Aurora-R3, Windows 10 not supported, but will function with tweaks

The Windows 10 upgrade will NOT work on an Aurora R3. I have worked 3 times with Microsoft's tech support on this. It locks up at the same place no matter how you attempt the upgrade: over internet, USB memory, CD/DVD. Turning off all but Microsoft's services, dumbing down bios, turning off McAFee, etc. All fail. They claim that this is  a bios/mfg issue as do several tech sites.   I have spent over 15 hours attempting this upgrade,6 of those were with very patient Microsoft techs, ridiculous. I am now waiting for a tier 2 tech to call. However, since this is a known issue, we are at the bottom of the list.   I have succeeded in a clean install but you cannot do a restart, you need to turn off the pc then do a cold boot. I am not spending 199 for the privilege as well as manually reloading all my appsa and files   This is an $1500 pc. You would think Dell would update the bios after bragging about their new line of laptops.   How about some help here, please

This fix worked for me. the second restart is closer to 71% at the 100% of the 'Install Features and Drivers' portion but it worked. thanx!!!!!

Can we please get a bios update . . .please . . . .

I had this answered below:

It will work with windows 10

the trick is to manually turn off the pc and turn it back on several times during the update. This way the bios issue does not hose the install.

The first one is at about 30% of the install (black background / 30% white circle) this is the finish of the uploading. It will want to reset. As soon as you see the start screen shut down the PC the manually start the PC.

the second restart happens about 71% onto the update when the "Install Features. . . is at 100%). again turn off the PC immediately when you see the start up screen. This is NOT the windows startup screen. It is where you seen the Alienware Logo and the option the setup the bios (Press F2)

You will  need several additions startups and it appears that some will stall and require a cold boot.

Upgrading a Dell Aurora 3 from Win 7 SP1 64bit to Win 10 Pro, before upgrade ran Windows Update, disconnected all drives/USB devices, removed sound card/TV tuner and all disks except c: and keyboard/mouse, cleared 30GB disk space, checked disk for errors, clean boot with just Microsoft Services running, disabled Windows Security Essentials/Firewall, downloaded Win 10 Pro to a USB drive and ran upgrade from there. Got through first boot, then driver install fails with 0xC1900101-0x30018. So I disabled the USB3 in Device Manager and ran again. Now it is back to failing even before the first boot, seems completely random:-( any ideas? Thanks, Peter  

Upgrading a Dell Aurora 3 from Win 7 SP1 64bit to Win 10 Pro, before upgrade ran Windows Update, disconnected all drives/USB devices, removed sound card/TV tuner and all disks except c: and keyboard/mouse, cleared 30GB disk space, checked disk for errors, clean boot with just Microsoft Services running, disabled Windows Security Essentials/Firewall, downloaded Win 10 Pro to a USB drive and ran upgrade from there. Got through first boot, then driver install fails with 0xC1900101-0x30018. So I disabled the USB3 in Device Manager and ran again. Now it is back to failing even before the first boot, seems completely random:-( any ideas? Thanks, Peter

Just some advice that worked for me as I had 2 attempts at installing, one failed and the other successful.  During the Windows 10 upgrade process when the Windows 10 installer automatically restarts (does this around 3 times) get ready with hitting the power off button on the main PC unit exactly when the text for the BIOS  appears (briefly showing your RAID disks etc), don't leave it too late and allow either the Alienware logo to appear or the Windows 10 "window logo" to appear as this will probably mean that the install will fail / hang etc. and it will revert back to Windows 7 (or whatever you had installed before). Once you hit the power off button allow the Windows 10 installer to pass the BIOS screen, Alienware logo screen and Windows installer screen to reach the Windows 10 install progress screen (a big circular progress bar with a percentage complete number) and then repeat this technique when it decides to automatically reboot. Regarding my opinion on Windows 10 on Aurora R3, yes I had the problem with the fans randomly a couple of times although for me repair didn't work, I had to uninstall and then reinstall instead and then set the fans to manual 'fixed' to stop them from going to 100%. One thing I've noticed is that during Windows 10 updates again you have to do a hard reboot with the power off button precisely when the BIOS text appears on boot up after the update has been applied (and do this once only every time there is a Windows 10 update). The other thing is that reboots via the software menu (even when there are no Windows 10 updates just on an ordinary working day) you have to use the power button to shut down (wait 5 seconds) and then press again for reboot  (or just leave it powered down), the software shutdown / restart doesn't really work any more via the menu, if you choose either of these two menu options the system hangs on the next restart - which is disconcerting. I installed the USB drivers and the Chipset drivers before and after the Windows 10 upgrade. I've made numerous changes to my Aurora R3 since I got it, installing a 850w PSU replacing my old 500w PSU and also replacing the NVidia GTX 590 with a GTX980Ti, I also threw in a couple of 3TB hard drives to complement the original 1TB solid state hard drive. Apart from that everything works fine (more or less), the Windows 10 Monitor detection is better than Windows 7, sometimes in Windows 7 it didn't detect my second and third monitors and I had to unplug and re-plug he Display port cables on the graphics card to get a detection (Dell Monitors + a large Cintiq 24HD tablet). One thing though is that sometimes for strange reasons the  reboots just hang and this is not due to a Windows 10 update or me having selected restart via the Windows 10 menu and I have to press the power button on the main PC chassis - this is worrying as what if one day it plain refuses to reboot due to some Windows 10 upgrade or whatever... Dell with your BIOS amendments why could you not do an upgrade to the Alienware Aurora R3 BIOS and make a version A07 ? surely it can't be that difficult ? I remember during the initial sales blurb you were touting this platform as an upgradable gaming platform  so why don't you follow up on that original claim ...........?

JUST AN UPDATE 01/01/2016: The Alienwre Control Center For Aurora R3 started playing up... Automatic did not work, the fans were at 80%+ so I switched to manual and that sorted the problem fixiing them at around 10% fixed etc. but then I had a Windows 10 Update and my world collapsed it made the Master Input Output sister board in the Aurora R3 (which controls the lights and fans and water cooling).. stop working - the Alienware Control Center could not read CPU temperatures etc or read Fan Speeds or allow me to set their speed and the coloured AFX lighting on the side of the R3 could not be set. So I did the whole re-install/repair Alienware Control Center and still it did not detect the MIO, also hitting F12 on reboot and running Dell Diagnostics yielded nothing but an error with the MIO board, it was not even been detected. I then tried the green jumper factory reset trick on the MIO which means moving it to the other pins and restarting and then reverting with power restarts/ power disipatations (holding down power button for 30 secs+) for both jumper positions - that didn't work either. So I managed to fix the MIO problem by simply disconnecting the Power connector to the MIO and restarting to Windows 10 and then restarting Windows 10 again with the MIO power connected... the MIO was detected and I re-installed Alienware Control Center and it detected the MIO and I could set the fan speeds, read the CPU temps and set the colored lights. One - THANKFULLY IT ALL WORKS AGAIN. Also note that I set Windows Power Management to stop Fast Start Ups and to STOP Selective USB Disables.

The other good thing which I've changed recently is that I re-installed (for the 3rd time) the DELL USB drivers and now I can restart the Aurora R3 via the Windows 10 software menu and Windows 10 doesn't hang on startup (requiring me to hit the power button). So all in all I am happy with my Aurora R3 right now

I found this to be the same for my R3. The restart points are at the end the install point, the upgrade drivers. At the bottom of the install screen there are three highlighted phrases that show their progress. As the first 2 get to 100% the pc will automatically restart. These are at about the 30% (install) and about the 70‰ (drivers) mark in the big circle in the center which shows the upgrade progress. There was just a big upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and I had to do the same thing. Restart now never works. Anytime you are asked to restart for any upgrade, select no our later, then do a shutdown and a manual start.

Holy Wow....I'm glad I read this first.....That's a 3 day / 24 beer weekend project!

Ok I'm on Windows 10 Pro right now latest version v1511 (on my Aurora R3) and I've had countless problems with the fans and with experience I've got it under control with two methods, note for both methods it's highly advisable that you when you finish working on your PC that you put it into SLEEP MODE via the Window Start menu for example NOT a POWER SHUT DOWN either via the hardware button OR that same Power Windows menu option as that  has a good chance of messing up the fans again, also under the Windows 10 Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Power options settings I have Balanced and under "Change advanced power settings" link I have "Alien FX" set to OFF (I dunno if that really makes a difference with all of this but here goes:

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(1) METHOD ONE TO FIX THE FANS GOING AT 100% AND GET THEM TO A MORE NORMAL LEVEL (MORE CONVENIENT OPTION):

 If for whatever reason the fans constantly whirl at 100% don't panic, wait for Windows 10 to boot or if you are in Windows 10 and have just woken the machine put the machine into SLEEP MODE via the Windows 10 Start Menu -> Power options, then bring it out of sleep and it should fix it. If this doesn't work power down the Aurora R3 using the hardware power down switch (press of 5 seconds) then wait 8 seconds and press the power switch again (you may get the fans at 100% still but don't worry boot to windows 10) - then when Windows 10 is open go into SLEEP MODE, then come out of sleep mode and the should be normalized at 8%-18% or whatever the standard setting is. I am running Alienware Command Center dunno which version (it doesn't state in the software) but I know that I installed App_DT_AWCC_W7_X04_Setup_TD4C0_ZPE.exe from the official Dell site, it sort of half works some of the sensors are not picking up temps. and the lighting no longer is controllable via this app but you should get some reading.

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(2)METHOD ONE TO FIX THE FANS GOING AT 100% AND GET THEM TO A MORE NORMAL LEVEL (SLIGHTLY MORE INCONVENIENT OPTION):

Ok, this is a slight pain but it works, try it if method 1 is not working... power down your Alienware Aurora R3 completely .. and make sure that you UNPLUG THE POWER from the Aurora R3, press down the Power switch at the front of the Aurora R3 for about 1 minute to ensure that all power is drained. Then find the Aurora R3 MIO sister board which controls the Lighting / Fans inside the case (should be near the front of the case). then unplug the power lead on the MIO Sister board which powers it (I think I remember that it's a white plastic headed 4-pin not 100% on this - wiggle it out gently if it's stiffly locked in). Next Power Up your Aurora R3 into Windows 10 (the fans will be belting at 100%) and when you fully enter Windows 10 wait about 1 minute or so and then quickly Power down (do not leave the fans running at 100% with no control !). Next replug the power lead that on the MIO Sister board in the Aurora R3, close the case and boot up your Aurora R3, the fans should have normalized at the usual 4%-18% whatever the normal is for your environment, I suggest from now o you put the Alienware R3 into SLEEP MODE when you don't need it and DO NOT POWER DOWN as powering down and then up seems to trigger the fan problem..

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enjoy

I should probably note something about the fans. I'm currently running windows 10 home 1511 and you said that shutting down and powering up can mess up the fans. I have rebooted for a windows update and shut down and powered up the computer a good amount of times now and the fans are still working normally. I only had the 100 fan problem when I was running the initial version of windows 10 and fixed it by repairing command center.

When I either decide to power up or power down under Windows 10 Pro  or decided to proceed with a windows update the fans have got stuck on 100% (and have continued to stick at) on average about 1 out of every 6 to 10 times after I've done any one of the two aforementioned things. The problem has got worse over time so I dunno if it's Windows 10 or a component on the MIO failing. Either way either the sleep mode or unplug/replug power to MIO works for me

Peter, Just make sure you are reinstalling 64 bit apps where ever possible. . . .

Third time lucky…

Well after three attempts to get my Dell Aurora R3 upgraded I finally managed it and a couple of days in all seems to be running smoothly!  Without the suggestions of Dell Alienware community I am sure I would not have made it.  

In case anyone is struggling in the last days of the Windows 10 free update here is what worked for me, all based on the technical work done above.  After numerous attempts at up upgrading from Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit via Windows Update and the Media Creation Tool I gave up trying to “upgrade” it failed in random places – in hindsight I think my machine got so confused and Windows Update was knackered.

Using the Media Creation Tool I created a USB boot device.  Unplugged the network cable, booted from the USB, kicked off the clean install, switching off when re-starts were prompted, skipped License Key/software updates until I had a running system.  Updated Renesas USB/Intel Chipset as mentioned above and I can now restart without any problem.  Not even the fan issue has surfaced:-) Hurrah!!!

Now to re-install the rest of my software again At least it will be a nice “clean” PC.

Thanks again for the advice given here by the early adopters on this site!  Peter

Yep all 64 bit re-installed and working now...

One question...  So far I don't have the Alienware Command Centre installed, any suggestions on which version works best with the R3 please?  Peter