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December 30th, 2011 22:00

Alienware Aurora bios update failed

So, my Alienware was having issues to begin with... restarting randomly... could barely boot took like 10 tries... but in safe mode it would work fine... well i updated the bios from A04 to A11 and the thing froze... let it sit for a long time... nothing... forced restarted it... now what it does is boots up... fans kick in, rev up, down, than shuts off.... sits off for 5 seconds and powers itself back on... I can force turn it off and it stays off... 

What in the world did I do?  

Hard Drive, 640GB, S2, 7.2K Western Digital, XL320

Processor, I7-920, 2.66, 8MB, Bloomfield, D0

 3G, 3X1GB, - from factory

Advanced Micro Devices, Radeon, 5970, E120A

4VWF2 - motherboard model number

Also if you think it is the mobo... what is a good replacement?  IT guy said it was $1K for a replacement

7 Posts

December 30th, 2011 23:00

There should be a jumper close to the battery on the motherboard to reset the bios back to the factory bios. Remove the jumper and then replace it back on and it should reset the bios,  Or you could also remove the battery for a few minutes and then replace it back then try to start up the computer.

2 Posts

December 30th, 2011 23:00

Tried that... before that the computer would just cycle reboots with the fans... never shut off

Community Manager

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54.2K Posts

January 2nd, 2012 06:00

jubjubw,

Contact Alienware Support (800-254-3692). Explain that you attempted to update the Bios using the Dell supplied file from our File Library.
- If in warranty, they will setup an onsite service to replace the motherboard.
- If out of warranty but inside 6 months of the warranty end date, they should setup a one time only motherboard exchange. You will have to swap out the motherboard yourself.
- If out of warranty and outside 6 months of the warranty end date, you will have to purchase the motherboard from Spare Parts 800-357-3355 and replace it yourself.

8 Wizard

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17K Posts

January 2nd, 2012 12:00

jubjubw,

 

- If out of warranty but inside 6 months of the warranty end date, they should setup a one time only motherboard exchange. You will have to swap out the motherboard yourself.
- If out of warranty and outside 6 months of the warranty end date, you will have to purchase the motherboard from Spare Parts 800-357-3355 and replace it yourself.

 

So, Dell is now limiting it to 6 months after warranty expires ?

For those of you that haven't been following along, that's a new policy change.

January 2nd, 2012 13:00

Isn't there a recovery method involving a usb stick formatted in FAT32 with the bios file very specifically named on it?

8 Wizard

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17K Posts

February 11th, 2012 00:00

Isn't there a recovery method involving a usb stick formatted in FAT32 with the bios file very specifically named on it?

 

Yes, doing it outside Windows is much safer.

See my Favorites list under my username.

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