Are you having trouble upgrading your Alienware Area-51 R4 and R5?

good work.  you have an R5 case.  I assume you use standard USB and Front panel cable to work with new MSI motherboard.  the original R5 cables are proprietary.

when you power on pc, do all led lights turn on to the color you preset, then all turn off when OS is booting, and finally turn back on after AWCC is launched automatically by OS?

for others, R5 use different FIO, Logo board, side panels from R2-4.  Dell took effort and user pain to make sure the upgraded triad 2.0 model use parts incompatible with triad 1.0.

I have not yet had a R5 case, but I know its maintenance cost is much higher than R2 if one day I need to replace some parts.  for now, I stick to R2 case which is good enough.  The subtle front IO upgrade in R5 is very minor and not important to me.

@redxps630​ 

First of all, thank you for leaving a reply. 

I hope this work will be meaningful to others as well.
What happens when I turn off my PC and turn it back on is 
that none of the lights come on. 
From the moment I turn on my PC, even when I enter Windows, 
the lights do not come on.

It took me a long time to figure out the cause, 
but the solution was simple. I followed the suggestion from a 
Chinese person on another forum to disconnect the reset connector 
on the FIO board, and the problem was solved as if by magic.

At first, I thought the configuration of R2 and R5 were the same, 
so I referred to the R2 upgrade method. 
They were completely different. 
The FIO board installed location and shape were different, 
and forcing the installation of COMMAND CENTER by modifying 
the BIOS registry did not work at all. There are similar parts, 
but these two are different.

good to know a simple solution.  Currently, do all your LEDs now turn on as soon as power on, and stay on all the time?

I find a pic of R5 FIO.

can you let us know which one is the reset connector?

sorry to ask you another question if you do not mind.  can you take a look at the inner or dark side of your R5 side panel?  is there a small white sticker with Dell part number printed on it on the inner side?

For R2, the inner side has no sticker.  

@ redxps630 

Yes, as soon as I power on my PC, the FXlight lighting is nicely distributed and comes together to change to the color lighting I have set.

I'll attach a YouTube link to a video I shot right after FXlight successfully recognized the light.

(I'm sorry my breathing is a bit irritating)


 As bro knows, the USB1 port on the FIO board is the port that communicates 
between the motherboard and the FIO Board.
 

This is a common cable USB 2.0 9-pin cable that can be easily purchased on the market. 
However, since the direction of the pin hole is different from the genuine Dell cable, 
a hole for 1 pin is made with tweezers or something to make it 10 pins. As far as I know, 
the last 1 pin is a dummy and does not cause any problems with FXlight lighting 
communication.

  
 

The front panel terminal initially used the same USB 2.0 9-pin cable, 
but since the distance to the replaced motherboard is quite far, 
and the 2-pin reset terminal connection had to be disconnected in order to 
maintain the FXlight lighting, I additionally extended it with an independent 
1-pin jumper wire and connected it individually. As a result, since the 
front panel terminals are connected in 2-pin units, it seems okay to use a 
2-pin jumper wire.

There are some parts that are difficult to explain in words, 
but I hope you understand.

very nice work!!

agree.  it seems OP has found out if the USB1 cable is unplugged from FIO, new motherboard is able to maintain AlienFx preset LED constantly after power up.  not sure if OP is using a modified 9 pin USB cable that has a perforated hole as the new long custom front panel cable.

the two pin dupont jumper cables are mentioned but not shown connected to FIO in pic.  these may represent alternative option for front panel connection.

If professor also owns R5, can professor describe whether R5 side panel inner side has Dell sticker to show part number?

@redxps630​   no sticker or anything that looks like a part number.

Ty.  so there is really no way to tell whether a retail side panel is for R2 or R5.

btw, what do you think the market value of a R6 with GTX 1080 and 1950X is in 2025?

R6 was released in 2019.

I basically think about getting a R5 or R6 case but hard to find a case that is empty.

not a fan of either T-Ripper cpu or X299 cpu 

if get a case I would try to put Intel 9th to 12th gen mainstream board

@redxps630​ 

No. The photo of my FIO Board above was taken during the 
parts replacement process, so it looks like it's not 
connected, but it's actually connected properly with a 
USB 2.0 9-pin cable (a modified 10-pin cable).

The USB1 port on the FIO Board must be connected to a 
USB port on the motherboard to light up the FXlight.

And the FP terminal of the FIO Board was connected to the 
JFP terminal of the motherboard with a 1-pin jumper cable 
to extend the USB2.0 cable. 
At this time, the reset 2 lines were omitted.

If you look closely at the FP terminals on the FIO Board, 
you will see them written as HDDLED, PWLED, PW, RESET, etc.

I can't find the sticker part of the FIO Board you mentioned. 
However, the model name is ms-4440 as written in the picture 
you uploaded. The manufacturer is MicroStarInternational, 
or MSI. I found out that MSI manufactures Dell's OEM parts, 
so they say the compatibility is good. 
That's why I chose MSI motherboard and GPU.
 

@redxps630​   I went with the R5 specifically for the X299 motherboard. The Dell proprietary nonsense has BIOS limited to 9th Gen processor . . . but the I9-9980XE, with 18 cores, 36 threads, and 165 watt TDP is the best option if you want to stay authentic and keep the Alienware OEM motherboard.

Re:the reset 2 lines were omitted.

If you look closely at the FP terminals on the FIO Board, 
you will see them written as HDDLED, PWLED, PW, RESET

Ty.  I now understand you omitted RESET pin connection in the front panel 9 pin in order to be successful.  this is interesting.

pin 5-7 are RESET and OP said if these two pins are omitted (not connected), AlienFx light goes on immediately and stays on.

Professor can you inspect the inner side of your R5 side panel.  

if you can upload a pic of your panel 6 copper pin.

here is a pic of R2 side panel.  it shows that pin#5 has no eyelet connected to it.

@CityFire 

can you upload a pic of 6 copper pin of the inner side of your R5 side panel. Ty.