After not using my Dell Precision 380 for a few months, the USB ports have stopped working, but other than that the system was working fine... as far as I could get without a mouse! Unfortunately by the time I laid my hands on a PS/2 mouse, the system was failing POST. I got it booting into Windows (XP SP3) again by replacing the 3V CMOS battery (which had dropped to 2.8V so was probably nearly dead), then removing the newer memory DIMMS 2 & 4. Now it seems to be working fine, except no peripherals are recognised at any of the USB ports in Windows XP SP3 or Ubuntu Linux 12.04 (though USB ports are supplying power if I try to use them to charge devices).
I have tried the following with no success..
- removing all cards & additional disk / DVD drives except for video card
- Checked USB ports (and front USB ports) are all enabled in BIOS setup.
- Upgraded BIOS from A06 to A09.
- Re-installed Intel chipset drivers with installer version v.7.2.2.1006, A13 (then tried older version v.7.0.0.1019, A11). See this earlier forum post for details: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/18130844
- ran Dell Diagnostics from hard disk utility partition.
- checked in Device Manager and Event Logs (no USB problems reported).
Strangely, shortly after USB ports first failed, they did come back briefly during one power up attempt enabling a USB WiFi interface to start to come to life. Unfortunately without a mouse at the time I couldn't investigate further. This suggests that it could be a (briefly) intermittent hardware failure..
Any suggestions of what I could try next?
Richard
P.S. I do have an HTML copy of the Dell 380 Precision User's Guide, which is no longer available in English on the Dell support website