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Aurora R7, stuck in boot loop, cannot access BIOS or boot to USB
When I turn on the R7, I get the Alienware head and I see the options in the corner for F2 or F12. Pressing F2 does not bring me to the BIOS screen. F12 does not bring me to any sort of boot options.
Sometimes it goes into a white SupportAssist screen, scans memory and reports, "Hardware scan complete with no issues." While in that screen, there's an option to press F2 for BIOS setup, but that does not work either.
Eventually it tries booting from the network, then it says, "Boot failure on device, Press any key to reboot the machine." I press a key and the process repeats.
I'm so frustrated, and I don't know what is wrong. Thanks for any help.
This is similar to this post I found from a few years ago.
https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/alienware-desktops/aurora-r7-stuck-in-boot-loop-cannot-re-intall-windows-from-usb/647f99a7f4ccf8a8ded1564c
CineWebb
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January 14th, 2024 03:23
Update:
Regarding F2 - It turns out the reason I couldn't get into the BIOS was due to the "fn key". Apparently my keyboard was set into a mode where it thought I was sending the "monitor brighter" key, not F2. So, pressing fn+F2 actually sent the F2 signal, and I was able to get in. WHOAH! It took me HOURS of trial-and-error troubleshooting to figure that one out. I hope someone else who needs to hear this information finds it.
Regarding Bootable USB Drives - Apparently the bootable USB drive I had created using the Dell software was NOT actually bootable. So, of course no matter what I did, it would not work. I used the Windows Media Creation tool to make a bootable USB, which DID work! I tried all the tools to repair the existing drive, but nothing worked. Since I knew bootable USB's worked, I followed the instructions here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/osiso/win to generate an operating system recovery bootable USB drive. That was able to re-install the system from scratch and get me back on my feet.
Chino de Oro
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January 13th, 2024 08:21
Due to machine age, replace a fresh, new coin cell battery, then performing a CMOS reset via jumper. Try to use a wired keyboard when accessing BIOS settings.
Refer to Aurora R7 service manual and taking precaution while working on motherboard.