FYI, I used the Dell Alienware updater to update the Bios to 1.0.17 and as half expected the power button is still unresponsive (save for the above temporary workaround). I then updated the OS to Windows 11 and no change.
Indeed we’ll have to wait for Dell to provide the much needed treat, rather than the “trick” we’re currently experiencing. In the meantime I’ll use the power sleep function and if the PC ends up off for some reason, I will be using a socket switch or switchable extension lead rather than continuing to plug in the power lead to power on, in conjunction with holding down the power on button. Makes for a cleaner, safer connection I feel, and still manages to crank the PC up.
Thanks Dell. Over to you to help right this pain in A problem…
Hey chris. I am experiencing this same issue currently. My pc is about 2 years old i was literally playing last noght and it was perfectly fine. I went to power on and absolutely nothing. However the psu test button in the back passes and the fans will turn on when its held down. Wondering how you were able to adjust bios when the pc didnt power on? Really freaking out rn as i paid like over 4k for this computer.
Been using my Aurora R8 since December 2019 and have had no dramas with it until today.
This morning I powered it on as I usually do and used my PC for a few hours and turned it off for the day. All ran fine.
Went just now to power it on for some late night gaming and hitting the power button on the tower does nothing at all. Its like completely dead.
I pressed the little button at the back of the tower next to the power cord and I hear the fans power up and a green light comes on but soon as I let go of the button it shuts all down again.
Have tried removing the power cord from the wall socket and holding the power button down for 15-30 seconds and then reconnecting the power and trying but sadly no luck.
Really starting to freak out now at the moment as I dont know what has happened or what else I could do?
Has this ever happened to anyone before with the R8 or similar model?
Thanks in advance,
Chris
Got several PMs from the oxymoronically entitled “ Dell Cares” Bot/Channel/Chocolate Fireguard informing me that I am out of warranty and inviting me to engage with another part of their team, for a fee. They have effectively sabotaged our computers and want payment to even begin to help. Beggars belief. Never again will I buy a Dell. Period.
The first thing was to get the PC to power back on, if i couldn't do that then there was no chance of downgrading my BIOS.
I had to do the unplug trick, Having the power cord out holding down the power button for 25 secs and at the same time plugging in the main power cord at the back. This so far was the only way i was able to get my PC back on.
After that i was able to go backwards in the BIOS installs and found only 1.0.9 worked to restore the power button to working order.
I got a few of those..i was fortunate that when i bought my R8 & the 34 UW monitor there was a sale for the extended warranty so i upgraded mine to 4 years in total.
When i rang i got connected to a gentleman in Sydney NSW Australia. He was very helpful and courteous and if it wasn't for him i doubt we would have been able to work out the problem together.
AWCC seems problematic, caused me super-sized headache, almost sent my 'puter back to depot, found my problem, when phone support couldn't, I just got lucky, does anyone know if alienware puters will operated without AWCC? for my own information?
Just went to turn on my R8 and noticed it switched on then a few moments later off again and boots into the BIOS update screen!!!
Once it was done i obviously checked the version and you bet ya its updated to 1.0.17.
Here's the more weird part....Windows Update has always been left in Paused mode and i checked there has been no updates via there and in the Support Assist App i have not even launched it and once again in its history it shows no downloads at all, nothing. Also nothing in Windows notification.
How did my R8 download the newer BIOS again? This is so weird.
Since its forced updated again im going to let Windows Update resume now and see if anything downloads and will test. If the same thing happens though with the power button not working. Fingers crossed ill get it powered back up and then downgrade to 1.0.9
This needs to be sorted out though as i do not want to be running BIOS updates every single week!
Same thing happened to me but it bricked the motherboard, finally purchased extended service, dell confirmed motherboard is bricked, dell is coming to replace motherboard this week. So my perfectly great running 2 year old system has to have service due to a defective update and I have wasted a substantial amount of time and money.
I had same issue with auto update to 1.0.17. So what I did after this update, in Device manager I have removed device with indication of bios (checked box remove drivers as well), disabled WU, started flashin 1.0.9, while flashing PC reboots several times, around 4-5, on 4th or 5th reboot, I was hitting F2 to get to BIOS, where I disabled UEFI capsule.
So after this PC starts with 1.0.9 and no update to 1.0.17.
p.s. I did this process 3-4 times... to stay on 1.0.9
So im downgrading to 1.0.9, it does its boot thing & soon as its done and goes into Windows the little notification pops up saying 1.0.17 has been installed and pending restart.
I dont understand how 1.0.17 is being downloaded and installed while the BIOS is being flashed with 1.0.9??
Are you sure its completely bricked? Have you tried the power cord remove, 25 second power button hold and then while holding the button still plug the power cord in?
I swear i must have flashed my BIOS to 1.0.9 (from 1.0.17 forced) like 6 times tonight in a row.
Your suggestion so far looks like it stopped it from downloading and installing 1.0.17.
Did exactly as you said, rolled back to 1.0.9 and hit the F2 key just before it was about to load into Windows (i monitored the last few times and knew exactly the right moment to hit the key) then disabled the UEFI capsule and so far i dont think its installed 1.0.17.
Will do a few more restarts and Shut downs tonight to see how i go.
What i don't understand is how was everything back to normal from last week for me since going back to 1.0.9 and then tonight all off a sudden Windows downloaded 1.0.17 even that i have WU on paused since last week?
Something is definitely not right here that's for sure.
Luccathedog
7 Posts
0
October 31st, 2021 12:00
Yes, I updated to W11 today and the issue continues
Luccathedog
7 Posts
0
October 31st, 2021 12:00
FYI, I used the Dell Alienware updater to update the Bios to 1.0.17 and as half expected the power button is still unresponsive (save for the above temporary workaround). I then updated the OS to Windows 11 and no change.
Indeed we’ll have to wait for Dell to provide the much needed treat, rather than the “trick” we’re currently experiencing. In the meantime I’ll use the power sleep function and if the PC ends up off for some reason, I will be using a socket switch or switchable extension lead rather than continuing to plug in the power lead to power on, in conjunction with holding down the power on button. Makes for a cleaner, safer connection I feel, and still manages to crank the PC up.
Thanks Dell. Over to you to help right this pain in A problem…
tismeriri
2 Posts
0
October 31st, 2021 13:00
Hey chris. I am experiencing this same issue currently. My pc is about 2 years old i was literally playing last noght and it was perfectly fine. I went to power on and absolutely nothing. However the psu test button in the back passes and the fans will turn on when its held down. Wondering how you were able to adjust bios when the pc didnt power on? Really freaking out rn as i paid like over 4k for this computer.
Luccathedog
7 Posts
1
October 31st, 2021 13:00
Got several PMs from the oxymoronically entitled “ Dell Cares” Bot/Channel/Chocolate Fireguard informing me that I am out of warranty and inviting me to engage with another part of their team, for a fee. They have effectively sabotaged our computers and want payment to even begin to help. Beggars belief. Never again will I buy a Dell. Period.
Chris-WH
1 Rookie
•
86 Posts
0
October 31st, 2021 14:00
Hi there,
The first thing was to get the PC to power back on, if i couldn't do that then there was no chance of downgrading my BIOS.
I had to do the unplug trick, Having the power cord out holding down the power button for 25 secs and at the same time plugging in the main power cord at the back. This so far was the only way i was able to get my PC back on.
After that i was able to go backwards in the BIOS installs and found only 1.0.9 worked to restore the power button to working order.
Chris-WH
1 Rookie
•
86 Posts
1
October 31st, 2021 14:00
I got a few of those..i was fortunate that when i bought my R8 & the 34 UW monitor there was a sale for the extended warranty so i upgraded mine to 4 years in total.
When i rang i got connected to a gentleman in Sydney NSW Australia. He was very helpful and courteous and if it wasn't for him i doubt we would have been able to work out the problem together.
Memphoman
1 Rookie
•
39 Posts
0
October 31st, 2021 19:00
AWCC seems problematic, caused me super-sized headache, almost sent my 'puter back to depot, found my problem, when phone support couldn't, I just got lucky, does anyone know if alienware puters will operated without AWCC? for my own information?
Chris-WH
1 Rookie
•
86 Posts
0
November 1st, 2021 02:00
UPDATE:
Ok now this is super weird....
Just went to turn on my R8 and noticed it switched on then a few moments later off again and boots into the BIOS update screen!!!
Once it was done i obviously checked the version and you bet ya its updated to 1.0.17.
Here's the more weird part....Windows Update has always been left in Paused mode and i checked there has been no updates via there and in the Support Assist App i have not even launched it and once again in its history it shows no downloads at all, nothing. Also nothing in Windows notification.
How did my R8 download the newer BIOS again? This is so weird.
Since its forced updated again im going to let Windows Update resume now and see if anything downloads and will test. If the same thing happens though with the power button not working. Fingers crossed ill get it powered back up and then downgrade to 1.0.9
This needs to be sorted out though as i do not want to be running BIOS updates every single week!
BigD-1
17 Posts
0
November 1st, 2021 02:00
Same thing happened to me but it bricked the motherboard, finally purchased extended service, dell confirmed motherboard is bricked, dell is coming to replace motherboard this week. So my perfectly great running 2 year old system has to have service due to a defective update and I have wasted a substantial amount of time and money.
KentXRS
27 Posts
2
November 1st, 2021 02:00
When downgraded to 1.0.9, on some cycle of reboots, you should get to BIOS via F2 and make below settings as
====
WHILE BOOTING, ACCESS THE BOOTING MENU.
2) Go to Security TAb
3) Go down on the UEFI Capsule firmware updates
4) Put Disabled
5) Save and reset.
Was mentioned by @dragsther
This should stop WU to make updates to 1.0.17 on each reboot.
KentXRS
27 Posts
2
November 1st, 2021 03:00
This is related to 'new feature' that being pushed by MS to PC vendors that they need to support BIOS Windows update.
more details I found from Lenovo, as users had same 'bad' exprience...
https://support.lenovo.com/ru/en/solutions/ht510206-bios-is-updated-automatically-by-windows-update-thinkpad
https://windowsreport.com/bios-update-via-windows-update/
So now Dell's users have it.
I had same issue with auto update to 1.0.17. So what I did after this update, in Device manager I have removed device with indication of bios (checked box remove drivers as well), disabled WU, started flashin 1.0.9, while flashing PC reboots several times, around 4-5, on 4th or 5th reboot, I was hitting F2 to get to BIOS, where I disabled UEFI capsule.
So after this PC starts with 1.0.9 and no update to 1.0.17.
p.s. I did this process 3-4 times... to stay on 1.0.9
Chris-WH
1 Rookie
•
86 Posts
1
November 1st, 2021 03:00
Very sorry to hear this BigD. That is totally unacceptable how forced updates can damage our systems like this
Chris-WH
1 Rookie
•
86 Posts
0
November 1st, 2021 03:00
Ok this is getting super weird now.
So im downgrading to 1.0.9, it does its boot thing & soon as its done and goes into Windows the little notification pops up saying 1.0.17 has been installed and pending restart.
I dont understand how 1.0.17 is being downloaded and installed while the BIOS is being flashed with 1.0.9??
Chris-WH
1 Rookie
•
86 Posts
0
November 1st, 2021 04:00
WOW if things couldnt get worse huh
Far out.
Are you sure its completely bricked? Have you tried the power cord remove, 25 second power button hold and then while holding the button still plug the power cord in?
Does it do anything or nothing at all?
Chris-WH
1 Rookie
•
86 Posts
0
November 1st, 2021 04:00
Kent you are an absolute life saver my friend!
I swear i must have flashed my BIOS to 1.0.9 (from 1.0.17 forced) like 6 times tonight in a row.
Your suggestion so far looks like it stopped it from downloading and installing 1.0.17.
Did exactly as you said, rolled back to 1.0.9 and hit the F2 key just before it was about to load into Windows (i monitored the last few times and knew exactly the right moment to hit the key) then disabled the UEFI capsule and so far i dont think its installed 1.0.17.
Will do a few more restarts and Shut downs tonight to see how i go.
What i don't understand is how was everything back to normal from last week for me since going back to 1.0.9 and then tonight all off a sudden Windows downloaded 1.0.17 even that i have WU on paused since last week?
Something is definitely not right here that's for sure.
Thank you so very much once again!