So I think I blew up my ALX

[MattyB]

So last night I was having a look through my BIOS and I came across a little thing called Gear Ratio. I had a look online about it and how to use it with my i7-3820. Apparently it was simple to use. Just increase it from 1.00 to 1.25 and I would get wonderful overclocking results without having to change my multiplier. FAIL. After saving in BIOS, the ALX would not turn back on. Instead it starts, then stops, then starts, then stops and so on and so forth without getting to the BIOS. I have a sneaky suspicion that i have done something terrible to my mobo and/or PSU.

Any ideas?

 

[DDuB420]

Do you hear any beeps on startup?
Also, what link were you referencing to do this overclock?

 

[MattyB]

Here's the link below. I realize that they were not using an AW mobo so that may have made all the difference.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...ore-i7-3820-sandy-bridge-e-cpu-review-17.html

There are no beeps at all. Just the fans kick in for a few seconds and the cd/br drive lights flash. Then it all stops and starts again. I only changed this gear ratio. I hadn't changed anything else yet like vCore or voltages.

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Since it's the canucks, I'm going to assume it's all your fault!

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It's not the PSU. I just put it into my other Aurora and it works fine. As i thought, I think I've screwed the mobo.

 

[yikes81]

There should be a little battery on the mobo. Pull it out and wait a minute or so.
Then put it back in and boot again. Hope fully it will flush out the settings and restore to default.

 

[ejohnson]

Yeah, clear the bios by pulling the coin cell out.

 

[MattyB]

I have tried that now. I left the battery out for about 15 minutes. No good though. Same problem.

 

[DDuB420]

I have tried that now. I left the battery out for about 15 minutes. No good though. Same problem.

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_dt_Aurora/en/sm/SM_en.pdf

Page 114

 

[MattyB]

Thanks but it looks like that is for the older Auroras. Mine is a little different. I have been looking around on how to do this process with my machine but I have been having constant line drops with my internet for the past week. It should be fixed by tonight but it's ruining my efforts in downloading large files or PDF's.

 

[DDuB420]

I found the manual for your system here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SYSTEMS/Alw_dt_Aurora_R4/

It states...

Password reset

1 Remove the left side-panel. See "Removing the Left Side-Panel" on
page 25.
2 Locate the 3-pin password reset jumper (PASSWORD_CLEAR) on the
system board. See "System-Board Components" on page 20.
3 Remove the 2-pin jumper plug from pins 2 and 3 and fix it on pins 1 and 2.

4 Wait for approximately five seconds to clear the password setting.
5 Remove the 2-pin jumper plug from pins 1 and 2 and replace it on pins 2
and 3.

SOURCEage 155 for password clear


CMOS reset

1 Remove the left side-panel. See "Left Side-Panel" on page 25.
2 Locate the 3-pin CMOS reset jumper (CMOS_CLEAR) on the system
board. See "System-Board Components" on page 20.
3 Remove the 2-pin jumper plug from pins 2 and 3 and fix it on pins 1 and 2.
Wait for approximately five seconds to clear the CMOS setting.

5 Remove the 2-pin jumper plug from pins 1 and 2 and replace it on pins 2
and 3.

Source: page 156

 

[MattyB]

Cheers. I managed to find the jumpers and did what they suggested.

So I turned it on and the fans started up again and then stopped and started so I thought, 'here we go again'. Then I heard a beep which made me feel a little better. The screen did not automatically come on so I pressed the power button on the monitor. The machine started to boot but froze on the boot screen where it gives you the option to go into BIOS.

Left it for a few minutes then tried again. It started but it could not find a boot device so I went to the BIOS and set it back to boot from the SSD in AHCI mode. Saved and tried to boot but it still couldn't find a boot device. Remembered to change boot mode to legacy instead of UEFI and..............

IT'S WORKING!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your help. I won't be messing with that one again!! Phew!!!!

 

[DDuB420]

Nice one

 

[MattyB]

Nice one

Yeah, thanks to you!

 

[yikes81]

Awesome work. So you did both processes?

 

[DDuB420]

I hope he didn't, the CMOS reset is what needed to be done. The password reset was just a reference to what the other jumper was for.

 

[yikes81]

Thats what I thought. But since I saw both processes, I wasn't sure. Thanks for clarity.

 

[AeonSoul]

Good everything worked out, I was going to suggest a CMOS reset, but ddub was faster

 

[MattyB]

Well not everything worked out. I'm back to getting crashes while ripping DVDs with my Vengeance RAM. Even after changing the timings. It was fine before all this business happened. Old RAM back in there.

 

[AeonSoul]

Well that's weird. Try to restore the setting to what they were before you messed it up

 

[MattyB]

Yeah I did. Don't know what's going on. No major problem really.

 

[yikes81]

Good everything worked out, I was going to suggest a CMOS reset, but ddub was faster

I was hoping the battery would be enough to reset the CMOS. But it apparently was set into EPROM.


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