Aurora R4, won't boot

Question

I have an Alienware Aurora R4 that I have had for a number of years. I have not run it for while and I tried to boot it up this week and it won't boot. It starts to power up, exercises the top cooling slats and power back down. It has been used very little and has been sitting for quite some time, could I have an issue with the CPU Liquid Cooling system? Dell does not seem to have a Power ON Set of LEDs like they have on most of the mainstream desktop PCs that can give you some idea of what the problem is during boot up.

I tried the suggestion I found on this Message Board about checking and removing the CMOS Battery but that had no effect. Any ideas or troubleshooting help would be greatly appreciated. I called Dell, but my extended warranty on this box lapsed 2 years ago and they won't even help if I offer to pay for support on a PC this old.

MPR1231 · Accepted Answer

First, I want to thank all of the people that have responded to my initial Post on my issue of my "Alienware Aurora R4 that would not boot up". Without the knowledgeable group that responded to my post, I would not have figured out the cause of my issue. I am posting the solution here so that others may have the benefit of my discovery in case this may be happening to others with the same model of PC.

I have had my My Alienware Aurora R4 (with the ALX Case) for a number of years, and as I mentioned early on, I had not booted it up for a long time (maybe over a year). When I tried recently, it would go through the initial power up of all of the fans and light up some of the lighting on the case, but then it would do nothing else. There was no screen output at all, no BIOS screen, no Alienware Logo, nothing! There were also no Diagnostic Beeps or any other indicators as to the cause of the problem. After getting several of you pointing me in the right direction and finally getting the full Alienware Service Manual downloaded, I noticed that there was a small LED flashing after start-up on one of the Add-on PCBs in the case (near the Motherboard labeled "GFX_PUMP FLEXBAY PCB) when the problem manifested itself. After reviewing the Service Manual on this Board, I noticed that the LED was labeled "LED4 Charge" and the I found that this LED is supporting the changing circuit for the pair of AA Rechargeable Batteries that are in the case and are used to support the Outside Case LEDs for the Theater Lighting. The minute I pulled the batteries from their cradle, and retried the PC, it booted up just fine and I was back in business with full Windows running and all three of my Graphics Displays working fine. I checked the batteries with a voltmeter and they had "0" volts coming from them (stone dead). I found that these are special long life Sanyo (now Panasonic) NiMH batteries (see attached image) and after a few minutes on Google I found that they are still made and Amazon had them as a Set of 4 with a Wall Charger. Needless to say I ordered them immediately and have the new set now installed and running in the PC.

AA Rechargeable Batteries

I now have the Theater lighting working again, the PC upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Pro, and all of the latest drivers updated as well.

I am assuming that the completely dead batteries in the circuit were putting such a draw on the charging circuit that there was not enough power left on one of the low voltage sides of the Power Supply to boot the machine.

FYI, I did purchase a Power Supply Tester and tested all of the voltages coming from the Power Supply in the PC. They were all good and well within spec. I did put the 2 dead batteries into the Charger that came with the new AA batteries and they are now back up to their full 1.2v and holding a charge. I am assuming that with the PC turned off and disconnected from wall power for such a long time, they were completely drained and the charging circuit in the PC probably does not have the same charging capacity as the external battery charger I purchased with the new batteries. As a diagnostic step, just removing these two batteries from their cradle in the PC took them out of the equation as a cause of the problem, or in my case a fix to the problem.

Thanks again for all of your support!

redxps630 · Answer

Do you see any video such as Dell logo at all on monitor? If nothing this is No POST. remove all rams, do you hear two beeps? Put only one ram back in DIMM1 , remove all hdd/kB/mouse/all connected devices, if possible get a very simple gpu to replace current one, try again to see if you can get video.  If you have another working desktop Windows pc, borrow its psu to test R4 motherboard.  The current psu can still be failing (bad) when it is only able to turn on fans/light.  The cpu pump has no effect on POST because you start on cold cpu.  If possible remove CMOs battery overnight drain power from pc then replace w new battery and reset CMOs jumper on motherboard.

MPR1231 · Answer

Thanks for the quick reply!  I will give those suggestions all a try.  I have 3 monitors plugged into the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Video Card in the unit (2-DVI and 1-HDMI) and I don't get any kind of video output from any of the 3 monitors during the boot-up attempt.  Normally I would get at least one of the monitors showing the Dell Logo during Boot, and then I would get video output on all three once Windows starts.

r72019 · Answer

How many times do the lights flash on the alien head power button when you push it?  It should blink (number of blinks is an error code) before shutting down.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Sounds like an Aurora-R4 ALX (if it has movable top-fins).
You (or a trained computer technician) ... just troubleshoot like a conventional (non Alienware) Wintel desktop.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-Desktop-General-Hardware-Troubleshooting/m-p/5555517#M57436

With one monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected ... your first objective is seeing BIOS post and accessing it.

EDIT: I still have my Aurora-R1. Added a SATA-SSD and GTX-1070 years ago. Just auto-updated itself to v1909 . Same (now 10 years old) Asetek liquid-cooler. Machine still works perfectly
(so, now officially ... best machine I ever bought).

MPR1231 · Answer

You guys are all rock stars! Thanks for all the troubleshooting advice. I am on it, and I hope to find the culprit as this box has been a very good PC (and was top of the line when I bought it). I realize that it is not at that level today, and I may still need get a new PC for my Flight SIM (which is why I bought the R4 in the first place), but I hate to throw it out if I can figure out the issues. It still would make a very good File Server for my office.

Tesla1856, you mentioned that you added a SSD to your Aurora PC. My Aurora R4 has 4 Plug-in SATA 3.5" Hard Drive Bays like a lot of Server chassis' have. I have had some problems lately trying to upgrade some older PCs that have 3.5" SATA (spinning) Hard Drives to SSDs, as they have very integrated 3.5" HD Mounts and the off the shelf 3.5" to 2.5" SSD Adapter Brackets don't always put the SATA Connectors on the SSDs in line with the built-in Racks. Any hints on addressing this? Does anyone make a direct replacement for this type of conversion? I would want to upgrade my R4 to SSDs if I get it back running.

FYI, I have been building and working on PCs since the 1980s and my first PC was a PC Limited 286 Desktop that I bought from Michael Dell when he had just moved out of his college dorm and started selling PC hardware. I've been a Dell fan ever since.

redxps630 · Answer

Dell 6XD4C but it seems to be good for R1-3 only. R4 has hdd connector hidden inside chassis and may need a different 3.5 to 2.5 caddy?

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-Aurora-R4-SSD-caddy-adapter-6XD4C/td-p/5595294

MPR1231 · Answer

So here is an update on my Aurora R4 dilemma. I did all of the testing that you all suggested, and here is what I got:

1. I pulled the 3V CR2032 CMOS Battery and checked it out. I left it out of the Box overnight (FYI, the voltage on the old battery was fine, but I replaced it with a new one anyway).

2. I checked the Power Supply Light diag. as you suggested. Got a Green Light on the PSU and the unit powered up the fans when the button was pushed and held (but no boot).

3. I pulled out all of the Memory Modules (4 x 4GB 2Rx8 PC#-12800U 1600MHz 240pin DIMMS) and powered up the PC. Got the Dell 2 Beep message for "No RAM detected" on boot up. Powered down and replaced one DIMM and tried again and got no beeps so Memory seems to be good.

4. I did notice that when I try to Boot up the PC I get a flashing LED on a small Alienware PCB in the case near the Motherboard labeled "GFX_PUMP FLEXBAY" (see attached image). The LED is labeled "LED4 Charge". It never stops flashing. Is this an Error Message?

FYI, this is an Aurora R4 ALX Chassis.

GFX_PUMP FLEXBAY PCB (with LED circled)

Alienware Aurora R4 PC_17 PCB (2020-04-20)a.jpg

r72019 · Answer

I'm not familiar with this model, but could the charge LED indicator be referring to replacing the rechargeable AA batteries for the theater case lighting?

Presumably, this wouldn't prevent a boot and something else is going on too, though.

MPR1231 · Answer

I did some more digging into the Service Manual for this PC and found that the Flashing LED I mentioned may indicate that the Rechargeable AA batteries for the Theater Case Lights may be dead. I took them out and they are dead, and may not be taking a charge. I found the exact same Sanyo (now Panasonic) AA rechargeable batteries on Amazon. They will be here on Thursday. I can't believe that the system would prevent a Boot if the Theater lights were out, but you never know. I did pull the Hard Drives out and they are both in perfect condition and I can see all of the files on them including Windows, so I don't think the issue has anything to do with the Hard Drives either.

I will keep digging after the new AA batteries arrive.

Tesla1856 · Answer

@MPR1231 wrote:

4. I did notice that when I try to Boot up the PC I get a flashing LED on a small Alienware PCB in the case near the Motherboard labeled "GFX_PUMP FLEXBAY" (see attached image). The LED is labeled "LED4 Charge". It never stops flashing. Is this an Error Message?

FYI, this is an Aurora R4 ALX Chassis.

That is the (old-school / full sized ) MIO-Board (ALX version, since you have an ALX version of the Aurora-R4).

redxps630 · Answer

Re: I checked the Power Supply Light diag. as you suggested.  Got a Green Light on the PSU and the unit powered up the fans when the button was pushed and held (but no boot). I pulled out all of the Memory Modules (4 x 4GB 2Rx8 PC#-12800U 1600MHz 240pin DIMMS) and powered up the PC.  Got the Dell 2 Beep message for 'No RAM detected' on boot up.  Powered down and replaced one DIMM and tried again and got no beeps so Memory seems to be good. to me that is not a good enough test to tell psu is working. I still suggest get another verified working psu (one that can make a motherboard POST) to test. no beep when ram is installed is not guarantee it is good ram, but in my experience a previously working ram that went bad can cause stalling of POST (stuck on Dell logo screen).

Tesla1856 · Answer

@redxps630 wrote:

to me that is not a good enough test to tell psu is working. I still suggest get another verified working psu (one that can make a motherboard POST) to test.

Agreed. Either try a different Power-Supply or use one of these testers (as my linked-to FAQ said )

Digital PC Power-Supply Tester

MPR1231 · Answer

r72019, You were right ON!!!  See my response on how I fixed my problem in this Thread.   Thanks again!

redxps630 · Answer

great success.  GFX_PUMP FLEXBAY PCB at corner of circuit board and DP/N 2JXP2 confirm this is the R4 ALX MIO board which is connected to main board via usb_3. The lesson one learned here is when diagnosing Alien or non Alien No POST, it would help to disconnect all usb devices including MIO to narrow down the circle of suspects. In your case some of us first thought to focus on motherboard components including the usual suspect bios/CMOs or memory, and not seeing the blind spot of system, i.e., connected usb device.

Alienware Desktops

Aurora R4, won't boot

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