Case Swap Aurora R11 not powering up

He was able to use the 2060 before we switched so I assume it should work in the new case. It’s a 550 PSU and yes we switched everything except the power on/off buttons and wiring. I did switch the fans that came with the r11 too and still not powering on

So did you move all the parts from the bottom of the line R11 into a new case? If so you will need to find a way to remove the R11 fans and connect those fans that came with the R11 motherboard or the system will trigger a BIOS error. Don't use the fans from the new case. The Alienware Aurora's are picky what parts it will accept. What size power supply was in the bottom of the line R11? If it is too low in power it may not be able to run an RTX 2060 and as a result the PC might not power on.

It's possible the wiring is OEM and does not conform to the ATX standard. I am surprised the motherboard did fit in the new case. Usually they don't fit properly.

The front I/O panel wiring is indeed proprietary . . . but there is a work-around. This discussion provides the pinouts and jumpers necessary.

I would try two things:

1) Put the original GPU in the PC and see if it boots.

2) I would try and re-seat the memory modules just in case they got bumped.

Does the fan on the CPU cooler spin when you power it on?

Here is the whole guide how and what to do to make it work!!!

https://youtu.be/YK4QubjUFOo

I did try both of these things. The fans only spin if I hold down the power reset button on the actual PSU. Other than that….nothing. 

wow I appreciate this info but this goes beyond my scope of knowledge. Is there any way someone could dumb this down for me? If not I’m just going to put everything back in the old case and call it a day!

Another option is to purchase a retail motherboard and put that in the new case, than move over all your components to the new board/case.

It will be a lot easier and more compatible with future upgrades than trying to get that Alienware board to work properly in a retail case.

Since you are connecting USB ports from the new case to the Alienware motherboard, I would try removing the front faceplate of the R11 and connect those USB ports to the motherboard. I would try making it as R11 authentic as you can get with the new case.

If the 550W power supply is the original for the R11, have you tried the PSU self test by pressing and holding down the rear black button on the back of the PSU? If it lights up and stays green when you press the button then it should be okay.

I didn’t think that would work. I thought that all the parts are proprietary to dell and wouldn’t work with a 3rd party motherboard? If I’m wrong what kind of motherboard do you think would work?

The CPU is the same as any retail CPU. The video card is OEM but fully compatible with retail standards, so are the memory modules and hard drives.

The only items that are OEM is the motherboard and power supply, and the case itself.

Any intel Intel Z490 that supports your specific CPU will work. Most retail boards support them all.

Something like this will work well. Just have to make sure the power supply has the required 8 pin EPS + 4 PIN. If you are planning on re using the Alienware PSU you might want to get a new retail PSU because usually the wiring is to short, or not fully ATX compatible.

Motherboard 

That sounds do-able!! Thanks so much for the info!!

Yeah, that’s why I suggested pulling the front faceplate off with the lighting zones. I just didn’t go into details.

Re: after switching … It doesn’t power on now … we switched everything except the power on/off buttons and wiring

the reason has been alluded to already.  R11 motherboard would not start without the proprietary led controller power +/- pins connected to new case power button connectors.  

according to the link provided by professor, Pins 4&8 will power on the system the correct way and also turn off the computer by holding the power button.

If those pins are not connected and you did not transfer the R11 case power button module to new case, that explains why you could not start the pc by pressing new case power button.

your best option is to transfer the entire R11 case power button module to new case and let it hang outside case.  At least you should be able to power up pc just like before.
those other jumper pins in link are too technically involved now, but they would just cause boot up errors.