M14x R2, no bootable device, help :(

Question

Hi all, need some advice!

I have purchased a 2012 Alienware M14x R2 (eBay, I am currently off work and wanted a project to keep my mind busy). It was described as having no HDD or power cable, and they didn’t know if the battery was okay as they had no power cable to test it. I literally fix up PCs and laptops for fun, so thought why not? I now have a headache!
I plugged in my SSD (500GB Crucial 2.5 with Windows 10 preloaded). Plugged the laptop in and allowed it an hour to give it a bit of juice. When I turned it on, everything came on except the screen, and the disc tray made a clicking noise and it turned off two seconds later. Another two seconds later it turned itself back on, and then let out numerous beeps which were very loud! It was doing 5 beeps in a row, which I understood to be the cmos battery so I went ahead and took the whole thing apart and replaced it with a brand new one.

Following this, the laptop still does the strange turning itself on then off, then back on. I then get the Alien screen for a second and then it immediately goes to “No bootable device - please restart system”. I have gone into the BIOS and the SSD is detected, but I’m not able to go into the boot order menu to change anything, it won’t let me?! It was set to RAID, I changed it to ATA and AHCI but when restarting these had been automatically been changed back to RAID.

I ran the post boot diagnostic test and it completed with no errors, but still wouldn’t boot my SSD. I switched it out for an old HDD from a laptop I know works perfectly, with Windows 7 on. Literally exactly the same thing as above. Ran the diagnostics on it, same again, no error but still says “No bootable device” and won’t let me change the boot order.

I tried plugging a USB loaded with Windows 7 and then Windows 10 (for the different drives respectively) to see if I could work around this way, but no joy here either.

I don’t have a Windows disc for the drive but could burn one potentially, just don’t know if I’m wasting my time?

Any advice is greatly appreciated as hairs are being torn!

It is i7-3610QM, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GFX. It has a service tag, but no asset tag. It’s the first time I’ve seen an Alienware with no asset tag.

Chino de Oro · Answer

As you have mentioned, doing something to keep your mind busy and for fun. Why not create an installation media from Windows Creation Tool and use it to install a fresh operating system instead of using a preinstalled one.

One issue stands out, your new CMOS battery could not keep the system settings and allowed BIOS settings reverted to default. You may want to take a look to resolve that.

Remember to install boot drive with RAID or whichever mode as the default BIOS settings so that you won't have to worry about the settings change causing error no boot device.

lunamonika87 · Answer

@Chino de Oro​  Thank you so much for the reply!  I’ve been slowly tinkering with this over the last few days, I slowly clean everything to make sure they’re perfect. Today I have taken it apart again to replace the cmos battery again, and touch wood this has now stopped the beeping and the BIOS from ‘forgetting’ things somewhat. I entered the date & time and it has remembered those, but if I change the RAID to ATA it won’t remember this still, it reverts back to RAID. I have completely reformatted the old HDD again, and I’m just waiting on some DVD-Rs to come as Windows wouldn’t fit on the CD-Rs. It was still doing the ‘no bootable device’ error, and I’d done the thorough diagnostic test which completed with everything working fine. I will update after I’ve tried Windows disc, if this doesn’t work though what other steps could I possibly take? I still currently can’t access the boot priority at all but the hard drive is recognised on the devices.

lunamonika87 · Answer

Sadly the Windows discs haven’t done the trick either and I’m now in a very confused place!

Chino de Oro · Answer

Can you make a USB installer using Microsoft Windows Creation Tool and using it for Windows installation.

On a working computer, go here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d and select the Windows version you want to use, assuming Windows 10. Select Download Now then run it to burn a USB installer. Remember to select option create to use on different PC.

With RAID mode set as default, some system may require F6 driver to load during installation, while some others would display the drive for selection without RST driver (F6).

lunamonika87 · Answer

@Chino de Oro​  I created the USB, however the laptop wouldn’t detect the USB was plugged in sadly. I took it apart to triple check that I had secured everything, and now it won’t turn on at all…..

Alienware

M14x R2, no bootable device, help :(

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