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588240
Aurora R3 + Windows 8.1 = warm boot freeze issue
First, let me be clear:
It's impossible to solve the warm boot freeze on Aurora R3 running Windows 8/8.1 (for now)
Neither MBR nor GPT & EFI will solve the problem . Tweaking Windows settings (like disabling fastboot) doesn't do any good.
If you really want Windows 8/8.1 that bad, keep in mind you can never use fastboot or reboot. Whenever you what to reboot your PC, you have to shutdown completely then bootup to Windows 8/8.1, it doesn't have any problem with cold boot (as far as I know) Every time you run into this issue, you have to poweroff by holding power button, then boot again. This happens even during the Windows 8/8.1 installation process.
Then if you have some question about that, please see what I did yesterday trying to solve this problem.
You can skip the first two paragraphs, I know I'm a little wordy :P
I've been testing Windows 8 since Developer Preview. I had the warm boot freeze issue at that time, but I didn't care that much, because I thought it's a but of Developer Preview. Back then, Windows 8 didn't looks as suck as it is now: we still have aero glass, and if you like you can completely disable the "Modern UI" (a.k.a "Metro UI") and have your start button and start menu. Then things changed really quick. Since Customer Preview, I have none of the three features listed above - that's when Windows 8 begin sucks, still have the warm boot freeze issue. Same goes to RTM, and final release of Windows 8. Windows 8.1 did make some improvement, like we can directly go to desktop instead of start screen after login, we have the start button back - we can finally easily shutdown by right click on start button, but we still can't have start menu back, warm boot freeze issue continue exists.
Then I searched through internet, found out I'm not the only victim(and it seems like this issue doesn't only affect Aurora R3 owners) Found a post from a Aurora R3 owner saying after change BIOS setting to boot with "UEFI: Windows Boot Manager", I decided to give a try.
To use that option, clearly I have to install Windows8/8.1 in EFI mode. So I made a bootable UEFI usb-drive (here's a great guide for doing this: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html ) grab a hard drive and completely wiped it, and disconnected all the other hard drives from my PC. I just wanted to start clean in case something goes wrong.
After the first reboot during the installation, I went to BIOS, checked boot section, I saw "UEFI: Windows Boot Manager" there and used it as the only boot device. I hit F10 to save BIOS settings and restart, it freeze once again. So I shutdown by holding power button, and boot again to complete the installation process. Finally I got Windows 8.1 installed to my hard drive (using GPT & EFI) I tried reboot several times, I still have this issue.
Checked a lot posts about this, seems dell doesn't give us what we wanted - a BIOS update to make it compatible with Windows 8/8.1.
But, is it really the fault of DELL / Aurora R3 BIOS? For me, I think it's a Microsoft / Windows 8/8.1 problem.
I just did more tests. Between each test, I wiped out the entire hard drive.
1. Install Windows 7 x64 in EFI mode. result: Working, no reboot freeze issue.
2. Install Ubuntu 13.10 x64 in EFI mode. Working, no reboot freeze issue.
I don't know what you guys think, I'll blame this to Windows 8/8.1 . Since my Aurora R3 has no problem booting other system with EFI mode.
I can boot Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora and even OS X Mountain Lion on my Aurora R3 with no problem, but I can't warm boot Windows 8/8.1 ?! I think I'll never purchase any Windows as far as there‘s another person like Bill Gates being in charge of Microsoft.
I'll keep my Windows 7 and I'm happy with it: I have the eye candy Aero glass effect, I can disable DWM if I want to run some old program doesn't compatible with it ( yes, you can disable DWM in Windows 8/8.1 by kill explorer.exe, suspend winlogon.exe (so it doesn't respawn dwm.exe automaticly) then kill dwm.exe - You can never start explorer.exe in Windows 8 again or you will get a black screen. You can restart explorer.exe in Windows 8.1 since it's using D2D not D3D in Windows 8 explorer, but still buggy and you can get a black screen easily )
If I can't see a good edition of Windows in the future, I think I'd go with Linux with Wayland (maybe Ubuntu with Ubuntu Mir) So far I see nothing good enough for me to upgrade to Windows 8/8.1 and endure the warm boot freeze issue.
Do yourself a favor, do not install Windows 8/8.1 on your Aurora R3.
coreness
1 Message
3
October 17th, 2013 14:00
In order to fix the warm reboot option: After a successful install reinstall Intel chipset drivers from Intel and the Renesas USB 3 driver from Dell (not sure which driver did the trick as I installed both sametime), shut down and problem fixed :) Same fix for windows 8 or 8.1 install.
To install Win 8 or 8.1: After 100% install, hard shutdown as soon as computer reboots and Bios is loaded, waiting for windows screen is too late, power on, then pc will continue (Devices, getting ready), then hard shutdown as soon as computer reboots and Bios is loaded, power on, it will continue (applying pc settings), then hard shutdown as soon as computer reboots and Bios is loaded, power on, it will continue (few more things) then proceeds to account and pc set up. Then apply fix from above. Sucks but works!
gmagenheimer
2 Posts
5
October 26th, 2013 12:00
I have an Aurora R3, and I was able to get both Windows 8 and 8.1 up and running without issue by doing a small bit of legwork. This was not my own discovery (this was worked out by a different user last year).
What you will ultimately be doing is babysitting your installation and then installing two drivers.
The problem with the R3 is when you go to do a warm boot with 8/8.1. This never seems to be a problem on a cold boot. So, when you are installing 8/8.1, you need to watch for when the machine wants to restart. When it gets to that point where you know its safe to cut the power, hold down the power button until the machine shuts off. Push the button again to start it up and let the install continue. Repeat this over and over again until Windows finally finishes installing (like 5 or 6 times... maybe less).
When you finally get it all installed, go and download the following two driver installation packages :
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/alienware-aurora-r3?driverId=R286402&osCode=W764&fileId=2731116122
and
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/alienware-aurora-r3?driverId=R284186&osCode=W764&fileId=2731115303
Run both of them fully. You should be good to go at this point.
I had this same problem a year ago with Windows 8. I performed these steps and my installation has lasted all this time without any problems. When I decided to go and install 8.1, I was horribly reminded that I was going to need to do extra stuff to get up and going. I just finished the install and I'm back where I need to be.
Have fun!
Gary
Onicas
3 Posts
0
October 24th, 2013 10:00
i had the same problem for a long time and i tried everything i could. win7 and kubuntu could reboot all day as long as i never went into win8. as soon as i would log into win8, reboot would freeze even before the bootloader.
i was able to reboot (warm boot) in windows 8 after disabling the usb 3.0 controller. i can just re-enable it whenever i need to use it, but i will usually keep it disabled and i can reboot whenever i need to.
i am still having trouble installing 8.1 but i see there are a lot of issues out there regarding this so i won't go as far to say it's our PC model causing this issue.
ETJNY
3 Posts
0
October 24th, 2013 17:00
I actually tried coreness trick, and it worked for me. It has to be a BIOS issue. It's amazing they won't update it after all the complaints. The system was always blazing fast since I got it, but was never 100% stable. I was thinking about swapping the MB but I would hate for the lighting to stop working. I actually found a guy that seemed to get this all working but I had a few questions but he never got back to me.
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19439601.aspx
Onicas
3 Posts
0
October 26th, 2013 16:00
i wanted to jump on here and thank you gary. i installed the usb 3.0 driver (not the chipset as i just installed a new one yesterday from intel) and i did a successful warm boot without having to disable the 3.0 controller. i am going to try the 8.1 update without doing the force shut off trick just yet. i will post my results. i can at least do a warm boot without disabling anything. hoping the TS will try this too.
THANKS!
Beugnen
18 Posts
0
October 28th, 2013 08:00
Thanks so much GMAGENHEIMER, that worked for me too!
VisualCSharp
2 Posts
0
November 5th, 2013 20:00
Does anyone have hard evidence that Dell has decided to not address this issue? IMO it's a big blunder if they decide not to. There are undoubtedly a lot of owners out there who will never see this thread, decide that their PC doesn't work with Windows 8 and go out and buy a cheap HP, instead.
I hope for Dell's sake they jump on this immediately and release a fix. I pin the blame on Dell here. This seems to me to be a BIOS incompatibility and not something wrong with Windows 8.
ETJNY
3 Posts
0
November 13th, 2013 17:00
Here is the official BS. It's in the first table.
http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/04/KCS/KcsArticles/ArticleView?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&docid=575111
And multiple alienware employees that answer in the forums have confirmed it.
I got it to run with the workarounds posted in the forums, but it's not as stable as it should be.
dduttonnc
12 Posts
2
December 19th, 2013 04:00
Dell has CONFIRMED it's a bios issue. and has flat out said the R3 "is not windows 8 compatible... and they refuse to make any changes to make it more compatible with win 8 or 8.1
The issue actually lies in the audio HW... it has to do with something upon a warm boot that the bios doesn't fully reset it... and when you warm boot, you will here some crackle and pop from your speakers.. then it locks.. it even does this on the install, boot, or recovery disc...
upgrading from 7 to 8 on this machine was a nightmare.. every time it tried to restart, I had to step in and power down..that was the only way...
Fast start up = WORKS... why.. all it does it logs you out.. and hibernates... and that powers off the system
basically anything works except restart... and if you choose that.. you just power down on POST.. and power back up...
VisualCSharp
2 Posts
0
December 19th, 2013 06:00
Thanks for the update.
This pretty much solidifies me never buying another Dell PC. They're a commodity low-cost hardware seller now, even for their supposedly top-of-the-line offerings. I'll be building my own PCs with better hardware from now on.
gg, Dell.
Onicas
3 Posts
0
December 19th, 2013 07:00
During the upgrade to 8 then 8.1 I had to force shut down at post every time but after the upgrade I installed the USB driver pointed out above and now I can warm reset all I want. Yea it's really annoying that Dell won't fix it but it was a small price for an otherwise great machine now on 8.1 with no other problems.
dduttonnc
12 Posts
0
December 19th, 2013 08:00
You can also edit the bios to upgrade the intel raid firmware to v11 or v12 to support 4TB , or larger hard drives. Doing that plus new drivers and software solved it.
http://www.win-lite.de/wbb/board208-specials/board281-bios-bios-modding/16658-bios-modding-how-to-update-pci-rom-modules-of-an-ami-phoenix-award-bios/
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
0
January 15th, 2014 14:00
Interesting.
I wonder if you have stumbled upon one of the reasons some Aurora R3 has always been unstable (even on Win-7). One was RAM type and config, but this sounds plausable as well.
I wonder if you Disable on-board Sound from BIOS and install a nice (simple, stable) famous-maker PCIe sound-card ... I wonder if that fixes that issue?
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
June 1st, 2015 15:00
i know its a old thread bu ive got a upgrade notification in my toolbar tday to claim a windows 10 upgrade will i need to go threw this messing to get that to run on my r3 ive just upgraded my gcard to a gtx 970 strix will help off a fellow member and that worked no messing any replies i would be gratefull
KelC
98 Posts
0
June 2nd, 2015 13:00
I wonder has anybody since tried using a pcie sound card and does this fix all issues with rebooting? If this is the case that is a great and simple fix to use windows 10, being that they cut support for this computer right after I got the thing it would be nice to get directx 12.