Aurora R4, video card swap, boot issue

With a Radeon R9 200 series card fitted - machine boots up okay

2 x different manufacturer Nvidia GTX 770 2Gb cards tried seperately- fit either card and machine will not boot

Fit either of the GTX 770's to my Aurora R3 and pc boots ok and both cards work okay...…….

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@nibber1958 wrote:
I have an Aurora R4

Re-Installing the 2 x old GTX 555's cards just gives a blank black screen -I don't even get the Alienhead bios screen etc. 

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Well, sounds like you broke something. :Crying:

And you would only need to install one GTX-555 for testing.

Try dissipating-flea-power and/or CMOS reset.

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@nibber1958 wrote:

With a Radeon R9 200 series card fitted - machine boots up okay

OK. So, motherboard is still good. :Yes: (so far)  

Ahh a thought- maybe I need to disable secure boot ? :)

As they are Nvidia cards....

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@nibber1958 wrote:
1. BIOS is very old AO3, latest is A11 and assume this is the problem not recognising the new card.

2. and don't want to brick my motherboard Thanks in advance :)

3. Also is this pc capable of running one of the newer cards i.e Nvidia 1080/ti or 2070?-

4. do not want to go down the Radeon route.

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1. IIRC, later BIOS has fix for Nvidia cards but not "detection" or basic use. I think it was to fix occasional BSoD.

2. Yes, a very real concern. I thought this machine was UEFI-based, so you should be able to flash-BIOS directly from F12 (UEFI Environment) ... outside of Windows (where it is safer).

3. See forums. I have a GTX-1070 in my Aurora-R1, so I think that says something. :Smile:

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R4-Non-ALX-Blower-or-Open-GPU/m-p/7254490#M9038

4. Yeah, I don't blame you.

So...

Do I need BIOS upgrade or will my A3 version run the Nvidia card?

Do I need to turn off secure boot if so where does it reside in the CMOS settings?

Cannot believe that such a simple task of swapping out a video card  (which I have done many times over the years on non- Dell machines)) can turn into such a saga  :)

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@nibber1958 wrote:

So...

1. Do I need BIOS upgrade or will my A3 version run the Nvidia card?

2. Do I need to turn off secure boot if so where does it reside in the CMOS settings?

3. Cannot believe that such a simple task of swapping out a video card  (which I have done many times over the years on non- Dell machines)) can turn into such a saga  :)

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1 & 2 . I don't have an Aurora-R4, so someone else will have to answer. I already posted what I know.

However, it seems to me ... that with a little effort, you could answer these questions yourself?

3. I suggest you take a break from it. The forum is full of similar posts (about Dells in general). My idea is it's due to UEFI and SecureBoot. Also, this is now considered an old, practically un-supported machine. 

Okay- many thanks for your  input I really appreciate it,

I am trawling through the forum pages to see what other R4 video card related/BIOS information  I can find.

And found a page here earlier-

 https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R4-BIOS-not-updating/m-p/6207445#M6385

that suggested an A3 to A5 bios update would allow a  gpu upgrade .

So looks like I will have go for it.

Regards  :)