Alienware Aurora won't boot. Help!

6 beeps is video card failure.

Try re-seating video card or install a different PCIe one (even if smaller).

Video Card? Well damn. Thanks for the advice. I'll see what I can do.

Alright, I opened the case up and cleaned it out pretty well. Dusted all of the case fans, and payed a lot of attention to the HD5970. I didn't take the card out entirely, because it is somewhat difficult to remove for me, but I did check to see if it was secure, which the card and cables appeared to be.

Shortly after, I booted the PC and it worked like a charm. I opened up GPU-Z to monitor temps and ran Dell's PC checkup diagnostic scan to see if everything was working properly. It was.

Confident that it was just some pesky dust, or the card was simply loose, I began playing Diablo 3. About 15 minutes in, I was greeted with another hard freeze. Very annoyed, I opened up the case while the computer was still on to see if the video card's fan was responding, to see if power was even getting to the card. It was and the fan was running fine, but I noticed something odd.

The card was hot, painful to the touch hot, and the fan was running at what appeared to be an idle speed regardless. I understand that it's not unusual for this particular card to run above 80C, which would be painful to the touch, but the fact that the fan was not screaming to help bring it down kind of baffled me.

I wish I could say what temp the card peaked at; however, I was unable to view the GPU-Z readings.

Is it possible that one of the cores is simply overheating and locking the card up? Would that cause a 6-beep error boot code? Is it possible that it ran so hot the first time it locked up, that with the case still closed, it could reboot and lock up from simply browsing the web?

This is sort of baffling me. I have the latest ATI drivers, and regularly do hardware diagnostics and sweeps. If the card had gone bad, I would imagine it would simply cease to function altogether; however, I'm sitting here using it to type this message, with the case wide open, and it's running fine. Although, the idle temp of GPU temp #2 is roughly 64C, which is running on average about 5-10C higher than the other sectors. All of the temps seem abnormally high for idle, considering my room's temp is typically 69-70F.

What's the most likely issue? It is proving that it works, yet it intermittently locks up. Letting it sit with the case open for a moment allows me to reboot the PC without a boot error. I'm leaning towards an overheating issue, but don't want to rule anything out. Should I take it out, remove the shield, and attempt to give it a deep clean. I'll be 100% honest, I have never done it, and the PC sits on he carpet under my desk, which I've recently been told is a dust haven. So has 4 years of dust build-up in the HD5970 caused it to start croaking?

Please help, any advice is very much welcome. I'll have to remove the card and attempt to clean it, but if this seems like a familiar issue to anyone, some insight would help a ton. Thanks, guys and gals.

CPUID HW-Monitor for CPU-core and GPU Video Temps. Min will be Idle, Max will be Max Gaming. Capture a ScreenShot.

Video cards usually gradually fail. But anything less than 100% operational is really total failure. Video card TroubleShooting 101 is REMOVE and re-seat card in slot.

Not sure what max temp you have. 80c is ok for 5970 but not much more. You can adjust Fan profile in Catalyst CC.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/285547-33-hd5970-running

To clean out card (fans and heatsink fins) you will likely have to remove card and use air compressor at 40psi to blow though all openings and directions. That's what I do once a year. Also whole machine, fans and radiator.

Most air comes in the lower case front. You can cut and easily install some filter material down there. Use pre-filter from wall AC unit.

Turn up your PCIe fan. Use Manual then Curve.

Try CCC driver v13.12. I've been running it for a couple of months now and seems very stable on my AMD-5870 card. Ran v13.1 for about a year period before that (also stable on 5xxx).

Hi!

Everything is pointing towards a Video Card failure, but in order to confirm it's overheating we need to see the temperatures when the system is under stress, cause that seems to be when it freezes. 

Another way to get the temperatures during stress is by running an AlienAutopsy Gaming Test or Heaven Benchmark. Both of these test will stress the GPU and give you temperature readings at the same time.

Let me know the results!

I'll definitely do that as soon as possible. Thanks for the reply!

Alright, guys and gals. I did the Gaming Stress Test in Alienware Autopsy and the machine passed with flying colors...as far as I can tell. A few questions and observations:

1. The first 2 tests only ran at about 8-9 FPS, and performed fairly awful; however, the rest of the tests ran extremely smoothly, usually achieving over 100FPS. Not sure what that is all about.

2. I noticed it was only testing one of the cores (the HD5970 has 2 cores), or at least that's what it appeared to be doing. It has 2GB of VRAM, and each test only listed the temp for "Core 0" with 1GB of memory.

3. The temps listed during the test peaked @ roughly 72C, which is not bad at all. Checking GPU-Z @ the same time, I noticed GPU temp #2 (No clue what zone that covers) was @ about 76C or so. Regardless, none of that is very bad.

4. @Tesla: I went into the fan control and did what you said. My PCi fan was only running @ 2% I noticed, and I don't believe that changed often. When I set it to curve, it shot up to 22%, with only a slight amount of audible fan noise. I also went ahead and set the Harddrive fan to curve as well, would you recommend that? Also, just curious if setting that to manual will mess with the system fan, radiator fan, etc. etc. It only lists the PCi fan and Harddrive fan in that area, but I'm always apprehensive about setting things to manual.

5. I have the complete detailed report of the Gaming Stress Test linked to my desktop, but it's an internet explorer link and I'm not quite sure how I can link it here for you all to see.

6. On a side note, are there any updates I could possibly be needing? I regularly check and update my Video Card, and I've browsed through Dell's update list, but never really saw anything too pivotal. I don't think I've ever updated the BIOS or anything else besides the video card, sound card, and maybe the network card. Just curious if Dell's scan can do that, or has done that, for me.

So, does any of this make sense? The only thing I've changed since the lock-ups was slightly adjust to PCI-fan. I have yet to remove the card and clean it, reseat it, etc...which I most definitely plan on doing. I'm also considering replacing the original stock fan with a new one, since I've had the worst rattling issues with it for some time, and I doubt it is running efficiently. Would that be easy? Or should I bring the card to a local computer shop?

My brand new Dell Inspiron 7000 i7/gtx 750m laptop just randomly died on me, so I'm simply miserable when it comes to electronics right now. Luckily that machine is still under warranty; however, my poor desktop and it's 4-year old gigantic elite graphics card are not. It probably appears like I handle my electronics poorly, but I really don't. My current ordeal baffles me.

1. I also went ahead and set the Harddrive fan to curve as well, would you recommend that?   2. Also, just curious if setting that to manual will mess with the system fan, radiator fan, etc. etc. It only lists the PCi fan and Harddrive fan in that area, but I'm always apprehensive about setting things to manual.   3. I have the complete detailed report of the Gaming Stress Test linked to my desktop, but it's an internet explorer link and I'm not quite sure how I can link it here for you all to see.

1. Yes.

2. No. The Radiator fan is system controlled.

3. I use OCCT (Power Supply Test) for whole machine Stress-Test. Heaven is also good for Video Card.

Well, allowing it to not be suffocating itself can do wonders.  

What AMD-CCC drivers are you running?

Changing the radiator fan is possible but be sure you get the exact right one or replacement.

Changing the video card fan is a major job (also, the heat-sinks might come off in the process). They are also hard to find (a new working AMD fan). An experienced person should do it. I wouldn't mess with it until you are sure the card is good.

Alright. I just finished running the Heaven benchmark for a good 15-20 minutes. My computer was stable the whole way through. I'm pretty sure I figured out what's going on, though, after watching the temperatures during the test and considering what I noticed earlier tonight.

Needless to say, the card got hot. Really hot. At one point it nearly reached 89C, then the fans started to absolutely roar, and it brought it back down to 86C or so. This is after I popped open the side of the case to allow for some more airflow. I'm not sure if the Heaven test puts considerably more stress on GPU than Diablo 3 @ Ultra settings, but if those temperatures were any indicator of what the card goes through, then I can guess what happened during the lock-ups.

In addition to the poor cooling, which I'm guessing is absolutely to blame on dust build-up and a loose fan, I noticed earlier tonight (after cleaning and reinstalling the video drivers), that my computer randomly decided to boot without activating the case fans or radiator. I checked the thermal controller only to see everything @ 0, with the pump being listed as disabled. Looking at my case, I noticed the front alien-head light was using the lighting pattern associated with my sleep configuration. I'm not sure how long this has been going on, or how frequently it happens, but it definitely makes for a nasty overheating combo.

So, my theory for the lock-ups and the 6-beep codes is as follows: My case decided to pretend it was still in sleep mode while the computer was active, disabling all of the case fans. This, combined with the poor cooling of my HD5970, resulted in the card radically overheating and locking up. I know the card locking up is an indicator of a fail safe to prevent hardware damage, so I'm really hoping that the card endured with no permanent side effects. I have yet to attempt to play Diablo 3 again, but I am about to do that right now.

Considering that the Alienware Gaming Stress Test and Heaven Benchmarks didn't cause any sort of a lock-up, I can only assume that Diablo 3 will run fine. I'm going to play the game with the fan curves set, and the case wide open, and see if it still manages to freeze on me. If it does, then I can't fathom what the issue could be, aside from some conflict with my video drivers and the application (which I thought would show up in my system's reliability history, but unlike previous issues I've had with a faulty card, there are no system errors recorded with the lock-ups).

I'd also like to point out that my Benchmark result was 1718 with the settings: Direct3D11, 1920x1080, and High quality. I have no earthly idea if that is any good. My CPU, GPU, and memory are all @ factory clock settings.

Looking forward to what you all think about this information. As it stands, if Diablo 3 runs fine, I'm definitely going to bring my desktop to a local shop to get it thoroughly cleaned and evaluated. This old girl could use some sprucing up.

*Slight Update* Googled some benchmark results and saw a competition to run everything on ultra, extreme tessellation, and 8x AA. I gave it a try and the results were hilarious. I scored like a 438 I believe...lol. With the case wide open, the temps stayed very reasonable, however. I think it was @ about 76C by the time the test ended. Thought that was great, but odd and inconsistent with my last Heaven test. I'm guessing since I waited until it reached 85C+ before opening the case the first time, that it was sort of too little too late; whereas, the case being open from the get go on the new test prevented the spike. What's the greatest detriment to my score? I would imagine that my CPU clock of 2.67 is just not good enough for such a demanding test.

Sounds about right to me.

You mentioned cleaning it. If you still haven't removed the 5970, and cleaned with air-compressor (like I mentioned above) I would definitely do that soon.

Yeah, that's next on the agenda. I just played Diablo 3 for about 1 1/2 hours with no issue whatsoever. I just kept the case open and monitored the temps. The highest recorded temp was 82C in "GPU Temp#2". All of the other readings floated around 72-74C. I'm guessing that second reading is coming from somewhere deep in the card, possibly by the second core. I'm betting air can't get back there due to dust build-up.

Yeah I was looking @ the benchmarks and overall performance to value. The R9 270 looks like a steal.

Actually, it seems there are a ton of cards out there for under $200 that outperform my current one. Hmm...

Can my mobo even support these new cards? I read something about PCi express 3.0 or something. I think my current card uses 2.1? I'm not familiar with connector types.

You know, if you are going to keep the Aurora a while longer ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45YGDChR4Zc

The new AMD R7 and smaller R9 cards are pretty inexpensive also. XFX cards should still have lifetime warranty.