Can I put back an older BIOS on a working Aurora R4?

Only the latest Aurora-R4 BIOS support the later NVidia and AMD cards due to bug-fixes toward end of development and sales cycle.

You can try a back-flash, but there is a good chance of permanently bricking or killing your motherboard. I don't recommend it.

I would work the problem some other way. Be sure each card works in each slot. Maybe your SLI bridge is bad, maybe you are short on power, poor drivers, etc. Also, remember that cards must match exactly (including ram, speed, etc.).

I did all of what you recommend:

1) Both cards work in either of the slots - only individually.  One card at a time in either of slots - all okay.

2) The SLI bridge is not the issue - taking if off should indicate that and I have done so.  Both cards installed with or without the SLI bridge - the machine will not POST.

3) Power Supply?  I upgraded mine to a 1300W e-vga model ... after this problem started...the new power supply did not cause this problem...but it certainly did not fix it either.

4) Both video cards are identical and came with the machine when purchased new from Dell.  Two Nvidia GTX 780's - identical.  What BIOS it came with, which is not the latest version, worked with these Nvidia cards out of the box so it's not as though I had to get the latest in order to get things working.  But I know the BIOS was updated at one point to the latest version (a few months ago.)

As you can see I'm at wit's end with this.  If I could magically be guaranteed that a new mobo would resolve this I would drop the $200 and get one. But that's another can of worms - I have a FPV4P and I cannot tell if a 7JHN0 would work, is a back version, newer version, etc.

What a sad state to see all of these people bricking their motherboards due to BIOS issues and Dell's answer, if any, is "too bad so sad."

I see it either as 1) power-supply (checked that), 2) memory, 3) mother boards, 4) video-cards - unlikely that both are having the same issue.  I can try taking half of the memory out as a "free" simple check to perform to see if some video is memory mapped or something like that.

Thanks

What BIOS and OS are you running?

Still say the SLI bridge might be bad or shorted.

Can you drop the old 875w PS back in there, or is it blown?

BIOS A11

1. I fail to understand how it could be the SLI bridge because even with the bridge off - disconnected from both cards NVidia cards it still will not POST.   2. Likewise, I am not sure why putting the old power supply back in would help narrow it down.  It had the problem before I upgraded the power supply so my first reaction was to increase the power supply to a larger wattage but the problem is exactly the same thing as with the old power supply.  It was never an intermittent problem.  Both cards installed - SLI bridge or not - no POST.  Take either one out - all good.  Take the one that is working and move to the other slot - still good. This is exactly the same thing with old 875W PS and the new 1300W PS.

1. OK, I agree. Both cards installed, but no SLI bridge ... still no Post. Got it.

2. Just if new one was weak or install error. But yeah, I guess it's fine.

Running out of ideas my friend. If you are under Dell warranty, they can walk you through firmware back-flash. Or, you could just run one card by itself.

If you want to chance it, do it yourself. I suggest from DOS (outside of Windows).

If still no go, your MB or one of NVidia cards might be bad. Maybe they need a VideoBios upgrade?

Yeah for now we are running with just one Nvidia card.

I tried calling Dell but......we now how that goes: after taking an unreasonable amount of time asking me for countless things (all of which I entered in the VRU) being on hold forever and then finally asking me about my well being, the weather and other non-related issues...the next question was, "I need you to tell me what the error you see on the screen."    All of this after telling this person that the machine will not POST.

I want to look into the BIOS options.  I used to work for IBM and I was very familiar with all of the BIOS update options for the various Intel based servers.  You could always download any version from the web and there was an install program that would create a bootable (DOS) 3.5 disk or CD.  From there it was pretty simple.  Plus most boards some had an BIOS fail jumper - why these mobo's don't have that...(yeah I assume it was to save $0.05)

I did run the self tests (with one video card installed) and everything passed with the exception of my DVD (drive spindle) but I don't put much weight in those tests. If the machine started there probably is nothing going to be found - other than a disk, drive, - not a defective CPU etc.

Lastly, I was surprised to not find an SLI option in the BIOS settings somewhere but none that I could find.  I thought other mobo's mfg's had a setting to turn SLI mode on and off.

I would love to learn the differences in the Aurora R4 mobo part numbers.  Someone said it was only the part change to signify where that board was manufactured.  Hmmmm.

Thanks,

Ray