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32409
July 12th, 2015 22:00
PLEASE HELP!! Aurora won't boot!! Blue screen of death.
I've had my Aurora for a few years without any "major" problems. Last week, it started acting funny with random re-boots. Then, it completely died. I assumed it was the power supply since it wouldn't do anything. Ordered one and replaced it, computer comes back to life.
I noticed the temps were pretty hot though. I decided that I didn't need it to be overclocked (I don't use it for gaming much anymore) so even though it came OC'd from Dell, I reverted back to "Optimal" (Default) bios settings. Herein lies the problem. RIGHT before I changed those settings, I updated the bios. I was on A04 (if I recall) and updated to most recent (A11?).
The update seemed to take perfectly fine. Unfortunately that was the last time I could boot up. I've tried EVERYTHING!! Can't boot into safe mode, ran diagnostics and came up empty. I got a blue screen of death saying "Uncorrectable hardware" problem (0x0000009c).
The ONLY thing I can get into right now is the bios. I've since tried to change things in the bios to no avail. HELP!!!??? (please)
darrin1967
4 Posts
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July 14th, 2015 08:00
Anyone??
Milena M458
4 Operator
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2.7K Posts
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July 14th, 2015 11:00
Try to boot up the system with the SATA mode in AHCI and with the boot mode in Legacy and in UEFI if any of those options work try to change the SATA mode to RAID and test it as well in Legacy and in UEFI.
If the system still doesn’t boot you might need to reinstall windows.
Let me know how it goes.
darrin1967
4 Posts
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July 15th, 2015 06:00
I don't have a problem reinstalling windows...if I was able to. It is already set to SATA AHCI. How do I change the boot mode? I've looked everywhere in the bios and can't find those options (Legacy/UEFI).
Milena M458
4 Operator
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2.7K Posts
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July 17th, 2015 16:00
They are under the boot tab, there you will find the boot mode.
darrin1967
4 Posts
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July 18th, 2015 07:00
This has been the most elusive thing to find...and I'm pretty tech savvy. In the A11 bios, I have thoroughly searched for this after going into bios and there is no such screen/option. I've gone into boot options (f12) and there is no such option there either (I wouldn't expect it to be there, but wanted to exhaust all possibilities).
I'm BEGGING someone for some advice here because I either need to get this running again (if I can) or get another PC ASAP.
Unfortunately, I fear with updating the bios, I have bricked my motherboard.
This (changing boot modes) is probably the ONLY possibility I have in fixing it (if it even can be fixed at this point), but I can't locate it anywhere.
Thanks a TON in advance for your help!!!
AndrewSi
3 Apprentice
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901 Posts
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July 18th, 2015 08:00
Hi, sounds like you may have a Aurora R2?
Does it have a first generation i7 (820,860,960,980,990)
If you have a R2 then you won't have a UEFI option, that option did not appear in it's current form until the R4, the R3 had EFI which was basically the same but the R2 had none of the above.
When you upgraded the system BIOS did you go through the number A04, A05, A06 Etc.
Or did you go straight from A04 to A11?
If you went from A04 to A11 then that may be where your problem is.
The A11 BIOS does not contain all the previous BIOS updates, they are stand alone, so if you went from A04 to A11 there's a good chance you have missed an update and that is causing the problem.
I've had similar issues with other Alienware computers and managed to downgrade the BIOS to the original, then gone through each update.
If you can't boot to windows then you may be in trouble, I know there is a way to update your BIOS via DOS but I've never been able to master it.
Have you tried a complete power drain?
Remove the AC power, hold down power button for 15 seconds to discharge. Open computer, remove coin cell battery (CPU battery)
Wait for 20 minutes or a faster way is to continuously hold power button down for at least 60 seconds,, a little longer is better to be sure.
Replace coin cell battery, connect AC and reboot.
Computer should give five beeps first.
Turn off and reboot, if fix has worked it will try to load windows if you have it on a drive.
I can't suggest you downgrade your BIOS as it's always a risky operation, but I don't see any other way to fix this if this is the issue without replacing the motherboard.