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About Your Computer: Dell™ OptiPlex™ GX150 System User's Guide

Front View

The following figures show the controls, indicators, and features located on the front panel of the small form-factor, small desktop, and small mini-tower systems.

Front View of the Small Form-Factor System

Small Form-Factor Computer

1 USB connectors (2) 2 Headphone connector 3 Hard drive access indicator 4 Power button 5 Power indicator

Front View of the Small Desktop System

Power Indicator

The power indicator contains a light-emitting diode (LED) that illuminates in two colors and blinks or remains solid to indicate different states (normal and nonnormal). The following are normal indicators:

• No light — system is in the off state (S4, S5, or mechanical OFF)
  
  
• Steady green — normal operating state
  
  
• Blinking green — low-power state (S1 or S3)

See "Diagnostic LEDs" for a description of nonnormal indications.

Diskette Drive Access Indicator

The diskette drive access indicator lights when the drive is reading data from, or writing data to, a diskette. Wait until this indicator turns off before you remove the diskette from the drive.

Hard Drive Access Indicator

The hard drive access indicator lights when the system is reading data from, or writing data to, the drive.

Back View

Small Form-Factor System Back-Panel Connectors and Indicators

1 Half-height PCI expansion-card slot 2 AC adapter 3 AC voltage switch

I/O Panel

1 Parallel connector 2 Keyboard connector 3 Mouse connector 4 Link integrity light 5 Network adapter 6 Activity light 7 Video connector 8 Microphone connector 9 Audio line-in connector 10 Audio line-out connector 11 USB connectors (2) 12 Diagnostic lights 13 Serial 2 connector 14 Serial 1 connector

Small Desktop System Back-Panel Connectors and Indicators

When you connect external devices to your computer's back panel, follow these guidelines:

• Check the documentation that accompanied the device for specific installation and configuration instructions.

For example, you must connect most devices to a particular input/output (I/O) port or connector to operate properly. Also, external devices like a mouse or printer usually require you to load device drivers into system memory before they will work.

• Always attach external devices while your computer is turned off. Then turn on the computer before turning on any external devices, unless the documentation for the device specifies otherwise. (If the computer does not seem to recognize the device, try turning on the device before turning on the computer.)

NOTICE: When you disconnect external devices from the back of the computer, wait 5 seconds after turning off the computer before you disconnect any devices to avoid possible damage to the system board.

Parallel Port Connector

This is used to connect printers. Default designation is LPT1.

Turn off the computer and any attached peripherals before connecting a mouse to the computer. If your system uses Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0, Dell installed the necessary mouse drivers on your hard drive.

USB Connectors

These are used to attach USB-compliant devices such as keyboards, mice, printers, and computer speakers to your system. If you use a USB keyboard or mouse, attach these devices to the back panel connectors only.

Integrated NIC Connector

The network interface controller (NIC), which includes a Remote Wake Up feature, has the following indicators:

• A yellow activity indicator flashes when the system is transmitting or receiving network data. (A high volume of network traffic may make this indicator appear to be in a steady "on" state.)

• A dual-colored link integrity indicator, which is green when there is a good connection between a 10-megabit per second (Mbps) network and the NIC and orange when there is a good connection between a 100-Mbps network and the NIC. When the indicator is off, the computer is not detecting a physical connection to the network.

Network Cable Requirements

The NIC connector attaches an unshielded twisted pair (UTP) Ethernet cable to your system. Press one end of the UTP cable to an RJ45 jack wall plate or to an RJ45 port on a UTP concentrator or hub, depending on your network configuration, and press the other end of the UTP cable into the NIC connector until the cable snaps securely into place.

Dell recommends the use of Category 5 wiring and connectors for our customers' networks.

This connector is used to attach a video graphics array (VGA)-compatible monitor to your system.

Serial Port Connectors

Default port designations: COM1 for serial port 1 and COM2 for serial port 2. You can reassign the serial port's designation if you add an expansion card containing a serial port using this designation.

If you set the system’s serial ports to Auto in system setup and add an expansion card containing a serial port configured to a specific designation, the computer automatically maps (assigns) the integrated ports to the appropriate COM setting as necessary.

Before you add a card with a serial port, check the documentation that accompanied your software to make sure that the software can be mapped to the new COM port designation.

Keyboard Connector

Attach the keyboard cable to the 6-pin connector on the back panel.

Inside the Small Form-Factor Chassis

1 Hard drive 2 3.5-inch floppy drive 3 CD drive 4 Cover release buttons (2) 5 Internal speaker 6 Chassis intrusion switch 7 System board 8 Power supply 9 AC power connector 10 I/O ports and connectors 11 Padlock ring 12 Heat sink and blower assembly

Inside the Small Desktop Chassis

1 Diskette drive 2 Hard drive 3 Internal speaker 4 Chassis intrusion switch 5 Expansion-card cage 6 Power supply 7 Expansion-card slots 8 AC power connector 9 Padlock ring 10 I/O ports and connectors 11 Microprocessor and heat sink 12 System board 13 Optical drive

Inside the Small Mini-Tower Chassis

1 Optical drive 2 Diskette drive 3 Hard drive 4 Internal speaker 5 Chassis intrusion switch 6 System board 7 Expansion-card slots 8 I/O ports and connectors 9 AC power connector 10 Power supply 11 Padlock ring 12 Microprocessor and heat sink shroud

System Cables

Cabling in the Small Form-Factor Desktop System

1 CD drive data cable 2 Floppy drive data cable 3 Control-panel cable 4 CD drive power cable 5 IDE drive power cable (hard drive) 6 IDE data cable (hard drive) 7 Input/output cable 8 Input/output audio cable 9 CD audio cable

Cabling in the Small Desktop System Without a Sound Card Installed

1 Optical drive audio cable 2 Optical drive cable 3 Diskette drive cable 4 Control panel cable 5 Front input/output cable 6 Front input/output audio cable 7 EIDE interface cable (hard drive)

Cabling in the Small Desktop System With a Sound Card Installed

1 Optical drive audio cable 2 Optical drive cable 3 Diskette drive cable 4 Control panel cable 5 Front input/output cable 6 Front input/output audio cable 7 EIDE interface cable (hard drive)

Cabling in the Small Mini-Tower System

1 Optical drive power cable 2 Optical drive audio cable 3 Optical drive data cable 4 Diskette drive power cable 5 Diskette drive data cable 6 Hard-drive power cable  7 Hard-drive data cable  8 Front I/O cable 9 Front I/O audio cable

The following table provides a color code key for the cables inside your system.

System Board Components

System Board Labels

The following table lists the labels for connectors and sockets on the system board and gives a brief description of their functions.

System Board Connectors and Sockets

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