Aurora R4 BIOS ROM Checksum Failure But Boots 50% of the Time?

Thanks for the reply.

I just ran the ePSA test and everything passed.

As for updating the BIOS, I tried doing it a year or so ago and I think it was A07 to A09 or something, but it ended up bricking the motherboard so i had to get it replaced under the warranty.

The current mobo i have has A08 on it. I'm just thinking that if i try to update it, its going to brick again and this time i'm going to have to pay to get it fixed.

And I'm not sure if this helps at all but the failed booting seems to be getting worse. The first time i boot it up in the day it almost always starts normally, but if i restart it i have to try booting it about 5-10 times to get it to boot.

Im thinking of installing windows 8 on it again to see if that might fix the problem at all

Hi, 

Well if this is a software issue, doing a clean installation of Windows should fix it. You could also use the Alien Respawn software to restore your system to factory settings. Click here for more information on Alien Respawn.

I installed W8 on a new HDD and the problem is still the same. Alien Respawn didn't work either.

If I was to update the bios what happens if during the update when the system restarts, it fails to boot? Wouldnt that brick the mobo again?

Should i go straight from A08 to A11?

And i have the ALX case for the R4 so i still need the R4 bios right? (Just making sure I know 100% before updating it)

And one last thing, could it potentially be from a loose wire or something similar?

Thanks

Ive also noticed that a message sometimes pops up whilst the alienware logo is displayed booting into windows

"Warning !!! The previous overclocking had failed.Please enter Setup to configure your system"

Then i press F1 which is labelled as "Run SETUP", but it just takes me into windows. Ive restored default settings in the BIOS and this message still appears.

My R4's CPU and GPU arent overclocked and I just started seeing this message a few days ago.

Also im not sure if this is related to the boot problem or not but Ive started putting the pc to sleep instead of turning it off at night to avoid not being able to boot it, but when i wake it up the following day it has the activate windows watermark at the bottom right.

Hi,

Do try to flash the Bios. If it doesn't work, it is most likely a hardware problem. If your system is in warranty, send me a PM with your service tag. I don't believe the activation message for Windows is related to this issue.

I fixed the problem!

Thanks to Tesla1856 and this post with links to Tesla's posts by Cass-Ole. I flashed the the A11 bios from A08 by creating a bootable usb and updating it from the dos environment. It completed successfully and now I can now boot to windows every time and have no more failed posts with beeps.

So far it seems like the Windows activation message was related to this issue, aswell as the 'The previous overclocking has failed' issue.

The only thing i can think that caused it was when installing Windows 10 it apparently stores the key 'deeper' into the motherboards bios but i'm not sure

Aaaaaand its happened again.

I am never buying an Alienware product again.

Although I like the brand, the number of problems I've had with their motherboards is ridiculous.

Maybe try same fix. If you can't go forward, maybe a small back-flash, then back to current or final BIOS version. All from DOS boot of course.

Also, check CMOS coin battery or just replace it. If you do it, I suggest a full defaulting of BIOS values after to clear any possible corruption. Then set back the way you want them.
 
If you are not ready for a new computer, I bet a used Aurora-R4 motherboard is not that much. Just make sure you get a 100% working one and/or with some kind of warranty. With that, you can still use your Win-7 license or get back to Win-10 for free.

Thanks for replying.

I'm going to try the fix in a couple of days once I have a plan for the components I need if it fails.

I wont be sticking with Alienware so I'll be changing to an 1151 motherboard with a new CPU and RAM and transferring some other components across.

I'll post back in here after I've tried the CMOS battery and BIOS flashing.

Personally, I would only have gone as far as using an after-market (appropriately-socketed) x79 chipset MB to facilitate re-using existing CPU and RAM, but that's just me. My thinking is that new systems are affordable and sometimes you just have to start over. I think this post sums it up.

https://community.dell.com/message/64646

None-the-less, good luck with the repair and/or upgrade.

Edit 2: Included link this time 

Thank you, I'll keep it in mind

I found it very hard to find any x79 MB's that were affordable (especially mATX) new or used (£230+). So I ended up working out that it would only cost a couple of hundred more pounds to upgrade things like the MB, RAM, CPU etc with sales of current hardware included.

This is a really strange issue. As of now the motherboard is completely bricked and no longer POSTS no matter how many times I try (100+).

In the first days/weeks of the problem its took about 2 or 3 attempts to  turn on. Then as the weeks go by it takes more and more and after a few months it regularly takes up to 20 tries.

My process is just power the computer on, if I hear beep code 1 for MB failure, hold the power button until it turns off, and repeat. Eventually, for some reason, this will work all the time after some amount of tries. Until a few days ago.

I feel I have tried everything possible: CMOS, jumpers, replacing components, from a bricked state (since I can no longer get it to POST to flash BIOS).

The EXACT same thing happened almost  two years ago when I started this thread. What caused it back then was a upgrading to Windows 10. I am still on the same windows 10 now and can't remember if there was an update just before this happened again.

I remember reading a couple of years ago that if the motherboard fails to post due to the BIOS ROM checksum failure (beep code 1), but still provides other error codes, e.g. no RAM, then it is not fully bricked. But I dont know whether this is true/false, I just read it here a while ago.

I'm surprised no one else had this issue so know this likely will never be worked out. I have posted all the information about it in different posts in this thread.

Goodbye Alienware

There are many reasons why motherboards fail early electronically. No use going into what actually failed on your motherboard, because it's just academic at this point. I can tell you it's likely just one of the millions of solder connections or one of the chips died a slow death. It's often hard to accept, but sometimes you just have to repair the machine or junk it for parts.
 
If you lived in the USA as I do ... I see many affordable resources for mATX Intel-X79 based motherboards. Both new after-market and "working-pull used" Dell/Alienware Aurora-R4. I could fix it for about $300 which is not too unreasonable maintenance costs for a 3-year old machine. If the 100% working version of this machine still fit my use-case, I might be tempted to repair it. However, I would not spend much more than $300 at this point since I would still have an old machine (with no warranty) that could fail again at any time. $300 would be a nice down-payment on a more current machine. Due to how unreliable computerized machines are these days ... I'm back to buying mostly only new ones and with extended warranties.
 
I understand your feelings about Dell/Alienware after your ownership experience.  I recently had a similar experience with a $2000 Lenovo-X1 Carbon Touch (2014). It's motherboard died, just out-of warranty at year 2.5. Everything is BGA is soldered-in, so you can imagine the high cost of repairing it with a replacement motherboard. While some people swear-by Lenovo and their long-term dependability, I for one will likely never again buy a Lenovo machine.

I find it so strange how it happened a year and a half ago and then was completely fine until now.

I ended up buying a 2nd hand X79 mATX motherboard for £200 which was one of the cheapest I could find.

I didn't want to buy another R4 motherboard because, even though it's probably unlikely, I'd be afraid the same problems would occur again at some point.

Plus it doesn't look too difficult to get a non R4 motherboard working with the MIO board etc.

Thank you for your replies.