XPS 8900 f_panel wiring diagram

Dell uses custom connectors between front panels and motherboards. They don't make info about those connectors publicly available, and they differ from model to model.  So unless you can map the wiring yourself or find somebody who already mapped it...

BTW: There's also a top I/O panel and a front USB panel that connect to the motherboard. I don't know if the motherboard will function correctly if those aren't connected if you move to a new case...??

Thanks RoHe.  I eventually mapped this myself through trial and error.  It's just that it would have saved me a bunch of time if Dell would have been more disclosing, but I appreciate your response.

Every company keeps secrets about their hardware... :emotion-5:

Glad you got it sorted...

I am undertaking a similar project. Do you have a diagram of the layout that you would be able to provide?

Here's the best I have come up with so far.  I have tested numerous combinations but these are the only ones I can get to work correctly so far. Each connection consists of a red and black wire( at least in my case, assuming black is ground?). The top of the picture matches the top of the board on the XPS 8900 relative to the computer case.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3515/t/19629462

The thread above was for an 8500 and also worked for an 8700 and has a diagram.

The 8900 case looks the same as an 8700 so I would be surprised if they changed it too much.

Thank you for the diagram.

My Dell XPS 8900 front panel connector wires come in different colors from yours. I can connect them in your way and am able to turn up the power. But I encountered " Alert! Power Button Cable Failure" message every time I cold boot. However, after clicking on "Continue", the message disappears, and I am then able to start Windows 10 without other problems.

Does anyone have this Alert message, too? It's annoying! 

I'm having the exact same issue! Has anyone figured out how to stop the alert from showing? I do alot of remote work and if I'm not infront of the PC at time of cold reboot, it just hangs at the alert screen.

I had to do a case transplant on my XPS 8900 to support a better graphics card and PSU

I've got the power button and HDD LED connected based on the previous posts diagram, but I am also getting an alert every time I power on the machine.

Does anyone know how to disable the Alert ?

I was thinking about disassembling the power button module and rewiring it for the new case, but that seems a bit excessive.

jumping 9 and 12 solve the power connect cable problem for me. Not quite sure what the jumping the other pair does.

Hang on, are you saying you connected the power button there (diagonally), or literally just put a jumper there?

I am trying to move the XPS 8900 motherboard to a larger case to be a headless server, and right now the inability to boot independently is making my head explode. I tried the middle 2 pins above (fail), tried pins 6+4 (fail).

The numbered diagram above is correct, 5-6 Power button. 1-3 HDD LED, 2-4 Power LED.

If you do not want the Power Button Cable Failure error on boot, then you need to JUMP 9-12.

If you look at the diagram or the actual connector from the case, you will see that 9-11-12 are jumped together. I'm not sure what specifically the three are but when I tried jumping 9-12, the error went away.

Hope that helps.

I am trying to move the XPS 8900 motherboard to a larger case to be a headless server

Do you really need to move to a new case to use it as a headless server? Why not just connect an HDMI headless dongle to the XPS 8900 in its original case?

Thanks. I put a regular jumper diagonally on 9-12 and it did not prevent the error from showing up. Hmm... I wonder what I'm doing wrong. Maybe I need to jumper all four?...

Problem is I have eight hard drives to hook up with a PERC 6/i card, and there's not enough space in the original case :(