Flashing Orange Light on Dell Dimension 8400
January 27, 2008
After reading all sorts of problem descriptions and solutions on various forums, I’ve finally fixed my hand-me-down Dell Dimension 8400 desktop box.
When I first got it, I couldn’t even get it to turn on. After pressing the power button, it gave a few beeps, started an orange blinking with the power light, and refused to do anything else. Some people with the same problem had to replace the motherboard, the power supply, or the memory. Some still don’t have a working computer.
As for me, I unplugged all of the devices from the power supply, removed the memory sticks, and then put it all back together. Something along the way did the trick — I suspect it was removing and re-inserting the memory, but I’m not certain.
Now my box is up and running with Ubuntu 7.10!Leave a comment if you’ve had a similar problem with your Dell — I know there are a lot of you guys out there. Maybe you can post some other solutions and ideas here to help out…
Update: According to the Dell manual, there are 4 lights on the back of the tower labeled A, B, C, and D. If the A and B lights are orange, but the C and D lights are green, it could mean that the memory isn’t recognized and that you need to take out the memory sticks and put them back in again. This sounds like it could have been my problem.
February 11, 2008 at 8:49 pm
[...] 11, 2008 Posted by fitzthegreat in Uncategorized. Tags: hardware, Linux trackback As described in my earlier post, I managed to get my hand-me-down Dell Dimension 8400 desktop working after a little tinkering and [...]
May 16, 2008 at 8:49 am
I had similar problems. I had recently upgraded my memory from 1GB (512MBx2) to 3GB(original 512MBx2 + 1GBx2). I bought Crucial brand memory because Newegg forums recommended for Dell 8400.
I haven’t had any glitches or freezes while computer is on. I tend to put my computer to sleep when not in use. I tried to wake my computer and simply got the blinking orange/amber light in the front. No sound from fan in power supply, no image in the monitor. I took the new 1GBx2 chips out and placed the 512MBx2 in the first two banks. This didn’t help.
Finally, I put just the 1GBx2 in, left my computer alone for 2 hrs, came back, and it turned on. Magic? Perhaps… I think I am ready for a new one just in case this one decides to croak.
June 4, 2008 at 11:41 am
lol friggin dell crap.
Been googleing this for a few hours now. Reset memory, nothing. Tried a regualr atx psu, the psu and cpu fan spins up but nothing else. None of the 4 abcd lights come on.
Probably a bad psu?
June 11, 2008 at 10:49 am
It’s been a little over 4 months for me now, and I’ve only had to take the memory out twice. Each time, though, the computer starts fine once I take the memory sticks out and put them back in.
@Bsods: I’ve heard that your problem description might also point to a short circuit somewhere or a problem in the motherboard.
July 19, 2008 at 7:16 pm
tried all that stuff, the power supply, mobo, unhooked everything from the mobo, etc. and still got a solid orange light. Been looking around the web for about 2 hours now maybe longer about this and havent found any thing that works. But i have noticed something about my Dell 8400 that no one else has mentioned about…when i turn it on i get the solid orange light and my fan speeds up really fast, and kinda just keeps going and gets really loud like its about to fly out of its case or something….any ideas?
July 21, 2008 at 1:01 pm
To: cerpinTaxT
My Dell 8400 did the same thing. I had no idea what it was doing so I took the plug out of the wall to kill all the power. Now the thing starts, but after about 30 min. it cuts off with the blinking orange/amber light. Any one have a clue? I checked out my power supply in controll panel and it says, ” Power UPS service has currently stopped ”
Thanks,
Ryan
July 28, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Mine had a constant amber switch light without the often reported high speed CPU fan. I opened the case, blew out dust and tried power up; no change. Then I re-opened the case and pressed the on button while watching and listening to the “interior” to see what fans powered up. I noticed the heatsink fan did not power on. I wiggled the green plastic fan shroud on the heatsink while the amber light was on…the heatsink fan came one and the system went green (powered up as normal)! I’m suspecting heatsink was not properly seated due to overheating? I’m considering adding an additional cooling fan and will no longer leave system running 24 x 7, other than that, I’m guessing I’m lucky. Oh yeah, and clean it for interior dust once every 3 months.
September 17, 2008 at 3:28 am
I got 5 beeps but no flashing amber light. A and B were amber, C and D were green. All i did was pop the memory in and out and the PC started up as usual.
September 29, 2008 at 8:50 am
My machine needs the cards and memory reseated at least three times a year. It locks up and beeps when it’s time for the reseat. I plan on gutting it and builing a new machine I have better things to do than reseat cards all the time. I love the speed etc. but I have never had this problem with a cpu before.!!!!!!!
December 28, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I’m pretty sure that orange flashing light has something to do with the USB ports in the front. I started getting the light after I damaged one of the ports. After fiddling around with the damaged port the computer turns on fine now.
March 3, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Have been having a similar problem on and of for about 6 months now. Bizarrely it seems to predominantly happen during the morning, which makes me think it’s an electrical contact that expands and contracts due to changes in temperature. I don’t experience the psu/cpu fan going into overdrive, although I did have that problem with the first Dell 8400 I got sent by Dell (Which got replaced by this one which has been chugging on happily until recently.) My pc’s symptoms are one of two scenarios as follows:
1 I turn on the power supply and press the power button and immediately get the blinking orange ring.
2 The computer starts the boot up process often times getting as far as the OS, then without warning a click similar to the one heard when the pc shutdown properly. I think this mite be the psu turning itself off, if so It mite be turning itself off to protect against some form of electrical surge/short or other fault.
In either case the only solution seems to completely kill the power to the machine for a long time supply (unplug from the wall), then plug it back in, make sure the orange ring does not reappear, boot up, cross fingers and pray to any religious deity that happens to listen. I found shaking the case seems to help (although it could just be my imagination), which, again, makes me think it’s a loose electrical connection.
Anyway a few day ago after another of these failures I got fed up and dismantled the entire machine, ram cards PSU and all. I only spared the processor and heat skin as I didn’t have any thermal glue. When I inspected the components I found that of the four pins on the squares connector that I believe powers the CPU, two where badly burnt. Fortunately the socket on the motherboard seams almost unscathed so I am planning to replace the PSU in the next few days to see if this sorts out the problem. I’ve red a lot of posts on different blogs and forums pointing there fingers at the psu, I hope they are right. Ill post back once I’ve tried replacing the psu. Hope the motherboard isn’t damaged.
March 8, 2009 at 5:58 am
I am having the same problem where the PC goes into standby and will not wake up. Blinking amber light and abcd lights are off. I pulled every board, memory, disk connected the hard drive. Still will not wake up. After leaving the PC unplugged for 1 week, the computer booted with no problems. This happen 2 times so far. I have since disabled sleep mode and the PC seams to be working OK. Does anyone have any ideas why this only happens in standby mode?
July 13, 2009 at 8:46 am
It seems to be corrected when i remove the CMOS battery and reinserted it. And try to remove the power plug as long as u’ve removed the cmos battery.
July 15, 2009 at 6:41 am
I encountered the infamous “orange flashing light” on my Dell two days ago.
Tried the following with no success: Unplugging computer from the wall outlet (and waiting for a few hours), switching to another outlet, resetting power strip etc. The machine refused to reboot or even start.. no fan, no sound.. nothing.. just a blank screen.
Then I Googled and came across this blog.
The problem was INDEED the bent pins in one of the USB ports in the front panel of the machine. I think the pins were bent when “someone” carelessly tried to insert an ipod jack into the port.
I straightened the pins out with a small screwdriver and voila.. the machine was alive once again. No more blinking lights!!
Thank You .. to whoever discovered this solution first. I wish the DELL site also provided the tip to check the USB ports!! (I do understand that there are other problems that may cause the orange blinking lights.. but atleast we could get the simple possibilities checked out first).
So before you open up the computer and mess with unplugging the hard drive and other components, do take a moment to unplug ALL usb devices and check the ports to see if any of them have bent pins (use a flashlight!!).. the pins ususally get damaged when someone uses force to insert a usb plug the wrong way!!