Help having Aurora R4 function properly on the Rampage IV Gene please.

well yeah, your old install will almost certainly boot up with the Gene (but your Product Key may expire). I have my case harness / master i/o cpu_fan connectors both plugged into Asus boards on their cpu_fan headers & CmndCntr is ok with it, so long as things jive in the bios. Alternatively, you know your CmndCntr and mio are ok if your case lights light up. On Aurora, a sign of trouble is odd lighting, like a default white. Whether the fan foes hay-wire IDK yet, since I've not swapped out my mb yet. Yeah, report back, best of luck too.

I haven't been able to do a clean install of windows yet, I wanted to make sure everything was going to power on first. But, I can open Command Center from the previous install from the other motherboard, I will clean wipe soon just haven't had time yet. Then I can check that, I honestly didn't expect a reply this soon.  I'll try to find the plug that goes into the CPU_fan, I have had that slot empty because I had trouble finding one to plug in. I thought somebody suggested plugging in the radiator to it, but it doesn't reach, and I honestly didn't think that would be optimal anyways. I appreciate the picture, I won't be able to tinker  with it tonight, I will try to get back with you in detail tomorrow. At the latest monday for sure. Thank you for the help already.

Hello. My head hurts, so bear w/me on this initial post. When I recover I'll act like someone who can help. Alright, you have a motherboard fan header, 3-wires. Plug that into your cpu_fan header, see if it smoothes out. Check your bios, set cpu_fan to standard, then play w/it in Asus Fan xpert, or whatever fan software Gene uses.

In the meantime, you could plug your rad fan into the Asus somewhere, & allow it to do rpm monitoring, using the software to dial it in, til you get this figured out. You would do someone a favor by explaining if your CmndCntr installed ok & otherwise "works".

Get a magnifying glass. Look @ your old mb, it has micro-text @ the panel header. Check for colors of wires for power-on switch, hdd led (+ & -), power on led (+ & -). Use a needle to lift the pins out of the black 5x5 (rows) connector, then transfer them to your Asus q-connector. If you don't have the Q, you need to buy or borrow a 5x5 USB-type header connector, or better yet buy a 10x10, since the asus header (& q) are a 10x10. Report back?

Old Cpu Fan Header Connector: place that on your new Mb's Cpu_Fan header.

Are you still using the stock AW Asetek cooler? If so, how are you powering and running the pump? If the pump is not running, I'm pretty sure the fan will run at full speed.

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19454479

I am using the stock cooler, only things not stock from alienware is my network card (irrelevant), SSD, and now motherboard.

 I have gotten the power button to work, I rewired the front panel stuff into the qconnector as needed. That comment about it being labelled on the mobo was very helpful. I have tried several different plug ins, but currently it is organized as Radiator hooked up to sys_fan on top board, little fan above cpu/ram hooked up to mem_fan on top board as well, pump is obviously hooked up to pump on same top board. I hooked up the BLINK line from MIO board to the cpu_fan on mobo (somebody said to on an older thread, someone also suggested hooking that up to a USB header). I saw somebody say you have too hook the radiator up to cpu_fan on mobo but it doesn't reach that far over with the current wire and I was hoping to avoid messing with that. The noise level has dropped with this set up, but it is still louder than it should be. Under FAN Xpert I only have 2 fans to work with. 1 is CPU fan which can't go lower than 20% even though its reading 28C. Not a problem though, but the other fan is Chassis fan which won't go below 40% and its the one making all the noise at the moment even though the temp is 27C. Maybe thats normal but I don't remember it being this loud. Either way Command Center won't install, and there are now exterior lights active right now. Any suggestions on how to get Chassis fan lower and get lights to work + command center? I'd post pictures but I don't have the wires re-locked down atm so its really hard to get angles to see as is, and I don't know that they would be of any help anyways. 

Just to clear things up while I try checking out connections again and that version of CC. I have to reinstall command center, because a year or so ago there was a promo to pay like 5 bucks to get your windows 7 upgraded to windows 8, and I did that. Not knowing the key I get for windows 8 can't be used to just install, I have to install windows 7, then put the 8 disk in and tell it to "upgrade" otherwise it will say windows 8 key is only for upgrades no clean installs which is bizarre. So my clean install was a windows 7 install - windows 8 install, then I updated to 8.1 just for the sake of it. If I have any problems I can still just run the windows 7 version only. It stinks that its that way cause I have to do so many installs, but its good in that - I can just stay 7 and have the option to go 8 if I want if I can't sort things out with 8. I didn't realize I should try prior command centers, I just assumed the latest for windows 8.1 compatibility, old versions might work eitherway as I never had a problem with the 7 version on 8 or 8.1.

The blink cable I was talking about, goes from mio to mobo I thought. Maybe I got myself confused, this is a quote somebody said on the thread about this in 2011 on the older models "Is the MIO-Board's "Blink" cable connect to MB's MB_CPU_Fan header?" I assumed something similar would be done with it on here. As for the chassis fan, it works I just can't get it to be quite. It runs at a constant 40% and I can only "monitor" it in bios if I recall, I'll check and see if I can set it lower. Since all my temps have been in the high 20s low 30s I may set all fans to silent or whatever low I can and see if I can maintain low temps then. I don't think rotating the radiator would help reach any, as it is coming from the upper back corner of the thing itself, and its as optimal as can be, I could probably extend the wire by using some headers and female-female wire pin connectors I have. I bought them for the power switch connecting up since I had to snip two wire tips off cause they were stuck in the thing, and they work fine crimped and connected to the board. 

The setup it is in now is entirely reasonable. I can hear it more noisy than it used to be due to what I think is the Chassis fan at 40%, but its not so noisy that its too bothersome. I simply would want to fix it just because I am uncomfortable knowing something isn't set optimally or as designed, but its just the two minor issues right now, being no alienware lights that might fix with cc installed, and fan running loud. I know my front panel USB works, I don't know if thats what you were talking about when you were mentioning mio usb. All usb ports work on front and back, and there are no exclamation marks in device manager. 

Thanks for the help man, things should be coming to a close soon, I went into this not knowing anything about how this was going to work out, and it seems to be coming together just fine, would have been much easier if I had a better resource, I didn't get much info from the manual but it was enough to work with I guess. Thanks again.

You said: :Either way Command Center won't install, and there are now exterior lights active right now. Typo? Now lights or no lights?

I would download the 2.08.09 copy of Command Center, typically available on the r1/2/3 pages, as the R4 drivers page has version 3.05 etc which can not be installed on a non-Aware Mobo. 2.08.09 is the latest version that can be installed with Asus / non-Aware. You said your initial copy of Windows had everything still, so why are you reinstalling CC again? If you did a fresh install, try 2.08.09. Remember, everytime you "flash" your m io board w/Command Center 'firmware', it is as risky as flashing a typical bios. 9 times out of 10 the flash goes through, so, flash your mio board's firmware w/CC @ your own risk, ok? I'm still learning about R4's but,

• Rad connector to sys_fan. check. mem fan to same connector. check.
• blink? I won't be on my R4 tonight to check, but, from memory, blink plugs into mio board & stays there. plug it back in to mio, see what happens.
• why do you need your chassis fan header to work? Check your bios, see if Chassis fan has minimum settings & set them as you see fit

The rad fan can go into mobo cpu_fan header, & the Asus will take over that duty. Perhaps your 120mm rad fan can be unbolted then "spun" 90-180 degrees to help the wire reach, perhaps not, but look into it. Your setup should be rad fan plugged into top power boards sys_fan header though.

When your mio usb header is connected to the Asus for the 1st time, basic drivers should have installed. Did that happen? Are there exclamation points in Device Manager? You could power down, unplug mio usb, unplug power supply, hit your top power on button for 1 minute, let it rest 5 minutes. Power up. Power back down, plug mio usb back in, see if drivers load. See if lights come on. Then consider CC 2.08.09 install. Report back?

Well most of the modders on here seem to have split, & I'm new to R4, so, we'll talk it out til someone who knows or may know what is up pops in to help save the day. I do not know if 2.08.09 is entirely compatible w/win8, you may have to find that out on your own.

From memory, the blink wires run between the mio & mobo front panel header (power on switch, pwr on led, hdd led), where it "jumps into" the header's wiring in the 5x5. Having not done an mb swap, I'd assume it stays plugged into mio. It chould be a form of "wake up" wiring, so the mio knows when the pc/mobo is on. I will stop talking about blink duty til I know more, which won't be tonight, lol.

Yes, the mio board has a usb data cable. One end plugs into mio, other end into mobo usb header, which sometimes you unplug/replug to see if its drivers load.

In a new win7 install, it is best to have the mio's usb header unplugged during the process. Then, after win7 installs, & after you have .netframework 4 (or higher) on it, (if memory serves, win7 Pro may have .net4 preinstalled on it, I forget now). Then you should connect the mio usb header, then drivers should load for it on start up. That is the general way we do it here. If drivers load, lights come on, if they do, it is all down hill from there. The rest of your post sounds right, I have nothing to add til you experiment some more.

CC 2.7 huh? An oldie but a goodie: I may need it for my AsRock some day, good to know. I'd say mark your thread as answered so others know it ain't a dead-end post & I'll pop yours in my favorites list. Only thing I'd do, having just read your post, I'd image my drive (acronis etc): if curiosity killed my cat I'd try to slap CC 2.08.09 on, see what happens. Another school of thought says: don' touch it, don' mess w/it. Do us a favor sometime & photobomb your thread w/the new scrapper ...

edit

here we have a video of a Z97 board in Aurora that I came across today:

• Alienware Aurora R4 Barebones Case PC Build
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbLCmBtrPj4

I have no comment on his install, other than, I don't think he had to cut his wiring up, he needed to back the pins out of the blue 5x5 USB-type mthrbrd front panel connector & transfer his good pins onto new connex like these, a typical mthrbrd front panel kit or a straight 10x10 DuPont 2.54 (mm) connect:

if he needed a 10x10 (row) connector, he could also have re-used his blue 5x5 & got another 5x5, where a pair of 5x5's eqwals a 10x10 ... right? right. no need to splice & dice the harness for Pete's sakes, no real need for the q-connector either, unless you need it as a map to know where to plug in at. he had the right individual front panel connex but never bothered to swap them all over, he snipped instead & used butted connectors. odd. live & learn.

the hard drive & power on led +/- (positive/negative) pin leads are normally labeled on the mthrbrd front panel header itself for accuracy. a better job was needed on his power supply install also, later on perhaps he can buy a new top I/o to regain his wiring back intact & do it right, as well as clean up the psu install ... but in the video you do see he at least limped to the finish line & regained AlienFx with yet another Asus board we can have trust in when it is time to upgrade:

Lol, I might take some pics when I have time and post it for record of anybody who needs to know what plugs where and how the blink goes to the q-connector since I couldn't find that info anywhere at one place. All images from 2011 stuff were dead imageshack links. Marked as answered. I forgot this happened, but now that you mention the updated to 2.08.09. When it did install it said it was updated from 4.0 to 2.0 lol, and actually went through with it. I thought it would stop with it saying it was 4.0 already but it went backwards for me thank goodness.