Aurora R3, BIOS splash, then black, perhaps GPU related?

Question

Hello. The other day I purchased a Dell Alienware Aurora R3 locally for $100 in non working order. i7 2600k, 120 AIO, 16gb Patriot 1600mhz, GTX770 2gb Reference, 875w PSU option. Came with no storage, but I threw in a 240gb ssd. Likely the GPU and ram were upgrades done in the past. When I went to pick up the unit, I talked to the seller about the issue. He said that the computer worked great then one day it wouldn't show any display. The seller said it gave some amount of beeps, and when he contacted Dell, they told him the CPU had failed. I took it home and verified the issue. Beeping and no post. Now while I have seen CPU failures happen, they are rare enough I doubted this was actually the issue. After clearing CMOS the system stopped beeping and I actually got a display! My excitement was short lived though. While the machine gave me a display, it wouldn't boot to the ssd or a boot USB. Here is where I am stuck. When I turn the machine on, it gives me an Alienware logo. After about 30 seconds it beeps once, and then after another 30 seconds it beeps again. Then the screen goes black. It does not do anything past this, and I cannot enter bios.  Tried installing a known good 2500k and known good ram I had lying around. No change. Tried a spare PSU. No change. Tried an Intel stock cooler incase the AIO somehow was causing issues. No change. So I installed back in the original PSU, Ram, CPU, and cooler. I also tried reseating the GPU and moving it to the bottom X16 (physically at least) slot. No change. I have several GPUs available to test with. First one I tried was an EVGA GTX970 SSC Fallout 4 Edition, and to my surprise, the system functions normally with the 970 installed. I can enter bios and boot into windows. Everything works flawlessly. From here I thought the GTX770 had failed. But I put it in another PC and it boots up fine and even runs games fine. I installed a known good Radeon R9 NANO into the Alienware, and that produced no display at all, no USB power even. Tried a known good R9 380. No display, no USB power. I began to suspect something was off with the motherboard. I installed the 970, booted into windows, and used the utility to update the bios. There was no update available, but I let it reflash anyhow. No change. I am truly stumped. Any ideas are welcome!

r72019 · Answer

I believe the GTX 770 needs a firmware update for UEFI support with win 10 UEFI/GPT or it won't boot. Or you can try switching to legacy and install MBR.

Don't know about the AMD cards but may be a similar issue.

redxps630 · Answer

Not familiar with Aurora R3 but interested in the question. When looking at R3 bios system set up, do not see option of switching between legacy and uefi. Does it mean it has only legacy bios, unless missed something? This is a pre-boot POST issue, it seems, before Windows is loaded.

looking at screenshot of R3 bios it looks legacy.

(optiplex 790 of same Sandy bridge era had rudimentary uefi bios)

OP question is why 770 and some amd boards do not POST but 970 posts. It does seem 770 and amd boards do not pass POST for some reason, but 970 passes. It is likely related to the board or bios. Of note user benchmark reports successful run of 770 in R3.

RyzenMaster · Answer

Also, I tried the newest NVIDIA card I have, which happens to be a GTX 1650 Super. This GPU gives me similar symptoms to the 770. I get a BIOS Screen and nothing else. I did find that unplugging monitor cable and plugging it back in and then trying to get into the bios caused there to be some blue dots at the top of the screen above the Alienware logo. If I pressed arrow keys these dots moved around some.

I don't suspect the issue is Windows related. Even with no boot drive in the system at all, the 770 and 1650 super cannot get into bios and will not give me "no bootable device found."

The 970 lets me in bios and will give me "no bootable device found" when I boot with it installed. That is the only way I can get into the BIOS.

On another note, the system has no display outputs, so I cannot try to boot with just the IGPU alone.

RyzenMaster · Answer

The machine apparently worked for some period of time happily with the GTX770, just now it won't after it started giving me post beeps and I had to clear CMOS. It might make sense the issue is bios setting related then.

Sandy Bridge SHOULD support UEFI, at least all my other systems from the era have.

With the 970 installed to get into the BIOS, the BIOS has an option for "UEFI" in the boot order, but I do not see any other settings to enable/disable UEFI or CSM mode.

redxps630 · Answer

Good to know R3 does have uefi in boot order. The fact that you can not switch btn legacy and uefi is consistent with early rudimentary uefi edition. iirc optiplex 790 also has no option to switch. It is like a limbo btn real uefi and legacy that you get stuck there. Understand this was the early days of “uefi”.

re: The machine apparently worked for some period of time happily with the GTX770, just now it won't after it started giving me post beeps.

this may or may not work. find an old cheap entry level video card without 6 pin (a simple Dell HD#### etc. would do) and install it in 2nd PCIex16 slot of R3 board, keep 770 in 1st slot, try to get post video from 2nd slot. Hope R3 boots well via 2nd gpu without beeps. Get in Windows and check device mgr to see if 770 is properly detected. If yes let Windows download proper Nvidia driver automatically.

based on your story it sounds like you have a stash of parts so maybe you have some old simple gpu without discrete 6 pin connector.

RyzenMaster · Answer

The 2 cards I have that fit that criteria are both broken.

I installed the GTX 970 in bottom slot and the GTX 770 in top slot.

With the monitor plugged into the 970 in bottom slot It board gives 5 beeps and no display.

If I plug the monitor into the 770 in the top slot I get the stuck at bios splash screen.

I tried reversing the order of the GPUs, 970 in top slot, 770 on bottom slot.

Plugging monitor into the 770 in bottom slot causes no display.

Plugging monitor into the 970 in the top slot gives me a solid cursor on screen, nothing else. No Usb power even.

RyzenMaster · Answer

It seems the only way I can boot into Windows is with the 970 in the top slot and no other GPU.

I will go ahead and install a driver version compatible with both the 970 and 770, then put the 770 in the system.

I have my doubts its driver related in all honesty. Drivers shouldn't prevent me from getting into the BIOS.

RyzenMaster · Answer

Installed drivers compatible with the 770 and rebooted. Stuck at bios screen.

Alienware Desktops

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