Aurora R12, after restart the screen goes black and no response

Clear cmos.  You might need to restart again after. 

Clear CMOS

Turn on then immediately press

F2 then F12

F2 then F12

F2 then F12

F2 then F12

F2 then F12

F2 then F12

Go into setup.

Disable Secure boot.

Disable SMM Migration

Disable TPM

Restart

Then what happens?

Sometime it can restart normal, sometime it doesn't. What should I do next?

Try disabling / re-enabling OC and XMP in the BIOs. Long boot times could mean the memory is stuck "retraining" which is something all mobos do when the XMP profile is changed. I had a similar issue a while back but it just stopped happening after a while - I figured it was after I fiddled with the BIOs (Disabled CPU/GPU OC and enabled XMP2)

Just be aware that if you fiddle with XMP it WILL take a while to boot back up the first time - The more memory you have the longer it may take.

IF YOU REPLACED THE OEM FANS READ THIS!

Posting this since I dealt with the exact same issue. Here's a question, did you by any chance take off the OEM fans and replace them with other fans?

What appears to happen is that if you added or replaced any OEM parts with incompatible components, POST wont complete successfully hence why under the Alienware logo on startup you see the loading animation briefly before it disappears. What's supposed to happen is a hardware diagnostic screen shows up that tests your components and tells you what's not right but Dell must have messed that up.

TEMPORARY WORK AROUND

If you're experiencing this issue there is a temporarily quick work-around. When the system boots up press and hold CTRL + ESC, when a BIOS prompt shows up press F12 to go into BOOT Settings from there select Windows Boot Manager and your OS should load without problems. This basically skips POST which is not ideal but it at least allows you to use your machine.

LONG TERM SOLUTION

Either re-install all OEM components back into the Alienware, or replace the current parts with Alienware compatible parts. In my case, the fans were incompatible so I replace them with Corsair ML120 PRO (Must be pro, non-LED) and everything worked well again. The other options is waiting for Dell to patch the BIOS so folks who have custom parts can boot up. The former is probably the better approach.

This is a particularly nasty bug that when encountered provides zero message as to what the issue actually is. Hope this helps.

Thanks Therio, 

I thought I was going mad. I started with noctua 120mm pwm fans (4) errored out every boot. Had to watch the boot to spam esc before the test started. 

I then switched the fans at the AIO cooler to the Corsair ML120 Pros non led, (that every video on youtube posts to use for the R10/R11/R12) and the fan test errors are still occurring. I went deeper into dell's support pre-test and it's trying to test the top fan to 3700rpm and the ml120 pro only spins to 2400 rpm max. ( I think the max of the stock top fan is 5000 rpm?) I've tried to turn off the auto test for the fans, the screen still goes black/dark REALLY quick on restart/power on if I'm not paying attention to the keyboard. 

If I turn off the dell support assistant in the bios, it shouldn't run a test every boot up, but the black screen freeze still happens when I disable it... 

Should I just scrap all the new parts and put it all back? Every suggestion I could read was to swap the fans on the stock Aurora R's, and add the intel 11th gen's hotter running temps vs 10th gen. I only purchased this due to gpu shortages and needing to upgrade from my old 2nd gen intel i7 pc. 

I hope someone can find something useful. I'm honestly considering removing it all. 

Did you get a solution to your problem? I am having a similar problem and it has happened a number of times and then after a few hours it started normally. 

Hello all, I am having the same problem with my R12.  I do not have any aftermarket parts on it.  I did try clearing the CMOS, but nothing has helped.  Just received mine custom from Dell last week.  I did the updates including the bios 1.1.1  I wonder if that is the reason.  Basically the first time you turn it on, loads the Alienware logo and screen goes dark.  If you force turn it off and turn it back on after that it works because it goes into a blue screen that says the pc didn't shut off properly.  I do not see an update to the bios and I am not sure that is the problem.  When I receive the replacement, I will look to see what version of Bios there is and leave the old one.  Can anyone who has an R12 with new BIOS 1.1.1 confirm if it boots properly.  Specs.. I9, 3080, 32gb, Liquid cooling.

I am using HDMI 2.1 with an OLED CX.  Settings set to 3840 x 2160 at 120 hz.   Adding to my previous post, when I am able to boot windows after repowering it for the second time, I can restart the pc as multiple times and have no issue with a black screen.  The only time I encountered no signal is on initial boot (Alienware logo shows up) no circle at the bottom and it goes dark.  Hard power off and power on and no problem.

Check this to see if it applies to your situation: Display Compression 

I have tried using two updates of the Vbios from this post RTX 3090/3080/3070/3060 Ti VBIOS - Dell Community and I can confirm neither of the two firmware updates from April and May have made a difference.  I can also add that when the boot does not work, it shows the Alienware logo without a please wait at the bottom (windows loading).

I have tried updating my BIOS to 1.1.2 which was released today, and it hasn't helped.  I also tried updating my VBIOS for the 3080 also through dell driver's webpage and that did not work either.  I have also ruled out that the graphics card is not inserted properly by removing and re-installing it.  Will wait for the replacement...

Next time you get a black screen just sit and wait. Mine sat and thought for about 10-15 minutes after a BIOS update and some monkeying with the OC. Behavior was same as yours, but after I let it sit it eventually came up on it's own and the issue went away. I believe it could just be the memory "retraining". The more RAM you have the longer it may take - I have 128GB.

I can confirm that if you wait about 10 minutes it eventually does get to windows.  Tried this with all peripherals disconnected and connected... same thing...  I have 32gb ram, any solution to this?  Is this related to the ram speed (Mhz?)  I have the standard 3,200 MHZ 16gb x 2 sticks but they are showing a speed of 2667 MHz under task manager, performance, memory.