Aurora R10, failed to boot, cannot reset computer

Question

I have an old Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10. One day after a Windows system update, I booted my computer and logged in, Windows desktop showed up. I went for a nap and when I woke up, the blue screen showed up saying the system cannot boot. I thought it was a normal graphics card failure and tried to just restart my computer, but it never succeeded booting ever again. Icannot factory reimage, cannot Reinstall Windows using the Dell OS Recovery Image. It usually starts like this: the alienware logo is here and the little circle would be spinning slowly for like a minute: And it restarted, doing automatic repair and diagnosis: Then it shows up the normal windows booting failure screen giving you a bunch of options. I tried all kinds of methods, including resetting my computer (not wiping out/wiping out my personal data), factory reimaging, etc. But the resetting process always fails and falls back to undoing reset. The factory reimage fails because the SupprtAssist OS Recovery cannot load. It usually shows the loading screen like below for half a minute and restart into the booting process again (booting, automatic repair, diagnosing PC, startup failure). I even tried the option of Reinstall Windows using the Dell OS Recovery Image from a flash drive, and reboot using the flashdrive by pressing F12 during booting phase, and it also failed because this Dell tool also depends on the SupportAssist OS Recovery tool which cannot be loaded successfully. There is no hardware issue according to all the checks <Private data removed from public view. DELL-Admin> So what should I do to let my alienware desktop boot again? Thanks!

anne_droid · Answer

Hi

Things I might try....

Remove the storage device and have only a LIVE LINUX MINT USB plugged in.

This option removed the Microsoft part of the equation, leaving only the DELL Main Board to go thru POST and either fail at the storage device missing, or accept the USB.

Then you can try a W10 or W11 USB etc etc until you get something to function.

Then add back the storage.

The hope is to get the Mint to boot fully and then reboot with the storage in place and ......

The Linux equivalent to the Windows chkdsk command is the fsck (File System Consistency Check) utility.

This tool is used to check and repair filesystems for errors, similar to how chkdsk works in Windows. Fsck is included by default in most Linux distributions and can be used to check the health of internal and external drives, including SD cards and USB flash drives.

For NTFS partitions, while Linux tools like ntfsfix exist, they are not a complete replacement for Windows chkdsk.

To use fsck, you typically open a terminal and run the command with the appropriate options, such as 'fsck' to check and repair errors.

If in doubt please ask.

Vanadiel · Answer

Make a Windows boot USB and use F12 one time boot menu to boot from it.

You should be able to use that to either repair the installation, or over install without removing any personal data.

Windows installation media

enya64 · Answer

This particular system has same general recurring issues, and it all seems to go back to faulty motherboards for this generation. I have replaced every component outside of the motherboard, including the cmos battery and cpu. Your issue and the constant resetting due to Kernel power issues seem the most common unresolved issues. My solution: Salvage all components besides the case and motherboard, spend $300 to replace both, and I will never order another Dell desktop again.

(edited)

Alienware Desktops

Was this post helpful?