(SOLVED) Alienware MIO Board problems

Additionally, I've been reading about a diagnostic utility that comes on a separate partition that can be booted into from the BIOS that can test the MIO board, but I no longer have that since I've switched out the original hard drive.  Is there some place I could download and burn a boot disk and run that?  If there is such a thing though, I cannot find it...

I see your edit above ... so, the new MIO-Board worked and it's all working?

I see your edit above ... so, the new MIO-Board worked and it's all working?

Yes, everything's working fine.  Connecting that cable provided everything the software needed to work properly.

Hi,

I know this is a very old thread but it relates so closely to the problem I've got that I thought you people were the best to ask.

I'm new to the whole alienware setup and I'm not a mad gamer myself but I'm trying to fix a rig for a friend. I've got problems with the main board causing random BSODs (I can see physical damage to the board so I'm going to assume that's where the problem is until I know differently).

The plan is to buy a new board and use it in the original Alienware case, even if it means NOT using the MIO board. However, the wire that runs from the power button on the case to the MIO has quite a chunky connector, too big to simply fit to the pins on the new board (or the existing board for that matter). Am I missing something simple or can anyone suggest a workaround to get the thing running?

Specs available on request but I'm not sure they'll help with a generic question like this. Any help much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Edit: All info here is related to Area-51 R1, & revolves around the top power on button assembly, mthrbrd front panel connector & MIO board 'power on' connector.

The person above has an Aurora, not A51, my post is in error but the info is good for A51 owners

The top i/o is part# U637R, the pcb board that also houses the power on button inside there is known to go bad (symptom is PC turns on & shuts off 10seconds later), always have a spare on hand.

'power on' is part of the Frt Panel connector:

Area-51 ALX Restoration

MI/O board also gets a connector tied into the top I/O assembly, called JFL1:

Cheers for the quick reply, let me add some details. Firstly, according to my system profile I've got an Alienware Aurora 00 System (0H869M A00 board with A11 10/28/2009 BIOS). And yes, I know it's ancient.

Secondly, my MIO doesn't look like the picture you've posted so here's some links / pics:

The motherboard is here:

g03.a.alicdn.com/.../For-DELL-font-b-Alienware-b-font-Aurora-ALX-MS-7591-X58-LGA-1366-font-b.jpg

and the MIO is here:

en.community.dell.com/.../P0GVP-V0D.jpg

I assume the JFP1 is part of the MIO (also assuming that the "FP" part relates to Front Panel). Correct me if I'm wrong. Either way, I don't have a JFP1 on my (old) MIO.

As far as "chunky" goes, I just meant that the power cable had a 2x2 plastic end which meant it couldn't just be stuck on the 2x1 pins on the main board. All in all, I've looked at this for so long I'm confused as ***. I've already looked at a new board and something tells me it wouldn't fit in this case. I think my query (I can't see my original post from here) was basically asking was it possible to bypass the MIO and replace the board with a working one that's in another case without an MIO board.

And to be honest, I'm so tired and I've thought of so many permutations, I can't even remember how I intended to put this back together. I know I've got a "spare" cable with CN-0Y003D-74211-99R-02AC-A00 on it (6-pin black connector on one end (actually 5 pin cos one's blocked out) and 2-pin white connector on the other).. I'll have to google it to see where that goes. I'd be interested to see how the MIO connects to the main board. The only two spots without cables now are the GXF PUMP and FLEXBAY on the top right of the picture (the two big black bays).

If I've not answered all your questions, or if I've confused you even more, then I apologise - I've been working on this machine for 20 hours without sleep and my head is spinning. Thanks again for taking time to answer and thanks in advance for any more advice you may have.

Cheers for the quick reply, let me add some details. Firstly, according to my system profile I've got an Alienware Aurora 00 System (0H869M A00 board with A11 10/28/2009 BIOS). And yes, I know it's ancient.

Secondly, my MIO doesn't look like the picture you've posted so here's some links / pics:

The motherboard is here:

g03.a.alicdn.com/.../For-DELL-font-b-Alienware-b-font-Aurora-ALX-MS-7591-X58-LGA-1366-font-b.jpg

and the MIO is here:

en.community.dell.com/.../P0GVP-V0D.jpg

I assume the JFP1 is part of the MIO (also assuming that the "FP" part relates to Front Panel). Correct me if I'm wrong. Either way, I don't have a JFP1 on my (old) MIO.

As far as "chunky" goes, I just meant that the power cable had a 2x2 plastic end which meant it couldn't just be stuck on the 2x1 pins on the main board. All in all, I've looked at this for so long I'm confused as ***. I've already looked at a new board and something tells me it wouldn't fit in this case. I think my query (I can't see my original post from here) was basically asking was it possible to bypass the MIO and replace the board with a working one that's in another case without an MIO board.

And to be honest, I'm so tired and I've thought of so many permutations, I can't even remember how I intended to put this back together. I know I've got a "spare" cable with CN-0Y003D-74211-99R-02AC-A00 on it (6-pin black connector on one end (actually 5 pin cos one's blocked out) and 2-pin white connector on the other).. I'll have to google it to see where that goes. I'd be interested to see how the MIO connects to the main board. The only two spots without cables now are the GXF PUMP and FLEXBAY on the top right of the picture (the two big black bays).

If I've not answered all your questions, or if I've confused you even more, then I apologise - I've been working on this machine for 20 hours without sleep and my head is spinning. Thanks again for taking time to answer and thanks in advance for any more advice you may have.

Something's up with this web page. Either you'll get my reply 3 times or not at all. It'll be interesting to see which(!)

I'll edit my last post accordingly.

Here, Justin has installed an Asus micro-ATX motherboard; the front panel connector (arrow) splits in two, where the blue part goes to the mthrbrd front panel header, & the jumper plugs into the mio board somewhere. I can't get to my Aurora right now to see the exact connector, but all wires have a label on them & the MIO has micro-text which corresponds to that label to ID all wires/connectors.

I believe it is called the BLINK harness, #10, red, top right, which is tied into the front panel connector

the kooler pump plugs in up top, black 7pin shown in the top lightboard strip, Rad-fan is left

If you say the original board is toast, you've replaced with a stock board, the wiring should be straight forward. If you have an aftermarket (Asus/Giga/MSI etc) mthrbrd, I do not have time to help integrate it; suffice it to say, aftermarket boards need wired a tad different in so far as pwr on / hdd led / pwr on led. That original X58 mthrbrd photo u posted, yes it can go in any case and does not need an MIO to tag along, but u will need a new aftermarket kooler or u will need to mod the AlienKooler due to its 7pin.

I am confused by your post, so get some rest, go over my post & report back with qwestions.

teardown 1 teardown2 disassembly videos if it helps visualize parts/wiring

I have an Alienware R3 and everything was running reasonably smoothly on Windows 10 (yes I had to perform the  hard button power down trick during installation etc), but then a Windows 10 update  somehow totally destroyed my Alienware Control Center ALX coloured lights AND more importantly the FAN control and water cooling control and temperature sensor read outs (errors everywhere on display). So I tried the usual uninstalling/repairing/re-installing Alienware Control Center and no luck - the PCI fan was stuck on 50% always making a racket and the fan at the rear of the machine was not pulling out air and I suspect the water cooling was not working either. So I preformed the MIO board green jumper factory switch trick which is to simply move the two pin slot jumper to pins 2 and 3 instead of the usual pins 1 and 2 and do a restart after a power down with power drain and then I reverted the green jumper on the MIO board to pins 1 and 2 and did a restart after a power drain (the green jumper factor reset pins on the board has 3 pins and the jumper is two pins wide btw) BUT NO LUCK DOING THIS, fans stuck at 50% and Control center reporting errors with no ability to modify light colours or fans... So I identified the MIO power connector and unplugged it (with factory reset jumper on the default pins 1+2) and then I restarted Windows 10, I then shut down, reconnected the power connector on the MIO (white one on the bottom left of the board) and restarted and voila, the PCI fan above the MIO started whizzing fast at 100% ish and then I reinstalled Alienware Control Center ( V2.8.9.0, A02-00) AND GREAT IT ALL WORKED AGAIN.. I could control the fans/coloured lights etc manually or automatically all on Windows 10 !! and the fans are not constantly at 50% when the CPU etc is only at 28 degrees Celcious which was annoying.

Before when it wasn't working for Dell Diagnostics (hit F12 on bootup), I was getting a similar message to the one the other user in the thread above had something like .. "UTUSBTM DEVICE INITIALIZATION FAILURE, USER MUST REATTACH UNIT TO USB Port 3" - I did check the USB connection cable on the MIO to the Motherboard and everything looked secure so I didn't tamper with it. I think unplugging the MIO at the power connector, starting Windows 10 and then replugging forced Windows 10 to detect the MIO, in windows 10 it was showing as a failed USB device on Control Panel - Hardware Devices and Uninstalling it there achieved nothing. Also on the Dell Diagnostics when my MIO was playing up even though I got the UTUSBTM error message, I was not getting the device showing on the 'tree menu' or the 'coloured LED lights' on the tree menu either. One thing I must say about the Aurora R3 is that it is very particular about USB slots and what peripherals get detected or not, I cannot suddenly daisy chain my Razer Kraken 7.1 onto the Razer keyboard USB and then plug only the USB from the Razer keyboard into the front panel USBs on the Aurora R3 INSTEAD I have to plug the headset and the keyboard into two USBs at the front panel USBs (and the UDB headset/keyboard don't often work on the USB ports at the back of the R3). Occasionally the Logitech wireless mouse doesn't get detected and a restart is required, the wireless receiver for the mouse is on USB. Another thing - on the Windows 10 side I disabled the 'Fast Startup' on the Power Options and disabled the Power Options "USB Settings selective suspend" Setting when I was sorting this AW Control Center fan problem out.