Dimension 4400 and 4550 and their Intel counterparts

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi all,

I know that my Dimension 4400 board is basically an Intel 845PT. I am
still interested in flashing an Intel BIOS to that board, but as long as
it is working fine I won't try it.

Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.

But now the question: which Intel board is the equivalent of the 4550? I
want to try to flash an Intel BIOS with the emergency flash procedure,
but of course I will need to know which Intel board this is.

Olaf

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Olaf Zaplinski" <spamtrap34786-jan2005@fortytwo.eu.org> wrote in message
news:39p3qlF6406teU1@individual.net...
> Hi all,
>
> I know that my Dimension 4400 board is basically an Intel 845PT. I am
> still interested in flashing an Intel BIOS to that board, but as long as
> it is working fine I won't try it.
>
> Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
> this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
> 4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.
>
> But now the question: which Intel board is the equivalent of the 4550? I
> want to try to flash an Intel BIOS with the emergency flash procedure, but
> of course I will need to know which Intel board this is.
>
> Olaf


I've always thought it was an Intel 845PE based board (533mhz FSB w/PC2700
333mhz DDR support).

Shame to ruin such a nice board.


Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Olaf Zaplinski" <spamtrap34786-jan2005@fortytwo.eu.org> wrote in message
news:39p3qlF6406teU1@individual.net...
> Hi all,
>
> I know that my Dimension 4400 board is basically an Intel 845PT. I am
> still interested in flashing an Intel BIOS to that board, but as long as
> it is working fine I won't try it.
>
> Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
> this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
> 4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.
>
> But now the question: which Intel board is the equivalent of the 4550? I
> want to try to flash an Intel BIOS with the emergency flash procedure, but
> of course I will need to know which Intel board this is.
>
> Olaf

None. It is a Dell designed motherboard, built under contract from Intel by
one of their sub-contractors.

Tom

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"S.Lewis" <stew1960@cover.bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:hHJZd.36199$5T6.27931@bignews4.bellsouth.net...
>
> "Olaf Zaplinski" <spamtrap34786-jan2005@fortytwo.eu.org> wrote in message
> news:39p3qlF6406teU1@individual.net...
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I know that my Dimension 4400 board is basically an Intel 845PT. I am
>> still interested in flashing an Intel BIOS to that board, but as long as
>> it is working fine I won't try it.
>>
>> Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
>> this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
>> 4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.
>>
>> But now the question: which Intel board is the equivalent of the 4550? I
>> want to try to flash an Intel BIOS with the emergency flash procedure,
>> but of course I will need to know which Intel board this is.
>>
>> Olaf
>
>
> I've always thought it was an Intel 845PE based board (533mhz FSB w/PC2700
> 333mhz DDR support).
>
> Shame to ruin such a nice board.
>
>
> Stew
>

It could be that chipset, and similar to an Intel design, but the
differences could be catastrophic.

Tom

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

May I suggest doing the following in an attempt to recover the BIOS on the
board. Print out, read, and have available for reference the BIOS recovery
procedure documented on the Intel web site.

1. Prepare a bootable floppy with the latest 4550 BIOS from www.dell.com
2. Find the BIOS recovery jumper on the motherboard, and set it in the recovery
position.
3. Put the floppy in the drive, and power up the system.
4. The BIOS recovery procedure is a bit spooky because there is nothing to see
on the screen, only some audible beeps as the recovery process executes.
5. Be patient. Give it a few minutes to finish.

With luck, you will succeed. Actually, if Dell's flash BIOS update program and
diskette take the same approach as Intel's, you will succeed.

If the above fails, download any arbitrary Intel 845 chipset BIOS and prepare
the bootable floppy. Next, delete all the BIOS image files from the floppy, and
substitute the BIOS image files from the Dell BIOS diskette. Try again.
Essentially, you are using the Intel BIOS flash software to flash (recover) the
Dell BIOS.

The tech specs for the 4550 look very much like one of the last 845 chipset
boards produced by Intel. Match up the number of slots by comparing with boards
on the Intel web site, download the BIOS for the Intel board and, once again,
attempt BIOS recovery.

At this point, you have little to lose and much to gain if any one of these
procedures succeeds... Ben Myers

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 22:53:27 +0100, Olaf Zaplinski
<spamtrap34786-jan2005@fortytwo.eu.org> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I know that my Dimension 4400 board is basically an Intel 845PT. I am
>still interested in flashing an Intel BIOS to that board, but as long as
>it is working fine I won't try it.
>
>Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
>this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
>4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.
>
>But now the question: which Intel board is the equivalent of the 4550? I
>want to try to flash an Intel BIOS with the emergency flash procedure,
>but of course I will need to know which Intel board this is.
>
>Olaf

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi all,

thanks to everyone, especially to Ben for his detailed instructions.

Well, the board arrived today. I removed my 4400 board and installed
processor and RAM in the 4550 board. Except for that only one of the two
front panel connectors did fit (there was no connector on the board for
the 2nd one) I had no problems.

I removed the "BIOS recovery" jumper according to what is printed on the
board and tried to flash the BIOS with Dell's BIOS boot floppy.

I started, lighted a cigarette and waited... nothing happened. I tried
removing the VGA card and the RAM, it was still the same. According to
the tech docs, the 4550 should accept my P4/1700 and my DDR266 RAM from
my 4400, right?

Unfortunately it did not work, it even did not try to access the floppy
in any way. I guess the board is "more dead" than I expected. Even the
diag LEDs on the back stayed off when I powered on the board. :-(

BTW, I had no idea that P4 CPUs are *so* tiny!

Olaf

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

The second connector should be for the front panel USB ports? I don't have a
board diagram in front of me.

Usually, when a motherboard and power supply are plugged into the external
source of electricity, the system shows some signs of life. The CPU fan spins
momentarily and a small LED on a Dell P4 motherboard lights up.

If the cooling fan on the back of the chassis is not attached to the
motherboard, this will inhibit proper operation... Ben Myers

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 21:23:56 +0100, Olaf Zaplinski
<spamtrap34786-jan2005@fortytwo.eu.org> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>thanks to everyone, especially to Ben for his detailed instructions.
>
>Well, the board arrived today. I removed my 4400 board and installed
>processor and RAM in the 4550 board. Except for that only one of the two
>front panel connectors did fit (there was no connector on the board for
>the 2nd one) I had no problems.
>
>I removed the "BIOS recovery" jumper according to what is printed on the
>board and tried to flash the BIOS with Dell's BIOS boot floppy.
>
>I started, lighted a cigarette and waited... nothing happened. I tried
>removing the VGA card and the RAM, it was still the same. According to
>the tech docs, the 4550 should accept my P4/1700 and my DDR266 RAM from
>my 4400, right?
>
>Unfortunately it did not work, it even did not try to access the floppy
>in any way. I guess the board is "more dead" than I expected. Even the
>diag LEDs on the back stayed off when I powered on the board. :-(
>
>BTW, I had no idea that P4 CPUs are *so* tiny!
>
>Olaf

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi Ben,

Ben Myers schrieb:
> The second connector should be for the front panel USB ports? I don't have a
> board diagram in front of me.

Could be. But this connector is not essential for operating. If the 4550
board would work, I would warm up my soldering iron, the connector is
there, only the pins are missing...

> Usually, when a motherboard and power supply are plugged into the external
> source of electricity, the system shows some signs of life. The CPU fan spins
> momentarily and a small LED on a Dell P4 motherboard lights up.

I know the "CPU fan spinning for short time when connecting power" only
from the Dim5000 that I installed recently. I bought one for a friend,
the money they wanted was tempting (they made that offer because my
company bought one 6650 PE and several other PEs recently, and only
because I like my old 6450 - but that is another story). For me, it was
still far from affordable, so I went with Ebay...

Anyway, the 4550 does not show any signs of life when connecting the
power cord. But the LED lights up as soon as I connect the power cord.
Very similar to my 4400. When I press the power button with the 4550
board installed, nothing happens except that the power unit fan starts
spinning. No beeps, no diag LED signs, nothing.

Hmm, I did not connect the CPU fan, I was too lazy. Why? Recently I was
curious how P4 thermal throttling works, so I removed the CPU fan of my
4400, booted Linux, started compiling the kernel... yup, it works. Linux
even logs it to the syslog that the CPU is too hot and throttling now.

Funny is: my 4400 came with a quite noisy CPU fan, so I recently bought
an Arctic Cooler 80mm fan at Ebay and installed it... it was not easy,
but it works. And that throttling test was because I wanted to find out
if the new (smaller) fan could cool a very stressed CPU down to normal
temperatures. Well, it does. Now I own the quietest PC ever. Call
me a Dellbot, but I would not have bought it if I had not got a new
Dim3000 at work that I like also.

Anyway, there are several conditions when my 4400 says "could not detect
CPU fan", e.g. when the machine is so cold that the new fan spins at
very low rpms. Anyway, at last I found out that my 4400 tells me about a
CPU fan failure, but then happily boots. Even when the CPU fan is
completely missing. So the 4550 stops without a CPU fan attached?

> If the cooling fan on the back of the chassis is not attached to the
> motherboard, this will inhibit proper operation...

Thanks! I will check that another day.

Olaf

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi,

Olaf Zaplinski schrieb:
> Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
> this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
> 4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.

I just wanted to tell that this board is really dead. Or could it be
that it does not like my P4/1.7 or my 266 MHz DDR RAM?

Olaf

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Olaf Zaplinski" <spamtrap34786-jan2005@fortytwo.eu.org> wrote in message
news:3b5mjqF4u0cobU1@individual.net...
> Hi,
>
> Olaf Zaplinski schrieb:
>> Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
>> this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
>> 4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.
>
> I just wanted to tell that this board is really dead. Or could it be that
> it does not like my P4/1.7 or my 266 MHz DDR RAM?
>
> Olaf

The 4550 never shipped with a processor that slow, so it could be the
problem

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Tom Scales" <tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:Fli3e.22120$Pc.14240@tornado.tampabay.rr.com...
>
> "Olaf Zaplinski" <spamtrap34786-jan2005@fortytwo.eu.org> wrote in message
> news:3b5mjqF4u0cobU1@individual.net...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Olaf Zaplinski schrieb:
>>> Anyway, someone managed to flash his Dimension 4550 to death, and I got
>>> this board for 1 Euro at Ebay. I guess that this board will fit into my
>>> 4400 case, the board layout seems to be very similar.
>>
>> I just wanted to tell that this board is really dead. Or could it be that
>> it does not like my P4/1.7 or my 266 MHz DDR RAM?
>>
>> Olaf
>
> The 4550 never shipped with a processor that slow, so it could be the
> problem
>

If it is the processor FSB, he'd likely have beep error codes at attempted
power up. While I've not tried it, I'm guessing that the 1.7/400mhz might
actually work.

If he's getting no beep codes, then I would think the board is toast.


Stew