Aurora R7, won't recognize 2nd Vengeance memory

Try clearing CMOS by disconnecting power, removing the CR2032 coin cell battery, discharging flea power by holding in the power button for 30 seconds, put everything back together with the two RAM modules in the white slots . . . try to get a successful POST.

Great ideaa, not sure why I didn't think of it.  Despite my optimism... alas; earwax

I did go through all testing.  Each RAM is fine, in any slot.  But never together.  Before starting the project, I took pictures to make sure I didn't miss anything.  At that time they were in black slots.  Not that it mattered.

Thank you for the quick reply and great suggestion.  Can't believe I didn't think of it. 

The BIOS is painfully lacking for diagnosing and management.  I don't really understand that one.

Well, AFAIK ... the colored tabs denote the memory-banks. 4 slots making up 2 memory banks.

My 2 Hyper-X Fury DIMMs are in the White-tabbed ones labeled XMM1 and XMM2.

Test with ePSA or bootable www.memtest86.com .

Maybe try one in each bank (like XMM1 and XMM3). They will be running Single-Channel but I think the MB should Post anyway.

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@phintias wrote:

1. Thanks Tesla1856, yesterday was a little crazy.  The 15 year ago me, is kicking my own buttocks for not remembering these basic troubleshooting suggestions.  I did try this last night and, not surprising, it works.

2. This is confusing... clearly there's a switch or setting in BIOS, or so it seems.  I guess the MB could have shorted and caused.  But it doesn't matter what slot they are in, I did test in both upper and lower with the same success - whenever I try them in parallel it immediately flashes 4 times and refuses to boot.

3. Alienware BIOS is really limiting, unless they have an admin unlock I don't know about.

4. Appreciate the help all the same.  Any other ideas?

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1. You are welcome. I have an old (fairly comprehensive) trouble-shooting checklist posted here somewhere, but I'm not sure even it has this tip.

Good to hear it allowed the computer to Post now. This means you can now run ePSA-Diagnostics (long ram test) and more importantly ... bootable www.MemTest86.com . They should test even in Single-Channel Mode. If the DIMMs pass-100% on both of the above Tests, you will at least know there is a 98% chance the DIMMs themselves are good.

2. I would not say the Dell motherboards are rickety, but they ARE very sensitive (like many others now-days). Be sure to always dissipate flea-power and wait for a while each time before touching/messing with motherboard or it's components.

3. No, nothing in BIOS that I'm aware of (other than a BIOS reset or loading BIOS defaults, save, turn-off, and cold-boot power-cycle). 

4. Well, providing the DIMMs pass-100% on both of the above Tests ... you should then be able to try them in the Black-Tabbed Memory bank. If only using one Memory-Bank, I don't think it matters which one you use. AFAIK, neither is designated as Primary necessarily.

Thanks Tesla1856, yesterday was a little crazy.  The 15 year ago me, is kicking my own buttocks for not remembering these basic troubleshooting suggestions.  I did try this last night and, not surprising, it works.

This is confusing... clearly there's a switch or setting in BIOS, or so it seems.  I guess the MB could have shorted and caused.  But it doesn't matter what slot they are in, I did test in both upper and lower with the same success - whenever I try them in parallel it immediately flashes 4 times and refuses to boot.

Alienware BIOS is really limiting, unless they have an admin unlock I don't know about.

Appreciate the help all the same.  Any other ideas?

Very confused by this statement: "My Dell Liquid cooler is leaking and caused my PSU to fry. I replaced that with a nice upgraded Cooler Master: tested it for about a week and then replaced my liquid cooler with the 120 Cooler Master liquid solution."

How did you test it, in another machine? If you did, replaced the leaking cooler after a week of testing and turned the machine on to be greeted by that error code, it's very possible you fried more than just the PSU.

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@Vanadiel wrote:

Very confused by this statement: "My Dell Liquid cooler is leaking and caused my PSU to fry. I replaced that with a nice upgraded Cooler Master: tested it for about a week and then replaced my liquid cooler with the 120 Cooler Master liquid solution."

 

How did you test it, in another machine? If you did, replaced the leaking cooler after a week of testing and turned the machine on to be greeted by that error code, it's very possible you fried more than just the PSU.

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Agreed. That is a very destructive event for a motherboard.

That is why I always advise people to use nice, dependable, over-sized (wattage wise) power-supplies.

Because, when they blow/fry ... they often take-out the motherboard and other parts as well.

Thanks for the well structured response Tesla1856.  Burning to USB and will test shortly.  I'll follow up with results.

One thing I've noticed.  Doing almost anything causes annoying delaying.  Anywhere from 15-30 seconds.  But only the first time I run said command.  ie: Opening Explorer, opending Edge or Chrome, unzipping a file, downloading a file, running my VPN tunnel for work, printing, logging into STEAM, playing a game, opening Photoshop.  I don't really notice a performance hit, but I am sure there is one.  I just haven't noted anything be slower than before.

Probably there is a correlation but I can't imagine this is solely because I'm not running my RAM in parallel.  But this is definately a result of whatever happened when I installed the Cooler Master Liquid Cooler.  (After installing the new PSU, everything was normal and responsive)

Thanks for help all

Hi Vanadiel,

It's a fair ask:  I had a peculiar issue whenever I would shut down my PC for any extended time away (over the weekend, vacation, etc...)  Whenever I would turn it there would be the dreaded pop, an issue I couldn't trace.  Almost always, after pulling the PC apart, finding nothing, checking continuity with circuits, etc... it would turn back on without issue.  Finally there was a last and final pop.  The PSU was fried.  It wasn't until I pulled it out that I noticed liquid.  There was no way this would have been there unless it was from the cooler.  

I replaced the PSU and ran it for a week, working/playing as normal.  I would power off and restart throughout the week with no issues.  Everything else, even CPU temps, remained status quo.  The issue, in this case, the PSU.

So now I have a Cooler Master PSU (Upgraded from the Alienware (though I thought it was also a nice PSU) and this past weekend I decided it was time to replace the liquid cooler.  I coudn't find the leak but assumed losing the stored up energy as it cooled caused a gasket or seal to open enough to release some liquid.  Never confirmed that, but that's the only source of the 'water' on my PSU.

For the PSU, it was easy to test - I have some weekend warrior tools so I did a continuity test on the PSU as well as the connectors on the MB.  I didn't run across any results that would cause concern.

I didn't intend to give the full story, but honestly if I'm going to draw from the collective knowledge here we should be working from the same source.

Happy Friday,

This test ran to completion without any error posting.  I'm fairly confident switching them back to dual channel will result in 4 red lets repeatedly.  

I'm looking for a similar MB test, outside of Dell/Alienware tests - which also came back fine.  

I'd hate to have to replace the MB, especially if I don't have assurance that will fix it - it seems to me I messed something up installing the liquid cooler, but I can't think of what it could be.  LIkely I'll pull it apart this weekend and put the MB on my lap bench and look under a magnifying glass.  Maybe there's a resistor or capacity or who knows that took a hit when I replaced it.  I doubt it can be attributed to the PSU short since it worked for over a week (almost three, looking back at my colander) with the new PSU.  But I wouldn't rule it out completely.  

Appreciate the guidance on this.

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@phintias wrote:

Happy Friday,

This test ran to completion without any error posting.  I'm fairly confident switching them back to dual channel will result in 4 red lets repeatedly.  

 

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I'm guessing you mean www.MemTest86.com ? Testing your ram-memory DIMMs (the Long-Thorough Test) in Single-Channel mode?

If so, sounds like the DIMMs themselves might be OK.

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@phintias wrote:

 

One thing I've noticed.  Doing almost anything causes annoying delaying.  Anywhere from 15-30 seconds.  But only the first time I run said command.  ie: Opening Explorer, opening Edge or Chrome, unzipping a file, downloading a file, running my VPN tunnel for work, printing, logging into STEAM, playing a game, opening Photoshop.  I don't really notice a performance hit, but I am sure there is one.  I just haven't noted anything be slower than before.

Probably there is a correlation but I can't imagine this is solely because I'm not running my RAM in parallel. 

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No, running your memory in Single-Channel mode does not cause a delay or anything like this. Sounds like something is still broken (either software or hardware).