Aurora R11, broke last night, powers up no display

Question

So just like the headline reads. My R11 has been working fine since I bought it over a year ago. (Of course it’s out of warranty). I bought it with a 2080 Ti since the 3xxx weren’t out yet when I bought it. I upgraded it to a 3090 over a year ago when they first came out and haven’t had any problems. Well it froze last night and wouldn’t respond to any inputs so I hard rebooted it. Windows came up with the fix it or just reboot question and I chose just reboot (similar stuff has happened before - usually associated with screen saver or turning the display off after some time. I finally turned that off so it would just stay on a screen saver and I haven’t had any problems until last night. Like I said it froze and I hard rebooted it and it acted like it was rebooting but just stopped and all of the LEDs turned blue. I tried all the usual tricks. Pull the power cord out and hold down the power button - which had a interesting result. For about 10 seconds it acted like it was booting. The LEDs cycled through their colors but then they stopped and turned blue and stayed there. I can hear the one mechanical drive powering up. The mouse & keyboard same thing. So I thought maybe my crazy expensive 3090 had broken so I went and got my 2080 Ti that it came with and swapped it back in. Same thing. No change. Does anyone have any other ideas before I have to send it back to Dell and pay for a repair? At least I was smart enough to build something nicer as I’ve read so many horror stories about Dell so I’m not without a computer but I don’t want to leave my nice gaming machine in the living room. I had my Alienware Dell for that.  I read some of the other threads that had the same symptoms - one guy even had the colors stuck on blue like I do. But his was brand new and his was just a video card not seated properly. I know that’s not my issue as it hasn’t suffered any trauma it just stopped working and I even tried swapping back to the card it came with.suggestions please!

Harlequin420 · Accepted Answer

Yes. It did. And you could hold it down for about 30 seconds and it would power back off…

on a hunch I ordered thermaltake’s power supply tester and sure enough the cheap Dell garbage failed.
I have a 1300w EVGA platinum gigantic thing hanging out of it and it boots up just fine now. So I have to order something a little smaller like their 1000w in the compact case to fit in this chassis but at least it’s fixed or I know what’s wrong with it. Thank you for all the suggestions guys!

Tesla1856 · Answer

@Harlequin420 wrote:

My [Aurora ] R11

Well it froze last night and wouldn’t respond to any inputs so I hard rebooted it.

1. I was smart enough to build something nicer .... before I have to send it back to Dell and pay for a repair?

2. I thought maybe my crazy expensive 3090 had taken a dump so I went and got my 2080ti that it came with and swapped it back in. Same thing. No change.

1. If it is out-of-warranty, and you can build your own computers ... I suggest you fix it yourself.

2. Interesting. I would have thought a different video card would fix it.

Do you know how to trouble-shoot dead computers ? If not, there is google, YouTube and this:

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

redxps630 · Answer

when your R11 is having a No POST issue, try clear cmos settings.

#11 #12 jumper

Disconnect the system-board power cable from the system board.
Remove the jumper plug from pins 217 and replace it on pins 216 (P216).
Wait for 5 seconds.
Remove the jumper plug from pins 216 and replace it on pins 217.
Connect the system-board power cable to the system

Alienware Aurora R11 Service Manual | Dell US

RodsterB · Answer

Do you remember what PSU is in your R11? It’s recommended that an 800w PSU drive an RTX 3090. It’s possible your PSU has failed. I have an R10 that the PSU failed after 8 months, similar to the symptoms you described, reboots, lockups, finally the R10 would not boot at all. The front panel lights would just flicker.

Harlequin420 · Answer

I would have thought so too. But I checked both cards in my good system (have two 3090s and the left over 2080ti) and all three are fine. I’ll check out your links. If googled the symptoms like crazy and have only found the known answers for the common weird problems. I’m going to try removing all the accessories. Maybe the m.2 drive,crashed. But I’m, not getting any output to even allow me into bios. It’s just nothing but the lights frozen on blue. I will definitely fix it myself if I can figure out the problem.

Harlequin420 · Answer

@redxps630 wrote:

when your R11 is having a No POST issue, try clear cmos settings.

#11 #12 jumper

Disconnect the system-board power cable from the system board.

Remove the jumper plug from pins 217 and replace it on pins 216 (P216).

Wait for 5 seconds.

Remove the jumper plug from pins 216 and replace it on pins 217.

Connect the system-board power cable to the system

Alienware Aurora R11 Service Manual | Dell US

I have cleared the cmos. I’ve tried the jumper and just removing the battery. Both. No change…

Harlequin420 · Answer

I had to enter my service tag to double check - it’s their 1000w. I guess there is a possibility that one of the voltages have failed 12v, 5v, 3.3v. Maybe it’s something that runs a portion of the MB. I’ll try another power supply too. Pretty sure I have something close laying around.

redxps630 · Answer

Does your alienhead power button light up at all?

Harlequin420 · Answer

Doesn’t this look nicer than the factory Dell junk that doesn’t last a year? AND triggers bitlocker when their stuff fails. Nice. Well it’s got a 10 year power supply warranty now.

Alienware Desktops

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