Alienware Aurora R4 Hard Shutdown During BIOS Update, Now No Boot + RAM Read/Write Failure

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tapedood

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Mar 15, 2015
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I was using the executable BIOS utility on an Alienware R4. About a quarter of the way through, all my fans went to max, pc froze and stayed that way for about 1 minute then did a hard shutdown.

When I went to boot it back up, I get power, then the fans but then I get 4 Beeps (RAM Read/Write Failure).

What I've tried:

Clear CMOS (remove battery, switch jumper)
Reseated RAM, Tried Each Stick 1 At a Time

Was hoping someone could help me sort this out.

Motherboard: 7JNH0 Socket LGA2011
 
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JimF_35

JimF_35

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Dec 27, 2010
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You never reboot during a BIOS update because you can brick the system. I hope this is not the case because once this happens your board can not be recovered unless you have a 2 BIOS board or you my a new CMOS chip with a BIOS loaded on it. If it is a bricked BIOS then you can some times find the same motherboard on embay being sold for parts because some one bent the pins on the CPU socket. You can by one of these boards really cheap and take the CMOS chip out of it and replace the one in your board.

I personally would call Dell tech support to see if they have any suggestions. If the board is under warrantee they might replace it for you.
 
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tapedood

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Mar 15, 2015
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I know. But I didn't actually reboot it. It hard shut down (I'm assuming due to heat because every fan and cpu core was pinned at maximum).
What's the best way to find out if it's bricked?
 
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JimF_35

JimF_35

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If it is the RAM try swapping it out if you have spare RAM around. It may be the new update does not support your RAM anymore and by going to a slower version may work.
 
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tapedood

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Mar 15, 2015
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Turned out to be a failed Northbridge. Board had been failing for some time, BIOS flash pushed it over the edge. In case anyone runs across this problem in the future. This is one possible explanation.
 
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JimF_35

JimF_35

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Man that sucks. I feel your pain. It gives you an excuse to upgrade your system though. You thought about x99?
 
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