Dell OptiPlex SX260

Dell OptiPlex info on Wikipedia

  • box: desktop Ultra SFF chassis
  • cpu: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz (1295.20-MHz 686-class CPU)
  • memory: 2 slots, type PC-, 2048 MB ( 2 x 1GB, PC-3200, max xx GB)
  • disk: ad0: 76319MB at ata0-master UDMA100
  • optical drive: none
  • video: - Intel 845G PCI Accelerated SVGA - Intel 82845G/GL/GV/GE/PE Integrated Graphics Device
  • sound: snd_ich - Intel ICH4 (82801DB) - 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller
  • network: em - Intel Pro 1000 MT Network Connection - Intel 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
  • media bay: floppy drive (can hold cd / dvd drive)
  • boot: F12 for boot menu. Boot from usb flash drive works.
  • acpi:
  • bios: version A03, release date 02/26/2003.

More info: FreeBSD on SX260.

back to machines page.

event log

2021-08-18: I re-created this page on my self-hosted web server.

2011-05-22: the machine hung (totally dead, no response from console) so I had to forcibly power it off and on again. No relevant messages in /var/log/messages. The machine has had several hangs today. Perhaps it is dying of capacitor plague?

2009-12-30: testing FreeBSD 8.0 on the machine made me realize that something was funny with the cpu; it reportedly runs at half speed: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz (1295.20-MHz 686-class CPU). After a bit of discussion on a FreeBSD mailing list, it became clear that the only reason for this was that the cpu was one with a 800 Mhz FSB, and was running at half speed. So I changed the cpu to a different one, and it looks much better now: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz (1992.63-MHz 686-class CPU).

2009-12-22: upgraded the bios from version A02 to version A03. I reset the bios to default values, this didn't seem to affect cpu speed. Still detected at 1.3 GHz.

2009-08-17: It seem that the newest bios version is A03. 2009-08-16: I got two SX260 machines from a kind person on my local swap hardware forum. One didn't work at all, the cpu on the other one was loose (and had bent pins), but as soon as I put in the cpu from the other machine and some memory, it started working.. Nice!