Aurora R6, anybody know how to hot wire (power on)

The following posts might help. But be careful since if you do something to damage the switch or wiring or system, it will void the warranty. Assuming of course that the unit is under warranty.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2771022/alienware-aurora-power-button-bypass.html

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-Aurora-R4-Not-Booting-Power-Button-Doesn-t-Work/td-p/5543350

According to a post I have read, yellow and black looked like good candidates. BTW, excellent post and picture!

Cass -

I just wanted to thank you for such an incredible write-up with pictures! The fact that you selflessly reply to these posts to help others out with such detail and care is commendable.  Seriously, thank you sir!

I fully understood what you wrote and unfortunately it did not work.  I shorted all of the pins and nothing happened.  There were some pins that were extremely difficult to reach and the working area is very tight.

I am not impressed with Dell Technical Support. They won't let me open up a new ticket and insist that I piggyback this onto the power supply ticket I opened earlier.  I can only respond via email and it takes a day for the tech to respond and they always call when I'm on the phone and can't take their call.  

My new extended warranty they basically strong-armed me into doesn't include parts.  They don't have weekend/holiday support so it's 9-5 Mon-Fri.  And Monday is a holiday.  

I've got a 15-month old $3000 machine that's been a paperweight for the past 8 days and it looks like it will be another week before any kind of resolution.   

I guess I'm used to Apple after 30 years of purchasing their products.  You always can call in and get immediate support with clear instructions.  I've had tons of issues (MacBook Pro keyboard replacement, battery replacements, track-pad non-functioning, top-case replacement, etc.) with my long line of Apple notebooks and it's always a two-day turn-around. I can't imagine calling into them and having them tell me that I can't open a new case and that I can call back on Tuesday.  Well, there's a reason they're a trillion dollar company I guess!

Ok, off my soapbox now.  Again, you are a kind person and your help is so much appreciated.  I'm very happy to have this support forum because without it I'd feel completely helpless, rather than just merely helpless (lol)!

I wouldn't give up just yet

Just now, with desktop plugged in but turned off, I took a voltmeter to my on-off pins & it read 3.3v

I noticed you didn't discuss the results of your voltmeter testing, did you not have one?

Your top external on-off PCB & plunger-button are not dis-similar to the above basic PC momentary switch (depress plunger > pins will short together > pc turns on > release plunger); without such a button, we'd simply manually jump-short the pins w/a metal tool of some sort

As for working in a tight space, I believe I'd back the white FrontPanel-LED connector off, grab enough 'slack' of that cable to work on & probe it w/a multimeter (OHMs or Continuity); probe pin combinations while pressing top external on-off switch until you discover which pins in the connector are tied to the external on-off switch; when u find them, short the raw pins on the mthrbrd (or reinstall FP-LED connector & attack pins that way)

The on-off pins are either side-by-side or aren't, &, when trying to short two pins together with a metal tool, only two discrete pins at a time should be touched, until you mathematically tried all possible combinations

You'd like to see a 3.3v reading out of at least one pin to denote the mthrbrd is even 'alive', is a good word for it. Typically a mthrbrd has a tell-tale LED that lights up when power plug is in but PC is off to denote mthrbrd has power & is in stand-by waiting to be turned on, as a good sign of 'life'

Lastly, if FP-LED connector is so 'micro' that getting adjacent pins probed is difficult, the red lead can go into a pin socket while the black lead can simply touch any metal part of chassis (perhaps the power supply chassis can conduct as well) to help get a 3.3v reading > would be nice to discover the hot on pin, then jump-short it to a ground pin & maybe get it to jumpstart on. If not, if no joy, hopefully help is on the way 

Cass - Again, thank you!

I have a voltmeter - from back in the day.....in the attic in a box...I will dig it out although it's probably easier to just purchase one for $12 at MicroCenter and have a nice brand new one with more features!

One question - If the power switch assembly is bad, as I suspect, then depressing the front panel switch would not help me in determining the correct pins to short.  I did indeed remove the connector for access to the raw pins and tried shorting them directly.  Two at a time - although I will admit it was difficult.  The computer is plugged in and my understanding was that as soon as I hit the right two pins it would just magically start up. Is this thinking correct? 

I'll report back on the voltmeter.  I really want to start this thing up and leave it on for the next four days as I wait for Dell!

I can't confirm if the top power on LED PCB assembly has part# 29F15 for anything other than an R5, nor if even if the button when making good contact when pressed (a positive reading in ohms volts or continuity) on voltmeter when tested correctly yet would still fail to turn PC on for ambiguous reasons related to other circuit of surface components like a chip capacitor or diode that failed for instance, as could be the case on older Alien power-on PCBs

on wire colors that may or may not apply to R5s only, I'd note the rainbow ROYGBI are most likely LED wires, the BLK TAN GRY are then candidate on-off wires; historically, BLK TAN are on-off in Alien wiring & may still be

• note R6 R7 R8 may / may not differ in their part# / wire colors / wire layout

If a person had access to that PCB out in the open as we see here (or simply access to any downstream connector) & if it's true the momentary button went bad or the action is no longer good, you could still jumpstart PC on by shorting the correct pins (shorting = a stand in for pressing a good momentary switch), or simply interrogate pins etc until you find 3.3v/5v & a ground & then attempt jumpstart

• shorting two pins at a time in all possible combinations as suggested earlier would be a last resort method
• best method is to use voltmeter & use various methods to discover actual on-off wires-pins, then short them & a working system would come on in lieu of a failed power-on PCB or button

I suspect it's difficult to remove the top assembly to get to the PCB, as above, & may be easier to access the side panel for testing as below

Per side panel access I assume user would dis-couple & either probe or jump pins or interrogate top power on button etc

I did indeed remove the connector for access to the raw pins and tried shorting them directly.  Two at a time - although I will admit it was difficult.  The computer is plugged in and my understanding was that as soon as I hit the right two pins it would just magically start up. Is this thinking correct? 

If these on-off pins in the FP-LED connector (or raw mthrbrd pins) aren't next to each other, then you'd have to 'bridge' over pins (what I called all possible combinations, even if that means pin 1 jumps all the way down to pin 10 / or rather jump pin 1 to pin 2/3/4/5/6/7/8 etc, & repeat pin 2 to pin 1/3/4/5 etc, until dozens of combinations are all tried, lol)(which is why voltmeter & finding hot 'on' pin is best & fastest of course > when found bridge it to a ground, bridge it to the chassis w/metal etc, see what happens)

In the 1st closeup photo I posted, I'd be surprised if jumping BLK & TAN did not work, of course it remains to be seen what wire colors exist in an R6 & if they differ from the ones I had

Yes, if you find the correct two pins, it should jumpstart on. It may also work that if u simply find the hot +3.3v pin you could touch it to the metal case as a 'ground'; in other words if your red lead is probing pins the black lead can touch metal case & act as ground (this was assuming pins/connectors are so 'micro' that probing both leads at same time is difficult), I hope this made sense

Wow! Such great information! Again, such a pleasure receiving assistance from you Cass!

Well, I dug out the old multimeter and of course it needed a battery....so I took care of that little chore.

Pulled the LED power connector, and sure enough, pin 4 for me is hot. 4.8 Volts.  Great.  None of the other pins register anything.

Tried to jump start this computer by grounding one side of a paperclip to the metal in the chassis and the other to pin 4.  No luck. 

Tried pin 4 in combination with every other pin.  No luck.  Power is connected to the power supply, power on test on the power supply works and drives the input to the display but the PC does not boot.  Well at least the motherboard appears to be ok. Whew.

I took apart the switch as directed above. Nothing to really see.  Tried checking each of the pins while depressing the Alienhead power switch.  No luck.  Nothing registers - tried ohming them out - nothing.

So it looks like I'm out of ideas.  I was truly pushing so hard for the PC to jumpstart when touching pin 4 to the chassis.

Thanks so much for all the help! It's been actually great learning so much about this PC.  I never took the cover off for the first year and am now comfortable pulling all the panels off and removing cables and connectors.  I realize it's all layer zero easy component stuff, but for me it's been an introduction into how modular pieces of PCs connect and it's actually been really fun.

post a photo of your FP-LED connector, like the one I originally posted of the green R5 mthrbrd, so I can see wire colors, and which pin you consider p4 to be (from left or from right)(in my photo, p4 could either be dual-BLK or sngl-BLK) (Some photos loaded into a thread require Mod approval & take time to show up, so I use image hosting & paste in the URL > postimage.org is one place) If what happened is you find it's too difficult to probe connector or raw pins while using both leads, that's understandable, & so how u found 4.8v was to probe with red lead & take black lead to any part of the chassis? Since the front panel (LED) header in question has a dedicated +/- for on-off, once the + pin's found we'd like to find the corresponding - pin so we could jump them in the same fashion & w/same pins the external button is for. We'd like positive confirmation of that - pin. Typically this is done by the presence of micro-text printed on the board as a mini-chart denoting HDD LED +/-, Power on LED +/-, Pwr Switch (on-off) +/- & Reset, you can keep a look out for a printed chart on the mthrbrd close to FP-LED connector Lastly, the physical on-off PCB w/the button can be probed to tell which two wires are responsible - to know the wires is to trace them to their pins on mthrbrd - then jump them @mthrbrd. OHMs, continuity test in particular

If it reached the point where you had access to that PCB you'd confirm 4.8v exists up there & if so simply jump both sides of the button in case it's failed. If PC refused to come on, then the issue is deeper than the button, if by-passing button manually (forced jumpstart) didn't work At this point, until you positively ID the reciprocal ground pin I would not force 4.8v into unknown pins in the FP-LED connector / header anymore. Resolve somehow where the ground pin is & only jumpstart that pair; if no joy then I wouldn't know why your mthrbrd will not come on because I believe u did buy a new PSU for it so await tech support would be the best advice Maybe your onboard CMOS coin-cell battery went dead, did u test it for 2.6v-3v? It's required for bootup, if it's dead or weak it needs replaced

If your desktop's (now or later) dis-assembled at the level you have access to the below PCB, voltmeter should reveal if BLK is hot 5v (or which wire is) & from there the voltmeter reveals which is its likely ground (I suspect TAN); when ID'd you'd jump them at the back or at the connector bottom we see is just as good, or, turn it over and bridge the button so it shorts on both sides in attempt to jumpstart mthrbrd on

Seems to me that dis-coupling the side panel connector there - voltmeter probing BLK TAN etc is just as good, since the PCB lead clearly disappears into the top access hole; when 5v + corresponding ground is found with voltmeter u could easily short them there too

Seems an identical color match for the R5 photo, I didn't see a printed-text chart anywhere; the dual-BLK being hot is a lil bit odd (why are two positive hot wires needed to help turn on PC); if it's the only wire-pin that's hot then that's it (unless mthrbrd has frizzled where the true on pin will not output volts & this dual-BLK erroneously pushes out volts etc, which I doubt but one never knows since PC won't turn on for some reason)

If you have access to the PCB as seen in top pic, to settle which is the ground wire (color) involved in the on-off wiring, you'd place red lead on BLK, then black lead on other points until you get a +5v reading & that settles it (alternative, w/voltmeter set to OHMs or Continuity you'd probe one side of the button in front at the solder point then probe the back PCB or probe at the connector end til a reading registers)(why bother when you can short the button itself at both sides on the solder points to complete the circuit path which is all the button does anyways)

I guess I chimed in to say, if you can ID the FP-LED connector wires involved in the on-off wiring scheme we've discussed & seen because you've traced it all the way up to the button PCB - you jumped what u feel are the correct wires / pins - & PC will not jumpstart on in spite of it, then you have an issue most likely that is not the on-off PCB(for instance, if you ID the two correct pins inside FP-LED connector, then back it off & short the two raw pins together - if PC will not start up - then PCB was never the issue since you just by-passed it by manually jumpstarting or attempting to directly at the header itself). Not sure what else to suggest tonight other than it is possible that if you bought a new PSU & PC still won't turn on it might be a mthrbrd defect (fails to send correct PwrOK signal to PSU or similar non-sense), good luck Tom

edit: some PSUs have short circuit protection so they won't click on which is to say scenarios exist where mthrbrd would co-operate once issue (of unknown origin) is resolved, other mthrbrds are indeed bad & need replaced; I don't know why your system won't turn on in any case or if mthrbrd is suspect or simply victim of some other correctable issue. I'd hoped we could jump it on but if it won't even after IDing the correct pins (I hope u do ID them when all's said n done), then it'll be a long wait til we know what's wrong & get her fixed

Just wanted to provide an update since you were all so kind to offer assistance and knowing the resolution is cathartic.

I ended up calling Dell Alienware Technical Support.  Kind of odd to troubleshoot something when there is no power to it.

Their determination: Mother Board Replacement.  Not the power supply. Not the power switch assembly. The motherboard.

Now pin 4 on the motherboard had 4.8v which makes me think it has power and is ok but that is their recommendation.  I'm sure they have troubleshooting steps and also records of users with similar problems and how they were remedied.  

They'll be out on Wednesday to replace the motherboard - at no charge due to the extended warranty they set me up with.  All in all - very fair.  I mean it's a 15 month old computer and apparently the motherboard is dead - not a good sign of things to come.  But things break and they are doing the honorable thing and repairing it.  I did have to purchase the extended warranty for a year but it was far cheaper than this motherboard would have been.

Cass - thanks again for all the help. I learned so much from your posts and had tons of fun working with my computer.  I even dug out my old multimeter and got to use that for the first time in 15 or so years.  This is a great site and invaluable to users like me that are novices.

I'll report back if the motherboard fixes the problem.  Honestly, it's the only thing left.  Jumping pins that should have worked and working with the power switch assembly should have resolved this if it was anything other than the motherboard.  We shall see!

Well, success! The sounds of my 15 year-old playing Battlefield 5 means that all is well!

It was the motherboard.  Dell Tech came out today and installed a new motherboard.  He was a really cool guy and let me watch the entire process.  Lots of pieces and parts and literally everything had to be removed to replace the motherboard.  Watching him transfer over the CPU and reinstall the WiFi module was particularly fascinating for me.  So was the liquid cooling system.

Put it all back together and BOOM - an error.  RAM was in the wrong slot.  1 minute fix.  PC started up and uh-oh - Front Fan Failure! Another 1 minute fix.  We missed one connection.  

Third times the charm. Booted right up and all was well.  There wasn't anything I needed to do to get right back to my desktop which I found surprising.  

So this explains why I couldn't jump-start the motherboard with Cass's excellent assistance.  I have half a mind to open this up and try that jumper just to see if it works! I won't though - I'll leave well enough alone!

And the huge plus? MY PC IS QUIET FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! That new Delta power supply is silent.  I didn't realize how much the HuntKey ticking aggravated me. I still have it if the Delta ever fails but I most likely would put in another Delta.  If you have a ticking sound and are under warranty by all means replace it.  Night and day difference.

Lastly, Dell really came through.  I extended the warranty for another year and it wasn't much.  They did not charge me for the motherboard replacement which was quite pleasant.  I would hate to pay $300 for a new motherboard after 15 months of use.  This has left me with a great understanding of the internals of my Aurora and appreciation for Dell.  Thank you Cass, Tesla and others who were so patient and informative! 

To confirm, I have an Aurora R5, around 5 years old. The power switch fell apart, and Cass' information was a life saver. Any time I lose power and have to 'turn it on' I can either jump it via solder points, or even down in the button hole, or where the multiple-colored header hits the mobo.

Thanks Cass. *thumbsup*

Hey man. So I ran into the same problem now. I want to relocate the mobo from the old dell case to a new one which has standard front panel 2 pin connectors. So which pins did you use in the mobo? The fourth and which else? And if it’s not the 3rd or the 5th, then how did you connect it? Soldering? Thanks!

On my R7 I plugged my power cable into the 4th and 5th pins and it worked. It also worked with the 3rd and 4th pins. Honestly I don't understand their layout or why they would make this one proprietary cable on an otherwise seemingly ATX board. I've moved my computer into a new case, and this is the only part I don't have a solution for. It powers on using power button, but no LED and no idea what a permanent solution might be