This post is more than 5 years old
12 Posts
0
74306
October 30th, 2013 14:00
Aurora - MIO board bricked?
Recently did a BIOS upgrade to A11, and DELL-Chris M was able to talk me through some memory stick problems, thanks. Shortly afterward my only installed HDD died. Upgraded to a SSD and some extra memory while I was at it. Fresh install of Windows 7, following a driver order I found off of Alienware Arena forum I think. Hadn't gotten deep into Tesla1856 posts yet, dumb me.
Problem - at some point my MIO card seems to have stopped working. After reading many, many of Tesla1856's posts (very helpful, thanks for all the effort you've put in) I think that I might have bricked it by installing the Command Center off my Resource Disc (circa Feb 2010) and then upgrading to the current CC 2.8.9. Probably should have depowered the MIO prior to fresh W7 install, but hadn't seen Tesla's advice yet.
Current computer state - boots fine, fan runs loudly all the time. CC opens but all temps and fan speeds show zero. I've tried the power resets and removing and replacing the MIO USB connector. MIO does have an orange light, but it extinguishes immediately upon shutdown, whereas I remember it holding the light on for a while when I was doing all the memory, bios troubleshooting. BIOS seems unable to locate the MIO card.
Have tried using the Alienware 32 bit diagnostics off my Resource disk, but it doesn't see MIO or the lights or anything either.
1 - is using the 32 bit diagnostics off my Resource disk okay? I don't think I have a utility partition anymore since i did a fresh install on the new hard drive.
2 - The only "unknown" device in my device manager is a USB something. I only have my monitor, keyboard, and mouse plugged in, I suspect the unknown is the MIO board on USB1. sound correct? And only CC provides drivers so if uninstalling/reinstalling CC isn't doing the trick, out of luck?
3 - I've tried all of the troubleshooting that I could find in Tesla185h's favorites, at least everything I understood and could get access to. removing and replacing the USB from the MIO board is "resetting it"?
4 - My main question is, would doing another fresh install of windows 7 and this time having the MIO unplugged and going straight to the latest CC rather than installing the one off my original resource disk likely to help? or am I probably looking at a bricked MIO board?
5 - Finally, looks like a MIO board is ~ $100 new from dell or $30 used from various other online sources, anyone have any experience?
After almost bricking my mother board doing the bios update, finding 2 bad slots for memory sticks (using 4 now vice 6), having a harddrive die completely, all in the past 10 days; I'm a little leery of going all in for yet another part, then again, not sure I want to go through the hassle of replacing the MIO board only to have a used one die again soon.
And frankly, I'm think I'm willing to spent the $30 or 100 just to avoid having to do another fresh Windows install. I think there were 250 or so different updates between W7, office, etc.
At least my computer runs now, starts, Bios A11 is working; but with the fans all running all the time, it is not a long term solution, obviously.
I'm really trying to figure out if there is any more troubleshooting to do prior to ordering a replacement MIO card.
thanks for any tips or help.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.1K Posts
0
October 30th, 2013 19:00
You have an Aurora (x58 chipset) aka Aurora R1
0 - This is bad. It should work.
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19454040.aspx
1 - Yes, but the download-able version might be newer
2 - This is bad (I think bricked MIOs look this way)
3 - No, not resetting. It prevents Windows from doing it's initial Hardware Detection on it.
4 - If detected in Hardware Diags (outside of Windows) sometimes the second Clean-Install works properly. Weird, but true.
5 - Used parts are always a gamble. Sellers pretend everything works great. Sometime yes, sometimes no.
6 - Another gamble on these system. I would have stayed on A09.
firstthird
12 Posts
0
October 30th, 2013 14:00
oops, thought my bio would post as a signature, looks like it didn't. system is as follows.
Aurora (R1?, circa Feb 2010, no venting louvers on top) - i7 920, 16 GB, Radeon 5870, Windows 7x64, 240 GB Crucial SSD, 1TB HDD, Dell 24" 2408 WFP
DELL-Milena M
Moderator
•
2.7K Posts
0
October 30th, 2013 15:00
Hello Gohack!
So if I understood correctly the system LED’s are not working because the MIO board might be bricked? And the fans are running very loudly?
Did you perform a power drain after you uninstall the command center? If not I will recommend you to do it and reinstall the latest version from the Dell website.
firstthird
12 Posts
0
October 30th, 2013 17:00
Yes, probably wasn't clear enough. I've uninstalled CC, powered down, unplugged CPU power cord from back, held the Aurora power button for 30 seconds (did 60 seconds just now to be sure), restarted, reinstalled the latest version of CC, and still it seems as if it isn't recognizing my MIO board. CC shows all 3 ambient temps at 0C, hard drive fan #1 = 0 rpm, CPU pump failed, PCI fan 0 rpm, hard drive fan #2 = 0 RPM.
firstthird
12 Posts
0
October 30th, 2013 19:00
anyone know the part number or how to find it on the dell website? I'm having no luck using any variation of "P0GVP MS-4194 Ver 1.1" or master i/o board, etc.
firstthird
12 Posts
0
October 30th, 2013 19:00
Tesla1856,
thanks for the quick and thorough answers. Guess I'll decide tomorrow whether to gamble on a used one. Although I was having trouble finding the part on the Dell website, saw it once but now it doesn't seem to show up. Presumably with some patience I'll find it.
Appreciate the assist.
firstthird
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.1K Posts
0
October 30th, 2013 20:00
Aurora-R1
2JXP2 : Master I/O Board ALX
P0GVP : Master I/O Board Standard
If just a plainer top with fixed honey-comb hole pattern, you need the Standard
firstthird
12 Posts
0
October 31st, 2013 12:00
Thanks again. I guess it's been so long that I've called a 1-800 number to order something that it didn't stand out as a good option. Sort of sad that it is easier to find the parts (used) I want easier in about 10 different places than it is on the Dell website. But considering the pain involved in installing it, I'm thinking the new part from Dell premium may be worth it. I'll try to remember and report back if the new MIO board fixes the issues.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.1K Posts
0
October 31st, 2013 14:00
Agreed. Myself and other Rockstars have brought up the issue.
Personally, I couldn't even buy the standard Alienware wired USB keyboard at dell.com online sales. That's a good example of their current level of detail.
However, in their defence ... to put common internal parts for all machines online (even current ones) would take a lot of work for only a few sales. At least we can actually get the parts for older machines by phone pretty easy. It's not that way with all manufacturers.
firstthird
12 Posts
0
October 31st, 2013 18:00
Turns out in all my troubleshooting I managed to skip the MIO board resets via moving the green jumper around, just tried it, still nada.
I suspect too that by Dell making you talk to someone, they hope to prevent parts/system mismatch as much as possible. I could see lots of returns otherwise.
Went with a new board, hopefully I'll get it by Monday and I'll use your install technique and we'll see what happens. I'll report back.
firstthird
12 Posts
0
November 8th, 2013 13:00
New MIO board did the trick. Thanks for all the help Tesla. Your guide to putting in a new MIO board was very helpful, plus the various guides to CC reinstalls, etc.
I'm leaning towards treating Command Center like BIOS updates, only if really necessary, otherwise skip them due to the chance of bricking a board. sound reasonable?
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.1K Posts
0
November 8th, 2013 13:00
AirRevenant
1 Message
0
November 17th, 2013 07:00
Glad to finally find someone who has reached a solution to this haunting problem. I was given one of these Aurora computers by a friend, and it has these same exact problems as described - even after following every guide I've seen so far on re-installation of command center, and reseting the jumper on the board itself.
I fear I will have to go buy another MIO board and I was hoping you could provide links to where you found your successful mio board, and where Tesla's hardware installation guide may be found for when I'm ready to purchase a replacement.
Thanks!
firstthird
12 Posts
0
November 17th, 2013 10:00
Sure thing.
1 - I got the replacement MIO board from Dell. I decided to pay the $100 versus the $30 or so from ebay to ensure I got a good part and had a warranty or could return if it didn't work. You have to call the 1-800 number to find the part though, it won't come up on the list of parts for your service tag.
2 - I used the first part of Chris M's guide to uninstall CC, found towards the bottom of this post, "Command Center Clean Installation," use the install part later, it is the bottom one on this page
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19338298.aspx
3 - I took pictures of the current MIO board installation. But since the pictures didn't show the wire colors and stuff as well as I wanted, I got a copy of the Service Manual for my model at the Dell support website under my service tag. Page 72 has a big picture of the MIO board, printed that out and used it to make notes about the wire colors, connector colors, etc. Used my diagram and notes more than the pictures during the reinstall.
4 - used Tesla1856's guide to installing an MIO board, found towards the bottom of this page, except when Tesla1856 says "reinstall CC" I went back to Chirs M's guide and finished that
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19365256.aspx?pi21932=2
fixed my issues, hope this helps.
Now if I could get the occassional BSD to stop. I'm thinking that disabling sleep mode may end up being the play but haven't done it yet. Seems like every time I get a BSD it says a different thing caused it. Rarely got them prior putting in a new hard drive and fresh installing all the drivers, etc.
Lrave
1 Rookie
•
5 Posts
0
March 28th, 2015 08:00
Got exactly the same problem after doing clean win7 re-installation from resource disk. This is ridiculous that Dell actually selling broken computers and doing nothing to fix the problem existing since years...
I spent last month to check all over the net to find solution to this problem and still MIO board replacement seems to be the only option, but of course I am not going to pay any single pound more to Dell if they cheated my by selling expensive computer with broken part......who could tell that on Alienware aurora you can not do clean re-installation of the system because in 90% of cases you will brick your MIO board....... -.-