This post is more than 5 years old
1 Message
0
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.
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
June 2nd, 2015 15:00
its deffo a thread id like to keep going because most of us will want win 10 i love win 7 but the future is dx12 for a gamer like myself
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
•
17K Posts
0
June 2nd, 2015 15:00
KelC
98 Posts
0
June 3rd, 2015 06:00
DirectX 12 will sadly be Windows 10 only. I really wish I could say good things about Dell on their "gaming" systems but I just can't stand a company that ends support on their systems just a few months after purchase and refused to fix compatibility at least on a major OS change "read Windows 8 at the time". It's really the only big flaw never fixed and they didn't even bother. They can take $2,000 but they can't give a *** if you can use it.
Anyways bitterness aside I'm in hopes some kind of community work around will happen for Windows 10, it is a huge step up from all other Windows releases and DirectX 12 alone will improve gaming on PCs.
Beugnen
18 Posts
0
June 3rd, 2015 07:00
It is a sad state of affairs.
DirectX being Windows 10 or not, Windows 8 and modern video cards generally require UEFI anyway so that rules out the R3.
I'm very happy with my Genesis Origin PC
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
June 11th, 2015 16:00
good news well today i tried installing win 10 by following gmagenheimer's instruction so we all should be able to accept the upgrade next month with a bit of ballche better than not being able to use dx12
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
June 11th, 2015 17:00
bios ver 06 im on plus to me who isnt the most tech savvy person i was buzzing i managed it plus this is just to help the average joe like myself i just updated it works for win 10 aswell by following gmagenheimer's instruction so thanks to him also if it helps anyone i upgrade gpu to gtx 970 strix and works superb in win 10 and 7
KelC
98 Posts
0
June 11th, 2015 17:00
All you did was install windows 10 and cold boot during the setup restarts and install the old Intel chipset drivers and USB 3 drivers and it worked? You didn't have to change anything in the BIOS even? Thanks for your post on this by the way.
One more thing which BIOS rev are you using?
PatrickMM
2 Posts
0
July 12th, 2015 12:00
This worked like a charm for me on the Windows 10 Insider build 10162. Great work.
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
July 21st, 2015 03:00
hi mate did you manage to get alienware controll centre working on win 10 preview if so what one did you use thanks
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
July 30th, 2015 15:00
well i thought i would reply i am running win 10 no issues command centre works fine but i just done it from windows upgrade keeping all my win 7 stuff but still had to install the files by uninstaling usb 3.0 driver to install the older version as it said i had a newer version already
lagrangian
6 Posts
0
July 30th, 2015 15:00
nice. yeah i installed through upgrade too. something weird going on with fans pulsing at start up, all fans full speed in pulses about ten times, so reinstalled command centre on a hunch, didnt fix fan issue n broke command centre.
did a system restore n command centre working again...
still fan issue, but no reboot probl;ems n everythin else seems fine...
lagrangian
6 Posts
0
July 30th, 2015 15:00
the installing usb3 drivers after installing windows ten works fine.
need to babysit install n power off on bios load as previous messages state, but works fine.
never had issues with sound cards/onboard, used onboard and firewire soundcards n seems to have no relevance.
possible issue in windows ten with command centre though, software not even updated to windows 8 so no surprise.
loved my r3 til all this windows un upgradability.. the most upgradable computer ever said the advert, should be reported to trading standards.
due an upgraded pc soon, hp here i come.
dfernand
16 Posts
0
July 30th, 2015 16:00
ok so let me try and get this clear for Aurora R3, if you are doing either a clean or upgrade install from Windows 7 (say) to Windows 10...
1) Whenever Windows 10 installation reboots the Aurora R3, during the reboot WHEN the Alienware face shows and then the BIOS details in text (can't remember them but the memory size is displayed and the RAID drive size etc all in text) you have to do a hard reset with the button at THIS point BEFORE you get to the 'Starting Windows' or 'Windows' screen ? Do this once each time the Windows 10 install reboots and then allow it to continue on each 'next' reboot. What happens if you miss a hard reboot during the Windows 10 install and it gets to the 'Starting / Installing Windows' part ? does it freeze forever or then decide to abandon the Windows 10 install and revert to Windows 7 ?
2) After Windows 10 installs you have to install those two Dell provided files listed in a thread above i.e. the Intel Chipset one and then the USB 3.0. one. If you don't do this will USB 3.0 ports just not work ?
3) After performing steps 1) and 2) and Windows 10 is 'working' do you still have to do a hard reboot every time to shut the machine down ? does soft reboot not work anymore ? did alienware have a bespoke soft reboot ? is that the problem...? if so is there anyway of circumventing that ?
4) Also what about the 'forced' Windows 10 updates... what happens when they decide to restart your PC ? what happens if you forget to hit the hard reset button after Windows 10 update decides to reset your PC ?
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
July 30th, 2015 16:00
my fans seem ok they do seem a little more active than win 7 also with command centre take note of your version no as installing a early one can break the board that controls it im just going to keep my eye on things it is sad we cant upgrade ive even considered swapping my motherboard as a last alternative
scousetomo
31 Posts
0
July 31st, 2015 03:00
Yes mate all you need to do is if it wants to restart as it reeboots turn it off at BIOS screen if you get to the windows screen it will hang and you will have to do it all again its just a few steps .when you are installed and booted up if you reeboot it will hang and that's why you install the 2 files otherwise when you want to reeboot you have to shut down in windows instead of restart the files take care of this issue I've been running mine for couple of days and its stable so you should be OK