Aurora R3 Videocard Replacement - Whitelist?

[jacktheripper88]

Afternoon everyone,

Just wanted to pose this question while I researched the issue.
I've gotten an Alienware Aurora R3 into my shop and I'm having a real head-scratch-er of an issue going on with it.
It was brought in for no video on boot issue, dude said the fan was very loud when it powered on. I opened the case and it was choked with dust, so I cleaned the case out and removed all the dust.
Reseated the card, turned it on, no video, no error beeps. Grabbed an entry level Nvidia 210 card, popped it in, boots with video no issues.
So figured it had to be his videocard (Radeon HD 6990 4GB), it was plugged full of dust, figured it must have died from the insufficient cooling. Tried it out in another tower, still no video, fan sounds like it has a bearing issue going.
We happened to have an Asus R7 260X in stock, guy was happy with the specs on it (going to give it to his kids), installed it, same issue. Did the usual, remove and reinstall, checked my connections, still not getting any joy.
Popped the basic card back in, boots up fine.
Tested the R7 in another PC, boots fine.

This got me suspicious that maybe there was a psu issue and that was the reason for the videocard failure. Lucky enough to have a 900W PSU in stock. Connected it in with the 210, boots no problem. Swapped the 210 out for the R7, once again no video. Decided just for the heck of it to disconnect the PCI-E (6pin) from the R7, it does give the warning beeps that there is a video hardware failure.

I'm starting to think that Dell possibly has a whitelist (blacklist) built into their BIOS to allow (disallow) certain hardware. I've come across that issue with Lenovo laptops and wifi cards.
Haven't come across any discussion yet, but I'm still on the hunt.

 

[Yakk]

Afternoon everyone,

Just wanted to pose this question while I researched the issue.
I've gotten an Alienware Aurora R3 into my shop and I'm having a real head-scratch-er of an issue going on with it.
It was brought in for no video on boot issue, dude said the fan was very loud when it powered on. I opened the case and it was choked with dust, so I cleaned the case out and removed all the dust.
Reseated the card, turned it on, no video, no error beeps. Grabbed an entry level Nvidia 210 card, popped it in, boots with video no issues.
So figured it had to be his videocard (Radeon HD 6990 4GB), it was plugged full of dust, figured it must have died from the insufficient cooling. Tried it out in another tower, still no video, fan sounds like it has a bearing issue going.
We happened to have an Asus R7 260X in stock, guy was happy with the specs on it (going to give it to his kids), installed it, same issue. Did the usual, remove and reinstall, checked my connections, still not getting any joy.
Popped the basic card back in, boots up fine.
Tested the R7 in another PC, boots fine.

This got me suspicious that maybe there was a psu issue and that was the reason for the videocard failure. Lucky enough to have a 900W PSU in stock. Connected it in with the 210, boots no problem. Swapped the 210 out for the R7, once again no video. Decided just for the heck of it to disconnect the PCI-E (6pin) from the R7, it does give the warning beeps that there is a video hardware failure.

I'm starting to think that Dell possibly has a whitelist (blacklist) built into their BIOS to allow (disallow) certain hardware. I've come across that issue with Lenovo laptops and wifi cards.
Haven't come across any discussion yet, but I'm still on the hunt.

I've worked with 1366 Aurora rigs before... and if the 6990 is still alive, the fan probably just needs a bit of lubrication. You can take the whole card apart and pop off the fan to lubricate it (these fans sound bad, but on all my mining rigs it was always just needing some lube), or see if you have a small hole under the sticker and put in a bit of sewing machine oil, saves taking it apart. .

The PSUs in Auroras are very weak, 450w or 825w, with weak rails that don't add up to using their entire 825w if I remember correctly. Plugged all sorts of cards into the Aurora up to a R9 280x without issue using a good psu. When you try and boot you no beeps?Try different plugs (hdmi, dvi) and see what happens.

Also card heights can be an issue with the side panel.

 

[jacktheripper88]

Ah let me try and explain the beep situation the best i can.
If I have the 6990 or R7 in, I do not get any error beeps. BUT listening to it running it does not sound like its giving the usual indications of booting.
With the 210, you get the logo screen, chirps, boots into windows.

I've got plenty of room for the new card, even went so far as to remove the sound card to try the video cards in the other PCI-E slot

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is it possible that it's an issue with the video card BIOS on the R7 260X, an UEFI versus Legacy BIOS implementation issue? Some cards are dual (MSI comes to mind), but some are only one or the other. And that mainboard probably isn't UEFI-compatible.

I would try another video card, if you've got one. Maybe a higher-end NV card, a Kepler something-or-other.

 

[jacktheripper88]

Interesting, I hadn't heard anything about UEFI compatibility affecting video cards. I thought that was only in regards to how the hard drive and OS were accessed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

UEFI interacts with everything with system-level firmware, including video cards with Option ROMS, either UEFI, Legacy, or in some cases, both.

 

[jacktheripper88]

Sorry meant that I didn't it changed how the system would interact with a videocard, I hadn't seen any UEFI compatible logos showing up on any hardware. I figured with an aftermarket videocard they would have it natively legacy and UEFI compatible.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you have a UEFI-compatible video card, it will say somewhere something about "UEFI GOP compatible". (Graphics Output Protocol, some new UEFI thing.)

My PowerColor HD6570 says that on the box.