I hate these XPS desktops!

[hardwareguy]

Who knows what killed this one! It had 3 dead UCC KZG caps (6.3V 3300uF) and when I put it all back, no POST.

I get lights 123 green, 4 not lit and 2 quick beeps and the power light is green. Google gives little info on the meaning of the error code.

Examining the mobo, I see that my soldering is just about as perfect as one can be with a hand tool but I find a tiny *tin whisker* bridging a pin on the LPCIO chip.

Clearing the tin whisker did no good, same issue.

To make matters worse, I was told after the fact that the machine had been unplugged for 6 weeks and had gone through a move.

Luckily its a friends box so they aren't coming after me saying I killed their Dell. I test all boxes coming into the shop from customers but since this was a friend I had assumed that it was good save for the bad caps causing some funkyness.

Assume nothing...test everything. This could have been SERIOUSLY expensive had this been a customer machine. Dell charges serious $$$$$ for these old i965 BTX boards.

Im assuming the tin whisker killed the LPCIO chip...if so, this is my first documented case of tin whisker failure in the shop!

[lightingguy32]

Re: I hate these XPS desktops!

Which XPS system is this?

[hardwareguy]

Re: I hate these XPS desktops!

Its an XPS400 series tower. Its not SFF, its BTX. I wanna say it was a 430.

Its replacement is a nice box with a Seasonic PSU, a used eVGA 680i SLI mobo, a Q6600 CPU, 4GB RAM, a WD Caviar Black 1TB disk and a Geforce GTS 250. A very nice starting point for a games box if I do say so myself.

Now the entire group back home can play Left 4 Dead.

[seanc]

Re: I hate these XPS desktops!

You probably already know this, but, Dell says for lights 1,2,3 but not 4 on the the XPS 400:

Ensure that the cables are properly connected to the system board from the hard drive, CD drive, and DVD drive (see page 71).
• If there is an error message on your screen identifying a problem with a device (such as the floppy drive or hard drive), check the device to ensure that it is functioning properly.
• The operating system is attempting to boot from a device (such as the floppy drive or hard drive); check system setup (see page 113) to make sure the boot sequence is correct for the devices installed on your computer.
• If the problem persists, contact Dell (see page 126).

Sure the video card is working and you're not plugging into the onboard by mistake?
Reset CMOS?
Tried different RAM?