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