Aurora 10, brand new, will not boot

Question

Got a brand new Aurora 10 ryzen 5800x, 3080ti 5hours ago. I did some minor customizations from dell when I purchased it - upgraded cpu, more ram, windows 11 instead of 10. So I turn it on everything is working fine, run a windows update and restart. When the machine starts up, my monitor is showing a black screen (not in power saving mode) my keyboard and mouse light up for 1 second then go black, the alienware icon on my pc blinks white once and nothing else happens. The machine repeats this loop indefinitely every 5 seconds.

Tried unplugging all cables (including power) and leaving it for 30 minutes and it does nothing - same problem. Since the screen stays black I can't even get into bios. I tried pressing f2, f12 like crazy - nothing. Did my motherboard go bad after the first restart ... lol?

This is sooo disappointing, waited a month to get my machine to have this happen.

Vanadiel · Accepted Answer

Another thing to try is a CMOS reset: CMOS reset

redxps630 · Accepted Answer

That is correct and good catch. Dell small print: Any Dell computer that is shipped after December 2015 that has the Intel SkyLake chipset, supports BIOS Recovery 2. Looks like that excludes R10.

I would try clear CMOs settings in your Ryzen edition R10.

Disconnect the system-board power cable from the system board.
Remove the jumper plug from pins 217 and replace it on pins 216 (P216).
Wait for 5 seconds.
Remove the jumper plug from pins 216 and replace it on pins 217.
Connect the system-board power cable to the system board.

Vanadiel · Answer

There is an option to recover the BIOS from the HDD on the R10, but for that you have to be able to enter the bios and see the screen, as you have to toggle the setting from Off to On.

I always found that option a bit odd, because usually you cannot enter the BIOS when you have a bad flash...

Vanadiel · Answer

I tried that with my R10 back then to see if it would bring up the recovery screen, and pressing CTRL + ESC did nothing for me. This was on a perfectly fine working R10, I just wanted to see what recovery option it would have.

I think that key combination is for Intel based machines only?

Worth a try for sure, I don't think it can do any harm at this point in time.

redxps630 · Answer

Re: I turn it on everything is working fine, run a windows update and restart.

probably Windows update corrupted bios. A corrupt BIOS is one of the possible causes of a computer unable to complete POST or boot into the operating system.
First call Dell support to see what they suggest.

I would consider a bios recovery. The BIOS Recovery tool is designed to recover a corrupted BIOS
How do I initiate BIOS Recovery on a Dell desktop ?

Restart the computer.
Press and hold the CTRL + ESC key on the keyboard until the BIOS Recovery page appears.
On the BIOS Recovery screen, select Reset NVRAM (if available) and press the Enter key. Select Disabled and press the Enter key to save the current BIOS settings.
Select Recover BIOS and press the Enter key to start the recovery process.
NOTE: Your Dell computer may restart a few times during the process of BIOS recovery.

steadler · Answer

Article Number: 000132453

BIOS Recovery 3

Any Dell computer that is shipped after August 2016 or with the Intel Kaby Lake chipset, supports BIOS Recovery 3.

BIOS recovery 3 is an improvement on BIOS recovery 2. It has all the same features, with an added feature that allows for autorecovery to start during boot if an integrity check that has to be enabled in the BIOS (Default is Disabled) fails and there is a recovery image on the hard drive. Autorecovery is not possible from other media.

BIOS Recovery 2

Supports recovery from your computers primary hard drive and from an external USB drive.Recovery from your computers primary hard drive is enabled by default within the BIOS Setup. (It can be disabled if you choose, but this is not recommended.)

Recovery from the external USB drive cannot be disabled in the BIOS Setup. Enabled by default.

The default search location for the BIOS recovery image is the external USB drive, if a USB drive is present. If an image is not found on the USB drive or the USB drive is absent, the BIOS then searches the primary hard drive for the recovery image. The search terminates if no recovery image is found, see the FAQ section.

hardtimes101 · Answer

Thanks for the help all, the CMOS reset did the trick!

jdubyas · Answer

I've removed my CMOS battery/waited a bunch of times when my system wouldn't boot up (mostly likely due to combination of BIOS and the 3rd party memory I upgraded with). I'm seriously thinking of printing the clear CMOS instructions and just taping it into the inside of my side case as I've had to look it up on my phone. It would be nice if Dell just added a sticker with that info onto the inside side panel.

EDIT: I ended up doing exactly that

RoHe · Answer

@Vanadiel  - FWIW, You have to be quick to press/hold Ctrl+Esc after powering on. Some users of other PC models needed a 3rd hand to push the power button so they could press/hold those two keys immediately after power button was pushed. And others found, when there's no BIOS recovery image on the boot drive, nothing happens unless you plug a USB with the appropriate BIOS .rcv file on it before powering PC on and then quickly pressing/holding Ctrl-Esc.

Vanadiel · Answer

That is actually a very good suggestion, because it does come up often that a CMOS reset is necessary.

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Aurora 10, brand new, will not boot

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