST, all four lights turn off before booting to the operating system.

manual-- ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_xps_desktop/xps-420_owner%27s%20manual2_en-us.pdf

buschent12 · Answer

Thank you Mary G.  Yes all codes turn off after the POST and none remain on.  The computer loads the OS and everything works including the video cards.  The system monitor registers the RAM as well.  Solely I was trying to clear up the error codes upon turn on, and before POST.  I guess I'll just ignore it and wait for teh next break before I replace the machines

buschent12 · Answer

Well if thats the case, then I thank you both. That means what I am seeing with the light codes and the fact they dissappear when the OS loads, means no errors. And Mary G you are correct, first time noticing them. They are now more visible with the new location of the box compared to where the box was and the top was not visible.

Thanks again!

Locked Topics – Desktops General

XPS 420 Boot up code failures.

Was this post helpful?

Code	Cause
1-3-1 through 2-4-4	Memory not being properly identified or used
4-3-1	Memory failure above address 0FFFFh