Dell Workstation Owners Club

[hashico]

I finally got an U016F heatsink and it looks like it makes a nice difference:

Both tests were performed with stress utility on Ubuntu at 30°C room temperatures using Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste: idle and peak temperature are only 5 degrees lower (even though I stopped the test earlier on the old heatsink, in the past it reached 90°C) but now the action of the CPU fan is visible).
Might try adding an exhaust fan on the rear of the case and a fan attached to the heatsink (as soon as I find a silent one).

 

[beastmaster64]

Hello, i own a dell t5500 since 2015 and about 3 or 4 days ago my fans ramped up full and i shut off my pc, when i started it again there were three problems or alerts
Alert! Card Cage Fan Failure error
Alert! unable to initialize the fan controller
Alert! Air temperature sensor not detected
the pc works fine and all fans are on,but the fans are max speed very loud
i tried speedfan and it doesnt change the speed of fans,
i tried powering off dissconecting all the things from the pc and it worked, but only for 30 secs and the fans are still full power,
any help would be appreciated.(sry for my english)

 

[lexluthermiester]

Hello, i own a dell t5500 since 2015 and about 3 or 4 days ago my fans ramped up full and i shut off my pc, when i started it again there were three problems or alerts
Alert! Card Cage Fan Failure error
Alert! unable to initialize the fan controller
Alert! Air temperature sensor not detected
the pc works fine and all fans are on,but the fans are max speed very loud
i tried speedfan and it doesnt change the speed of fans,
i tried powering off dissconecting all the things from the pc and it worked, but only for 30 secs and the fans are still full power,
any help would be appreciated.(sry for my english)

This is a problem that happens from time to time on Dell systems from the time-frame the T3500/5500/7500 systems were made.
The fan controller on a particular run of motherboards can sometimes glitch out. Here's how to resolve the issue;

1. Power down the system and unplug the system power cable from the PSU.

2. Unplug and reseat(plug back in) all of the fan connectors in the system. Sometimes the connectors lose connection and this sets off a system alert in the bios.

3. Find the Power Supply Reset button on the back of the PSU(this presumes you are using a Dell PSU, if you have a non-Dell ATX PSU skip steps 3 & 4)

4. Press and hold the PSU reset button.

5. Press the system power button. This will fully drain the PSU of power(and reset stored info in the PSU internal IC if a Dell PSU is used).

6. Plug the system power cable back back in and power on the system.

7. Enter the BIOS by holding down the " F2 " key until the screen shows " Enter Setup " is highlighted.

8. Go to the logs entry and clear the system alerts.

9. Select save and restart.

The problem should be solved at that point and the system should boot normally with the fans not running full blast.
If this does not solve the problem try this procedure a second time. Otherwise your board might have developed a fault and may need replacement.

(sry for my english)

Your english is good. No worries.

 

[beastmaster64]

Thank you ,but i just tried this and it doesn't seem to work.
Maybe it broke because of hot weather we are having this week.

 

[Valantar]

Hey, didn't know about this thread. 35 pages of other people doing cool stuff with these OEM boxes is pretty neat! I've been working on stuffing an RX 570 into an old Optiplex 990 that I got for free off the IT department at work - pretty much done, spent an hour today filing down the rough edges on the vents I cut in the side panel. Just missing some minor touch-ups (black sharpie to the rescue!) and adding some mesh to cover the vents. Makes for a pretty good SFF sleeper gaming box, and the craptastic 240W PSU (65% mean efficiency!) has yet to explode - I didn't even need to downclock the GPU! I can post some pics when I have more time, or you can look up my build thread over on smallformfactor.net. Pretty happy with it, but definitely work-intensive - some rather major surgery to the case, a custom semi-modular cable harness for the PSU (to get a 6-pin PCIe out of it), and a lot of troubleshooting back when I still had the hope of getting it working with a cheapo IDE-ribbon style PCIe riser. Had to get an "expensive" ($30 on AliExpress) Riser, but ever since it's completely stable.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Hey, didn't know about this thread. 35 pages of other people doing cool stuff with these OEM boxes is pretty neat! I've been working on stuffing an RX 570 into an old Optiplex 990 that I got for free off the IT department at work - pretty much done, spent an hour today filing down the rough edges on the vents I cut in the side panel. Just missing some minor touch-ups (black sharpie to the rescue!) and adding some mesh to cover the vents. Makes for a pretty good SFF sleeper gaming box, and the craptastic 240W PSU (65% mean efficiency!) has yet to explode - I didn't even need to downclock the GPU! I can post some pics when I have more time, or you can look up my build thread over on smallformfactor.net. Pretty happy with it, but definitely work-intensive - some rather major surgery to the case, a custom semi-modular cable harness for the PSU (to get a 6-pin PCIe out of it), and a lot of troubleshooting back when I still had the hope of getting it working with a cheapo IDE-ribbon style PCIe riser. Had to get an "expensive" ($30 on AliExpress) Riser, but ever since it's completely stable.

Can't believe you are running an RX570 off that PSU. How are you feeding the PCIe connector on the card?

 

[bonehead123]

I have friends who got some dell towers for very little $$ from when the company was upgrading to HP's year before last....

Some of them said they liked the cases but not the components inside & wondered if I could upgrade them....

My reply was:

"With enough coffee, zip ties, AND dremel tool cutting wheels/drill bits, anything is possible"

I ended up sucessfully modding/upgrading 5 of the 6 to standard, non-proprietary, non-bottom-of-the-barrel components and turned them into pretty decent rigs.

The 1st one was my test case, and I hacked the crap out of it just to see what would work & what wouldn't before starting on the rest..........

 

[Valantar]

Can't believe you are running an RX570 off that PSU. How are you feeding the PCIe connector on the card?

I made a custom wiring harness by snipping off the sata and EPS wires, crimping on on some connectors at the cut, and splitting out the 12V cables to get the extra 6-pin. Also added a couple of Molex to the SATA chain at the same time to power my USB 3.0 card (gotta use that second PCIe slot!) and the riser cable, though I ended up not needing the last plug with my new "fancy" riser. Still, that harness is one complicated piece of wiring.

I'm pretty shocked it works myself - I was really expecting to have to spend some time downclocking and undervolting the GPU. I've measured 265W at the wall while gaming, which translates to around 175W internally if the efficiency is indeed the 65% the spec sheet says. Of course, efficiency being non-linear and usually highest around the middle of the output range, it's likely even lower at those kinds of output. Still, I'm pushing it pretty close to its limits given that the 12V rail is only rated for 17A (204W), particularly since the PSU is from 2012 or so. Don't think it's ever seen more than 70W sustained loads before now though. I have a plan to replace it, but hopefully it'll last for a while nonetheless.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I made a custom wiring harness by snipping off the sata and EPS wires, crimping on on some connectors at the cut, and splitting out the 12V cables to get the extra 6-pin. Also added a couple of Molex to the SATA chain at the same time to power my USB 3.0 card (gotta use that second PCIe slot!) and the riser cable, though I ended up not needing the last plug with my new "fancy" riser. Still, that harness is one complicated piece of wiring.

I'm pretty shocked it works myself - I was really expecting to have to spend some time downclocking and undervolting the GPU. I've measured 265W at the wall while gaming, which translates to around 175W internally if the efficiency is indeed the 65% the spec sheet says. Of course, efficiency being non-linear and usually highest around the middle of the output range, it's likely even lower at those kinds of output. Still, I'm pushing it pretty close to its limits given that the 12V rail is only rated for 17A (204W), particularly since the PSU is from 2012 or so. Don't think it's ever seen more than 70W sustained loads before now though. I have a plan to replace it, but hopefully it'll last for a while nonetheless.

Can you upgrade to a newer PSU? Hate to see your system go up in smoke.

 

[bhetcaker]

Hello I just recently bought a T5500 and migrated it to a case I had sitting around. I pretty much have it all ready to go but my only issue is where to plug the case's PWR, Reset SW, and HDD LED plugs? I don't see any pins like normal ATX motherboards. Am I SOL?
Any help is appreciated!

 

[hashico]

Hello I just recently bought a T5500 and migrated it to a case I had sitting around. I pretty much have it all ready to go but my only issue is where to plug the case's PWR, Reset SW, and HDD LED plugs? I don't see any pins like normal ATX motherboards. Am I SOL?
Any help is appreciated!
View attachment 125177

I think they are all part of the front I/O panel on the original case that plugs into connector Number 6, don't know if anyone knows the actual pinout of the connector.

 

[bhetcaker]

I think they are all part of the front I/O panel on the original case that plugs into connector Number 6, don't know if anyone knows the actual pinout of the connector.

View attachment 125183

I actually tried to locate a pinout but no luck. I looked at the cable that connects the front panel to the actual motherboard and there are 5 wide cables that go into each plug. 4 out of the 5 have a stamp that says USB on it. So I was wondering if the last cable (which is made of 8 smaller cables) is what I want. The case only requires 8 pins I believe. I was wondering if I could just cut the wires on the case and then plug them into the connector from the Dell? Picture is of the cable I'm talking about.

 

[hashico]

So I was wondering if the last cable (which is made of 8 smaller cables) is what I want.

Given that there are 6 leds and a power button (so power 7 lines with a common ground) it might work. You could try reversing the pinout using a multimeter in continuity mode if you got the original front panel.

 

[bhetcaker]

Given that there are 6 leds and a power button (so power 7 lines with a common ground) it might work. You could try reversing the pinout using a multimeter in continuity mode if you got the original front panel.

Yeah I literally bought the Dell T5500 with the intentions to move it into a different case lol. I have only used a multimeter a few times so I have no idea what continuity mode is lol. I took the front connector panel thing (where the cable above connects to) to see if there were any labels. Do you have any other suggestions of what I could do? This is the only thing keeping it from running lol. I did kinda mess up by plugging those case cables into the 5 slot of the motherboard instead of the 6. Do you think I messed anything up? It automatically turns on when I plug it into the wall with or without those front controls plugged in.

 

[hashico]

Yeah I literally bought the Dell T5500 with the intentions to move it into a different case lol. I have only used a multimeter a few times so I have no idea what continuity mode is lol. I took the front connector panel thing (where the cable above connects to) to see if there were any labels. Do you have any other suggestions of what I could do? This is the only thing keeping it from running lol. I did kinda mess up by plugging those case cables into the 5 slot of the motherboard instead of the 6. Do you think I messed anything up? It automatically turns on when I plug it into the wall with or without those front controls plugged in.

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/learn/b...test-for-continuity-with-a-digital-multimeter

Slot 5 is floppy connector, as long as power cable was disconnected you probably didn't mess up anything.

Assuming that T5400 front panel is the same of T5500 this is all I found

I would try to test for continuity beetween pins 19 and 21 on the front panel when power button is pressed.

 

[bhetcaker]

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/learn/b...test-for-continuity-with-a-digital-multimeter

Slot 5 is floppy connector, as long as power cable was disconnected you probably didn't mess up anything.

Assuming that T5400 front panel is the same of T5500 this is all I found

I would try to test for continuity beetween pins 19 and 21 on the front panel when power button is pressed.

So I would just plug the power switch onto 19-21 to test for continuity? And then if that does work then I could just follow a normal diagram to plug the rest in? I read on some Dells there's a space between the connectors.

 

[hashico]

So I would just plug the power switch onto 19-21 to test for continuity? And then if that does work then I could just follow a normal diagram to plug the rest in? I read on some Dells there's a space between the connectors.

Take the original front panel, attach the original cable and find which pins on the cable correspond to pin 19-21 of motherboard connector (we don't want to short the pins on the motherboard before we are sure they are the right ones) and check for continuity on these pins on the cable when power button is pressed (if they are the right pins you should get open circuit when the button is not pressed and continuity when it's pressed, assuming it works like a standard case power button).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Maybe it broke because of hot weather we are having this week.

That might be possible. Sorry to hear that!

 

[Valantar]

Can you upgrade to a newer PSU? Hate to see your system go up in smoke.

I have a plan to replace it with a high-efficiency custom PSU solution down the line (specifically a MeanWell UHP-350-12 AC-12VDC PSU and a separate ATX plug-in DC-DC unit, either a PicoPSU or a G-Unique unit), but I hope to hold off on this until I either have a bit more spare cash, or even better, until I want to upgrade the motherboard/CPU to a more modern setup. It's worth noting that this isn't a PC that'll see heavy use - it's more of a hobby project to see if I could make a semi-portable gaming PC with as low cost as possible. All in all my total budget for this has been somewhere around $200 (maybe $250) including the GPU, riser cable, Noctua L9i CPU cooler, two 80mm case fans, a rotary tool (Dremel-alike), and a bunch of various connectors and stuff. Of course, I got off cheap by getting the PC for free and having a spare 500GB SSD and 8GB of DDR3 lying around.

I've tried finding a more convenient replacement PSU, but given the proprietary form factor there's nothing that will fit (I could likely squeeze a FlexATX or possibly a TFX unit in there if I replaced the motherboard with an ITX board, but, well, that would kind of miss the point), and finding a new/unused version of the "higher-end" SKU for this PC (also 240W, but 80+ Gold IIRC) has so far been impossible, at least at a reasonable price. 240W is the highest Dell ever went for this PC, for obvious reasons The only replacement PSUs I've found have been the same bargain-basement 65% mean efficiency version, and buying off Ebay it might be completely trashed, so not worth the risk whatsoever. At least I know the one I have has barely seen a strenuous load in its lifetime. Anyhow, I'll happily take my chances of this not blowing up on me until I can afford to get a better PSU solution in there

 

[Retrorockit]

Hey, didn't know about this thread. 35 pages of other people doing cool stuff with these OEM boxes is pretty neat! I've been working on stuffing an RX 570 into an old Optiplex 990 that I got for free off the IT department at work - pretty much done, spent an hour today filing down the rough edges on the vents I cut in the side panel. Just missing some minor touch-ups (black sharpie to the rescue!) and adding some mesh to cover the vents. Makes for a pretty good SFF sleeper gaming box, and the craptastic 240W PSU (65% mean efficiency!) has yet to explode - I didn't even need to downclock the GPU! I can post some pics when I have more time, or you can look up my build thread over on smallformfactor.net. Pretty happy with it, but definitely work-intensive - some rather major surgery to the case, a custom semi-modular cable harness for the PSU (to get a 6-pin PCIe out of it), and a lot of troubleshooting back when I still had the hope of getting it working with a cheapo IDE-ribbon style PCIe riser. Had to get an "expensive" ($30 on AliExpress) Riser, but ever since it's completely stable.

The Dell PSUs are rated at "continuos output", not "peak power" like the aftermarket uses for advertising. In Dells market a lower number looks better to their customers. They're actually quality parts.

Dell H305P-01 Power Supply Review - Hardware Insights

Contents1First Look2Load Testing3Actual Specifications and ConclusionsFirst Look Once again, we’re looking at a unit from a major OEM. Unlike last time, however, we’re looking at a unit from a PC […]

www.hardwareinsights.com

If you go back to the Pentium 4 era you can get some 275W PSUs from SFF systems that ran 130W CPUs. The XPS210 aka Dimension 9200C.

Hello I just recently bought a T5500 and migrated it to a case I had sitting around. I pretty much have it all ready to go but my only issue is where to plug the case's PWR, Reset SW, and HDD LED plugs? I don't see any pins like normal ATX motherboards. Am I SOL?
Any help is appreciated!
.
View attachment 125177

Motherboard swapping with Dells is usually not a good idea because of this sort of thing. Use the whole system and mod the cooling, PSU, and GPU is usually the best plan. HP stuck a lot closer to ATX than Dell, but still borked with the PSU wiring a little bit. Dell not only uses a proprietary front I/O harness, they change it all the time adding and removing various features, and don't publish the pinouts. Air temperature sensors are sometimes there, sometimes not, and it won't run if you don't get that right also.
Best chance for success is to work the OEM cbale and front I/O board into your project.

 

[bonehead123]

Trust me when I say that proprietary, non-standard/custom wiring harnesses-cables, connectors and PSU's are by far the absolute worst aspects of OEM machines, and cause more people more heartburn than anything else when attempting to convert/upgrade these boxes to something more current & useful. Been there, done that, too many times

Complicating this situation is the fact that they only make as many of the these parts as they need for the number of a particular model they intend to produce, plus a few extra to account for defects/borked installs/warranty claims etc. About 6-12 months after that production run is over, they move on to the next new model with a completely new/different assortment of cables/connectors etc...BUT then they trash all the leftovers from the previous models, making it damned near impossible to find replacements outside of fleecebay, discount warehouses, or mom & pop shops that may have a few just laying around here & there...

This is the primary reason I would never buy a pre-built/off the shelf desktop rig for myself or family members. I suspect that many members here feel the same way, as we have some really skilled & talented folks here who can literally build/mod/upgrade practically anything any which way you want it, or at the very least, walk you through doing it yourself

 

[Valantar]

The Dell PSUs are rated at "continuos output", not "peak power" like the aftermarket uses for advertising. In Dells market a lower number looks better to their customers. They're actually quality parts.

Dell H305P-01 Power Supply Review - Hardware Insights

Contents1First Look2Load Testing3Actual Specifications and ConclusionsFirst Look Once again, we’re looking at a unit from a major OEM. Unlike last time, however, we’re looking at a unit from a PC […]

www.hardwareinsights.com

If you go back to the Pentium 4 era you can get some 275W PSUs from SFF systems that ran 130W CPUs. The XPS210 aka Dimension 9200C.

AFAIK any respectable aftermarket/retail PSU these days is rated for continuous output as well (and most handle overloads gracefully, often including OCP), though I'm well aware how shady advertised PSU outputs could be 10-15 years ago. I have an old unit lying around that used to run my first NAS (built in an actual cardboard box from Ikea!), and it's rated at "400W", but in reality that's 380W from adding up the totals of the 12V, 5V and 3.3V rails - the 12V is only rated at 15A, or 180W. Not much of a PSU these days, in other words! Still, I would never have attempted this build if I didn't think the 240W (200W 12V) was a continuous rating. That would be a recipe for disaster.

 

[Retrorockit]

It's true about the "respectable" brands. Unfortunately the ones making 400W SFF PSUs are not respectable. The Dell 305W Optiplex PSU, and the T3400 375W PSU both have the same 2x18A. 12V. rails. One has a 65W PCIe cable the other doesn't. So Dell's rating can just as easily be about what connectors are provided for each system as any difference in actual power produced. Dell doesn't sell PSUs by the Watt. They do sell to IT managers who care very much about TCO (total cost of ownership). Power consumption, repair costs, downtime, all get added up and compared. if the numbers don't add up they can take their 1000s of computers conract elsewhere. Leases, service contract, extended warranties are normal for Dell computers. You don't want a sketchy PSU in those scenarios.
I used to have a link to a Johnnyguru bargain basement PSU test that's been taken down. The Dell/Delta 305W is the only one that made it's rated power without catching fire when overloaded. It was actually the only one that stilll ran.
I haven't looked, but I wonder how many "respectable" PSUs actually have a UL (Underwriters Laboratory) fire safety certification?

 

[Valantar]

It's true about the "respectable" brands. Unfortunately the ones making 400W SFF PSUs are not respectable. The Dell 305W Optiplex PSU, and the T3400 375W PSU both have the same 2x18A. 12V. rails. One has a 65W PCIe cable the other doesn't. So Dell's rating can just as easily be about what connectors are provided for each system as any difference in actual power produced. Dell doesn't sell PSUs by the Watt. They do sell to IT managers who care very much about TCO (total cost of ownership). Power consumption, repair costs, downtime, all get added up and compared. if the numbers don't add up they can take their 1000s of computers conract elsewhere. Leases, service contract, extended warranties are normal for Dell computers. You don't want a sketchy PSU in those scenarios.
I used to have a link to a Johnnyguru bargain basement PSU test that's been taken down. The Dell/Delta 305W is the only one that made it's rated power without catching fire when overloaded. It was actually the only one that stilll ran.
I haven't looked, but I wonder how many "respectable" PSUs actually have a UL (Underwriters Laboratory) fire safety certification?

My 240W 2012-era Dell does, at least

Of course there's no doubt there are still shady OEM PSUs out there, but anything made for business/workstations is built to last first and foremost - to eliminate downtime, as you say. Of course they don't add connectors that aren't needed (that would get expensive fast), but I wouldn't worry about an office/workstation-grade PSU to be made poorly - though I would expect that from an OEM consumer-grade PSU. On the other hand, labels don't lie - that's illegal, even if the PSU itself isn't sold at retail. Certification and power input/output labels have to be accurate, and they're always rated for continuous output. Again, I'd trust huge companies like Dell or HP more than smaller ones here, simply as they're far more likely to get caught cheating, but generally, labels don't lie these days if the product is sold in western markets.

As for your argument about the two Dell PSUs, how are the non-12V rails between the two units? It sounds extremely unlikely that they'd be identical and one being sold as 305W and the other as 375W, regardless of the connectors. If that's the case, then the 305W is essentially massively overbuilt (two 18A 12V rails is 432W combined!), which definitely isn't a bad thing.

 

[Retrorockit]

.

As far as the proprietary stuff goes, that's why Dells need their own forum. The best way to approach Dells is as individual systems that each have strengths, weaknesses, and limitations ( usually intentional). Welcome to locked BIOS Hell!
Optiplexes are the worst, 95W CPU limit (1 or 2 exceptions), and often no room for a 2 slot GPU, and no PCIe power cable.
The XPS,Alienware series. Multimedias machines, the higher end ones are gaming ready, but overclocking is hit or miss.
The Workstations- 130w CPUs many of them unlocked, high RAM capacity, good GPU support.very cost effective since supply is high and demand is low.
The T3500 X58 system is king of the hill so far in the overclocking area.

Throttlestop overclocking Desktop PCs

Back then I knew it wasn't worth the bother because the performance increase was so small in P4. But I came into overclocking during the Core 2 era which did away with it altogether. I would still do without it unless there was a need for the extra cores. But bebop350 is a Linux user so he...

www.techpowerup.com

Dell doesn't "sell them" as 305W or 375W PSUs, they build them into systems. If one only has connectors to provide 305W then that's what it is honestly and safely capable of providing. Without the extra connectors of an aftermarket one size fits all it's also virtually impossible to overload it.
If that PSU cost $1 less for the missing coonnector I would love to have $1 for every Optiplex 305W PSU they built. That would be millions of $$$.
They both have the high 22A. +5V. rail that Dell BTX era systems require. EVGA is up to this others IDK. I would look into the old P4 275W SFF PSU. It's from that era and might be beastly.
When the 265W PSU in my $20 Optiplex 380 came up bad i tossed an old 375W, and an X5470 Xeon with a GTX1060 ITX card in it and it hasn't missed a beat.
One reason the Optiplex 305/375W is still worth a look is most of them never powered more than a 65W 2 core CPU with onboard graphics.