Hi Camrocks,
Thank you for your reply.
The Power Supply Unit on the XPS 8500 does a self-diagnostic when the Power is turned on. The LED is an indicator of whether the PSU is working properly or not. Since the LED is solid green, it indicates that the power supply is working properly.
The XPS 8500 also emits a series of beeps during start-up if the display cannot show errors or problems. These series of beeps, called beep codes, identify various problems.
- 3 means 3-3-3-3...That is 3 beeps and 3 beeps and ...: Endless looping until user presses the power button to shut down the system.
- The delay between each beep is 300ms, The delay between each set of beeps is 3 sec, The beep sound last 300ms.
- After each beep and each set of beeps, the BIOS should detect if the user presses the power button, if so, BIOS will jump out from looping and execute the normal shutdown process and power system.
Please let us know if you hear the system beeping on startup and the status of the power button LED. When you say that the power button does nothing, does it mean that if remains off, steady amber or blinking? The XPS 8500 power button light illuminates and blinks or remains solid to indicate different states.
The link below has a uselful article on steps to troubleshoot the Dell XPS 8500.
If you do not hear any beeps, try the steps mentioned below:
- Disconnect all external peripherals except the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Peripherals also include external storage devices such as flash drives, USB devices, cards etc.
- Drain MB power about one minute (until MB lights turn off, which can take from 20 seconds up to one minute).
- Make sure that the monitor is receiving power and that it is plugged into the correct port on the video card.
- Refer to steps in the link above for removing internal components like memory, etc. to determine exact point of failure.
Do keep us posted with the results so that we are able to help you further, if required.
Thanks and regards,
Babita S
#iworkforDell
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