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XPS 8940, just out of warranty, died and won't start
I have an XPS 8940 that is about 16 months old. For as long as I've had it, it has occasionally just died without warning. It wasn't frequent -- maybe once every 6 or 8 weeks. I thought for the longest time that this was an issue with the power source, because we have power interruptions here, and the behavior was as if somebody had just unplugged the computer.
Now I'm wishing that I'd filed a service claim on it last year, because after a couple of months of peace it abruptly shut down again and this time it won't restart. No lights at all.
The RAM was upgraded to 32GB and I added a solid state drive, but I had not installed a graphics card, so I wouldn't think that I'd overloaded the 360W power supply.
I'm just guessing at this point that the power supply was faulty and needs to be replaced. I'm willing to try that myself but am checking here first: 1) to make sure I'm not missing something obvious, and 2) to make sure I get the right thing (is 360W adequate)?
QuakerWildcat
47 Posts
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February 6th, 2023 14:00
It's been 6 months since I replaced the power supply with a used 500W Dell OEM power supply that I picked up on eBay (from an Optiplex G5 -- Power Supply D500EPM-00).
There has not been a spontaneous shutdown since.
(It's no doubt a separate issue, but after a Windows update, the PC is now in an endless reboot cycle. I can't even get it into Safe Mode. I opened a separate thread for that!)
fireberd
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May 11th, 2022 03:00
Most newer Dell's have a power supply test switch. Check yours and see what color the power supply light is (if it lights up at all) when you press the test switch (green is good self test).
QuakerWildcat
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May 11th, 2022 05:00
Yeah I looked for that switch months ago and for whatever reason this PC doesn't have one.
QuakerWildcat
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May 11th, 2022 07:00
UPDATE: Before ordering a new PSU, I had a thought: I found another old 125V power cord and swapped it out. Voila! The PC started up. I had not suspected the power cord could be the problem but apparently that's what it was? Will monitor closely and hope it doesn't start shutting down again.
fireberd
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May 11th, 2022 08:00
If not the power cord. Power supplies have internal "crowbar circuit" (electronic fuse) that will trip on an overload. Removing AC power to the power supply will reset the crowbar circuit. Removing the power cord and replacing with the different one reset the crowbar circuit if that was the problem.
QuakerWildcat
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May 11th, 2022 10:00
Good to know. I had unplugged the cord and plugged it back in previously, and that hadn't worked, so I'm guessing it wasn't just the crowbar circuit.
QuakerWildcat
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July 5th, 2022 14:00
OK back to my original question: Should I order a replacement 360W power supply, or if something seems to be overloading it regularly, should I order a higher capacity power supply?
Again, this PC has a lot of RAM and an SD drive but no graphics card drawing a bunch of power.
QuakerWildcat
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July 5th, 2022 14:00
Nope. It ran well for months, then started shutting down spontaneously again. Perhaps it WAS the crowbar circuit.
RoHe
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July 5th, 2022 17:00
@QuakerWildcat - If you're using a power strip or surge protector, remove those and plug PC directly into a "known good" outlet. See if that helps.
If you don't use either a strip or a surge, you might want to try using a decent surge protector.
BTW: What else is on the same circuit with the PC? A frig/freezer, AC, big TV...? If the circuit is overloaded or there's a sudden voltage drop when something else cycles on, that might trip the PSU's internal circuit breaker.
A bigger PSU might be a good idea, especially if you eventually want to install a video card...
QuakerWildcat
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July 5th, 2022 18:00
Interesting thing to consider and a good suggestion! I'll take a look at the circuit but I doubt it's relevant here. When this first happened (and the PC was under warranty -- d'oh), I falsely concluded that it was a circuit issue, because I would change it to a different plug (and different circuit), and it would start up again. But the PC has been moved across the house and to 3 different circuits now, and the problem recurs (we also have whole house surge supressors on each panel).
QuakerWildcat
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July 8th, 2022 09:00
I've concluded it could be the motherboard or the power supply.
My options are to send it to Dell and pay them diagnose the problem, or take a flyer on replacing the PSU myself first. I'm searching and these PSUs are hard to find. A used 360W is almost as much as a 500W.
Then there are these 460W PSUs (F4FW7) that aren't expensive if you can find them. I've read mixed things about whether they work on the XPS 8940. Anybody know about that?
QuakerWildcat
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July 8th, 2022 11:00
@RoHe thank you for responding and thank you for the link. I may talk a good game but I've rarely ever opened up a PC except to upgrade RAM or add a drive. I can follow a video showing me how to swap PSUs, but all the talk of TFX and SFX and adapters is hard for me to understand. Is there an answer to my question buried in there?
RoHe
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July 8th, 2022 11:00
Have a look at this thread...
RoHe
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July 8th, 2022 17:00
SFX and TFX are "form factors" (size standards) for different PSUs. redxps630 discusses sizes and form factors for PSUs that should fit in XPS 8940 in his post on 01-12-2021.
F3nton
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August 25th, 2022 21:00
@QuakerWildcat were you able to resolve the issue.
I'm experiencing the same issue 17 months of ownership of XPS 8940 with only 8GBRAm, i7-11700k.