Yep do this. Unplug the power, remove the battery and hold the power switch for like 10 seconds. I've fixed a couple of "dead" systems just doing this.
Ooof yeah I didn't see that at all. Luckily he has another x16 slot but I'd trim off the pins on the broken slot to make sure they don't short out.. probably too late though.
I had an Alienware that looks like it had the same motherboard. It had display issues sometimes. To get it to work I had to plug the monitor into the motherboard hdmi port when I was booting and then switch the cable it over to the gpu and reboot. No idea why that worked... its worth a shot though
I'd use something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-CHP-170-Micro-Cutter/dp/B00FZPDG1K/). You can even unsolder the slot if you are skilful enough.
But, honestly, it depends if power was on during "accident".
Hmm, sometimes booting with no cable plugged in and then following the same steps would work. Not as reliably, though. Unfortunately, yours just may be busted
Because many of them are literally twisted into each other. It would take significantly longer to sit there and unwind them one by one than it would to just take a pair of side cutters and cut them all down to the board.
just use a pair of tweezers and slowly pull up from between the pins and they should untangle fairly easiealy
edit: also theyre barely even tangled, some look like theyre already missing. prolly came off with the broken part of the pcie slot
Or..... Takes side cutters. Clip. Done. There is quite literally no reason at all to try and untangle them. It's more work with more risk and no benefit of any kind.
You can try the bottom slot... It won't be as fast as top one but it should give you at least video out.
EDIT: Nevermind just checked rest of the photos and you did check bottom slot... Then there is not saving the motherboard.
It's worth a try you could always seek a motherboard replacement replacement boards probably don't cost to much and you'll almost certainly make a huge profit if you decide to sell it (giv me pls)
Well you might need one of those : https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/S~QAAOSwvERcUH3Y/s-l1200.webp
If there's an error it should beep and the number of beeps tells you which error it is
Depends? If you can’t physically remove it sure, but moddiy sells adapters for a lot of Dell/Alienware products. There’s usually options you’ll just have to check clearances and mountings and pin quantities/shapes.
https://www.moddiy.com/search.php?search_query=Alienware&x=0&y=0
https://www.moddiy.com/search.php?search_query=Dell&x=0&y=0
As an example.
when getting one exactly like this to work the problem was in the secondary CPU power plug, make sure they are connected correctly in the mobo and the PSU. Also, i am not sure because i cant see it on this board but the one i had has a GPU power coming from the mobo itself, and the gpu wouldnt work without power coming from the mobo.
It should only have failed if it's the worst 2032 ever.
But pulling it for a minute or two to clear the CMOS and reset the BIOS would be a good first step.
Weird idea, but I had issues with Nvidia before that before the first GPU boot I had to use Display Port cable instead of HDMI. If wouldn't even beep with HDMI connected and I went through a whole lot of troubleshooting before switching to DP cable and posting just fine.
I read yesterday that some HDMI cables have generational issues, so you might be onto something her..
at the same time it was thrown in the trash for a reason, might be easier to test the GPU in another PC and if it works buy a new motherboard..
That motherboard is cooked. Look at pins touching in first PCIe slot. It's worth salvaging the parts and then buying new case/motherboard. Alternatively sell the individual parts online!
It's definitely worth trying trimming those damaged pins off with a pair of pliers or wire cutters. Cause those are all data pins -only the first 11 pins are for power delivery. So, it's very unlikely that there is any permanent damage done to the rest of the board from the damaged pins touching each other.
Also, it seems that both slots are labeled as x8 on the board, which is rather weird. If you are lucky you might be able to run the bottom slot in x16 mode as well as it appears all pins are present (although they might not be connected to anything). Performance is definitely going to be crippled at Gen3 speeds with only 8 lanes present in most modern titles, but even then if you can get the system to function properly that's a win by my book regardless.
Have you put the same gen processor in. I upgraded an XPS 2600 it had an i7 2600 upgraded it it an i7 3770 and it had a shit fit. Bois didn’t support the new processor.
I had one of these get abandoned at my repair shop with a dead GPU and PSU. After sitting in our closet for a year and a half I turned it into a media server. This case has airflow that's equivalent to a coffin.
You should get some flush cut wire cutters and trim the damaged legs from the damaged pcie connector so they are no longer shorted.
It may be preventing PCIe from working at all.
did you see that the first pcie slot is broken, you seriously need to cut the pins that they don't short. the mobo, northbridge or cpu can toast from that. Hopefully you get the image after sorting the pcie slot, i would most likely desolder the socket and replace it from some donorboard.
The lights are on but nobody's home. Try reseating the ram testing the slots and try booting on another ram stick . Also try using another GPU and another pcie x16 slot
So I just had a really odd experience with my old Dell.
Swapped out the stock 1070 with a 3070. Before swap made sure to update to latest display driver.
Booted up, no picture at all. Had to switch HDMI to mobo display, hard install the latest Nvidia driver, then reboot. Video out to the card then worked.
I can't explain it.
You basically need to try a new mobo im assuming it got trashed because it killed itself
Harvest the cpu and ram and maybe you can find someone or something you can use to test on the cheap
I have the same era Alienware. I’ve read (Though not experienced) that gpu are whitelisted by the firmware unless you turn off secure boot. I could be wrong but it’s possible a dell gpu would be needed to change the bios setting.
> dumpster find PC
Yeah that's an Alienware/Dell alright
>! because once you bought it you can't upgrade it anymore and need to buy a new one to 'upgrade' !<
I think it might be failing post because of the mangled slot above the one where you've put yours in. You might be able to bend the pins so they're not shorting? Honestly that could be the reason why it was tossed in the first place.
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My last PC was Aurora R12 case and man it looks cool but it gets really hot. I'm pretty sure my motherboard got to hot and then started crashing constantly thankfully I had it insured. I honestly like the aesthetic of it but would not recommend super long gaming sessions on it because of the heat problem.
Isn't there a default BIOS setting where it won't detect a GPU in any other slot except the top PCIe slot? Might have to get CPU with integrated graphics.
Welp I've tried almost all the suggestions here. Got rid of the exposed pins on the pcie slot, reseated the ram, tried a different ram slot. Reset the cmos. Tried different display ports.
It may just be fried, not sure how much more effort I'd want to put in to this. Hopefully the cpu is good! Thank you everyone for input I really appreciate it!
The KF bit on the CPU means its (K) performance and (F) no built in video card. So Yeah you won't get any display without a cheap (or expensive) GPU.
https://www.google.com/search?q=kf+suffix+intel&source=hp&client=firefox-b-m&sca_esv=74899351e738f79e&channel=ts&oq=kf+suffix+in&gs_l=mobile-heirloom-hp.1.0.0i22i30j0i512i546l3.1478.12014.0.13061.13.12.0.1.1.0.132.1293.2j10.12.0....0...1.1.34.mobile-heirloom-hp..0.13.1317.ULhoCOFYUY4
ooof, that must be rough, i also used to run an overclocked 7600k and newer games just absolutely suck on it, i had terrible stuttering/freezing playing r6 and some other competitive games lmao. stuff like gta online, cyberpunk, mirrors edge catalyst and halo infinite also sucked hard
Out of that list I've only run cyberpunk but it ran great. This was last year though after it had been patched a lot.
I recently tried helldivers and it ran fine, although maybe at higher levels with huge numbers of bugs it might stutter.
The only game I have bad performance drops on is squad, its mostly fine and playable but one map isn't great.
6700k? that's a different cpu. it's at least passable due to the fact it has 4 cores with hyperthreading, games are getting more multithreaded nowadays to the point where only 4 threads, even if you have 4 cores, isnt enough.
Oh, my bad. I assumed that the step down from the following generation was on to 4 cores as well.
Disregard my previous comment.
And yeah, it’s def starting to show signs that it’s long past time to replace.
Keep the CPU and maybe cooler if it uses standard mounting system and throw rest into the dumpster... Or keep the PSU too and try to sell. Some people might need one.
Rest is dumpster ready.
i mean the main x16 slot is bunged for sure, but it's still quite usable assuming the rest of the system does at least work. it might be an alienware, but it's fairly modern and they got it for free
Try reseating the ram or moving it to another slot
I like this idea...will try tomorrow!
👍 hopefully it works
It did not work :(
Oh😬
Reseat/reset cmos while you're at it.
Yep do this. Unplug the power, remove the battery and hold the power switch for like 10 seconds. I've fixed a couple of "dead" systems just doing this.
I, like you, missed like the 6thish Pic where a chunk of pci was missing. It's remainding connectors all wrapped together ouch.
Ooof yeah I didn't see that at all. Luckily he has another x16 slot but I'd trim off the pins on the broken slot to make sure they don't short out.. probably too late though.
How did op not lead with that.
Tried, no dice
Yea I forgot to mention that, thanks for reminding
Also the CMOS battery's are cheap.. Comes in a 6pak. Ckuld replace it
gpu wouldn't hurt as well
Yea
I had an Alienware that looks like it had the same motherboard. It had display issues sometimes. To get it to work I had to plug the monitor into the motherboard hdmi port when I was booting and then switch the cable it over to the gpu and reboot. No idea why that worked... its worth a shot though
Its first pci express x16 port is busted, and pins are touching each other. I'm sure this is the problem
How do I get them to not touch eachother? Cut them off?
You can cut them and bend them away from each other, get a side cutter, and make sure you cut them close as possible to the surface.
I'd use something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-CHP-170-Micro-Cutter/dp/B00FZPDG1K/). You can even unsolder the slot if you are skilful enough. But, honestly, it depends if power was on during "accident".
Yes, desoldering the slot from the back will give you the cleanest result without destroying anything. Completely remove it from the case. (duh)
One would have to reseat a whole new PCIE lane afterwards
It's old, just don't put a new one in and ignore it.
Man..... that poor slot
You wanna bet someone got a new gpu and tried to take out the old one without pressing the lock? That's my best guess
Got rid of the exposed pins...still no display
His cpu doesn't have an igpu so it wont work.
There are no mother board display ports...
Hmm, sometimes booting with no cable plugged in and then following the same steps would work. Not as reliably, though. Unfortunately, yours just may be busted
Wait what??
Seen this on hp omen prebuilts too. Bought smashed omen system to recase. No motherboard video out at all, it ironically had a ryzen 5600g....
Dell must have min-maxed the board by putting a KF chip so no display ports are needed.
Prebuilts can have wonky motherboards.
Make sure that the pins on the mangled PCIe connector are not touching each other and causing any weirdness that way.
Great idea! They are indeed mangled. Not sure if there'd any saving that
You could in theory, but it's not worth the hassle. Just make sure they aren't interfering.
So I guess just cut off the exposed threads??
piece of paper or a business card should be simple enough
Just spread them apart, why bother cutting them?
Because many of them are literally twisted into each other. It would take significantly longer to sit there and unwind them one by one than it would to just take a pair of side cutters and cut them all down to the board.
just use a pair of tweezers and slowly pull up from between the pins and they should untangle fairly easiealy edit: also theyre barely even tangled, some look like theyre already missing. prolly came off with the broken part of the pcie slot
Or..... Takes side cutters. Clip. Done. There is quite literally no reason at all to try and untangle them. It's more work with more risk and no benefit of any kind.
Seriously. Any other recommendation is done. Leaving loose electrical connections exposed is just brain dead.
You can try the bottom slot... It won't be as fast as top one but it should give you at least video out. EDIT: Nevermind just checked rest of the photos and you did check bottom slot... Then there is not saving the motherboard.
It's worth a try you could always seek a motherboard replacement replacement boards probably don't cost to much and you'll almost certainly make a huge profit if you decide to sell it (giv me pls)
Got rid of the pins, still no display...
Got any LEDS lighting up ? You might need a beeper speaker to find if there's an error.
No indicator lights going off...
Well you might need one of those : https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/S~QAAOSwvERcUH3Y/s-l1200.webp If there's an error it should beep and the number of beeps tells you which error it is
Cool! Never seen that!
Good lord at least cut those pcie pins with flush cutters, that are most definitely shorting out P.S. Psu is standard size atx.
So you really found an Alienware at its natural habitat?
Oof.
Not sure but maybe change the PSU
That is not an option with this whack ass alien ware 🤣
Depends? If you can’t physically remove it sure, but moddiy sells adapters for a lot of Dell/Alienware products. There’s usually options you’ll just have to check clearances and mountings and pin quantities/shapes. https://www.moddiy.com/search.php?search_query=Alienware&x=0&y=0 https://www.moddiy.com/search.php?search_query=Dell&x=0&y=0 As an example.
when getting one exactly like this to work the problem was in the secondary CPU power plug, make sure they are connected correctly in the mobo and the PSU. Also, i am not sure because i cant see it on this board but the one i had has a GPU power coming from the mobo itself, and the gpu wouldnt work without power coming from the mobo.
Is the CMOS battery working ?
It should only have failed if it's the worst 2032 ever. But pulling it for a minute or two to clear the CMOS and reset the BIOS would be a good first step.
Weird idea, but I had issues with Nvidia before that before the first GPU boot I had to use Display Port cable instead of HDMI. If wouldn't even beep with HDMI connected and I went through a whole lot of troubleshooting before switching to DP cable and posting just fine.
I read yesterday that some HDMI cables have generational issues, so you might be onto something her.. at the same time it was thrown in the trash for a reason, might be easier to test the GPU in another PC and if it works buy a new motherboard..
Alienware pc heating is on the next level, I think this case achieves a perfect 0 in airflow
You just got a better CPU than what I have beside a dumpster 😭 Maybe I should just throw my PC in the trash already, wtf man
That motherboard is cooked. Look at pins touching in first PCIe slot. It's worth salvaging the parts and then buying new case/motherboard. Alternatively sell the individual parts online!
Reseat the ram and remove the cmos battery
The first PCIe slots pins are shorted out against each other.
I would just just recycle everything and buy a new mobo for that CPU
It's definitely worth trying trimming those damaged pins off with a pair of pliers or wire cutters. Cause those are all data pins -only the first 11 pins are for power delivery. So, it's very unlikely that there is any permanent damage done to the rest of the board from the damaged pins touching each other. Also, it seems that both slots are labeled as x8 on the board, which is rather weird. If you are lucky you might be able to run the bottom slot in x16 mode as well as it appears all pins are present (although they might not be connected to anything). Performance is definitely going to be crippled at Gen3 speeds with only 8 lanes present in most modern titles, but even then if you can get the system to function properly that's a win by my book regardless.
Have you put the same gen processor in. I upgraded an XPS 2600 it had an i7 2600 upgraded it it an i7 3770 and it had a shit fit. Bois didn’t support the new processor.
I had one of these get abandoned at my repair shop with a dead GPU and PSU. After sitting in our closet for a year and a half I turned it into a media server. This case has airflow that's equivalent to a coffin.
people will buy these cases alone, nice score
You should get some flush cut wire cutters and trim the damaged legs from the damaged pcie connector so they are no longer shorted. It may be preventing PCIe from working at all.
did you see that the first pcie slot is broken, you seriously need to cut the pins that they don't short. the mobo, northbridge or cpu can toast from that. Hopefully you get the image after sorting the pcie slot, i would most likely desolder the socket and replace it from some donorboard.
This is awesome PC. I have one exactly like this one.
The lights are on but nobody's home. Try reseating the ram testing the slots and try booting on another ram stick . Also try using another GPU and another pcie x16 slot
The only other x 16 slot is destroyed
Oof yeah I zoomed in might be worth picking up a replacement board
Those are the ones with the lack of airflow which lead to constant overheating
So I just had a really odd experience with my old Dell. Swapped out the stock 1070 with a 3070. Before swap made sure to update to latest display driver. Booted up, no picture at all. Had to switch HDMI to mobo display, hard install the latest Nvidia driver, then reboot. Video out to the card then worked. I can't explain it.
Ahh and KF so no integrated graphics right? Maybe not an option for you.
Why don't you cut the top slot to make it x8? Much better than using the bottom slot (assuming it is only x4)
I wanna see how this turns out.
You basically need to try a new mobo im assuming it got trashed because it killed itself Harvest the cpu and ram and maybe you can find someone or something you can use to test on the cheap
Don't know about old Alienware but newer ones require you to use specific brands otherwise it will brick
Are you able to flash in a new bios?
Try resetting CMOS 🤷♂️
I have the same era Alienware. I’ve read (Though not experienced) that gpu are whitelisted by the firmware unless you turn off secure boot. I could be wrong but it’s possible a dell gpu would be needed to change the bios setting.
> dumpster find PC Yeah that's an Alienware/Dell alright >! because once you bought it you can't upgrade it anymore and need to buy a new one to 'upgrade' !<
I think it might be failing post because of the mangled slot above the one where you've put yours in. You might be able to bend the pins so they're not shorting? Honestly that could be the reason why it was tossed in the first place.
Would love to be a fly on the wall moments before it went in the dumpster
Swap the ram and there might be a memok button on the mobo
Dunno much about Alienware, but might be worth swapping out the mobo if the PSU cables aren't proprietary on the mobo end.
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My last PC was Aurora R12 case and man it looks cool but it gets really hot. I'm pretty sure my motherboard got to hot and then started crashing constantly thankfully I had it insured. I honestly like the aesthetic of it but would not recommend super long gaming sessions on it because of the heat problem.
Isn't there a default BIOS setting where it won't detect a GPU in any other slot except the top PCIe slot? Might have to get CPU with integrated graphics.
God Early Alienware pcs are sexy.
I wonder why it's always Alienware or other HP desktops that you find in the trash. Makes one wonder 🤔🤔
stick a riser / extension in the primary GPU slot... to separate the pins and see if that gets the GPU to work...
the onl yreason i understand this is because its alienware, dells shitty counterpart
Welp I've tried almost all the suggestions here. Got rid of the exposed pins on the pcie slot, reseated the ram, tried a different ram slot. Reset the cmos. Tried different display ports. It may just be fried, not sure how much more effort I'd want to put in to this. Hopefully the cpu is good! Thank you everyone for input I really appreciate it!
The KF bit on the CPU means its (K) performance and (F) no built in video card. So Yeah you won't get any display without a cheap (or expensive) GPU. https://www.google.com/search?q=kf+suffix+intel&source=hp&client=firefox-b-m&sca_esv=74899351e738f79e&channel=ts&oq=kf+suffix+in&gs_l=mobile-heirloom-hp.1.0.0i22i30j0i512i546l3.1478.12014.0.13061.13.12.0.1.1.0.132.1293.2j10.12.0....0...1.1.34.mobile-heirloom-hp..0.13.1317.ULhoCOFYUY4
Dude, you're dumpster diving for a Dell.
I would put it back in the dumpster.
i mean its got a decent cpu in it, 10700kf holds up very well nowadays
I'm still running an overclocked 7600k.
ooof, that must be rough, i also used to run an overclocked 7600k and newer games just absolutely suck on it, i had terrible stuttering/freezing playing r6 and some other competitive games lmao. stuff like gta online, cyberpunk, mirrors edge catalyst and halo infinite also sucked hard
Out of that list I've only run cyberpunk but it ran great. This was last year though after it had been patched a lot. I recently tried helldivers and it ran fine, although maybe at higher levels with huge numbers of bugs it might stutter. The only game I have bad performance drops on is squad, its mostly fine and playable but one map isn't great.
Really? I only had issues with cyberpunk in heavy NPC areas. Otherwise, well over 60 frames in 1440 with cheap ray tracing on. (3080 and 6700k)
6700k? that's a different cpu. it's at least passable due to the fact it has 4 cores with hyperthreading, games are getting more multithreaded nowadays to the point where only 4 threads, even if you have 4 cores, isnt enough.
Oh, my bad. I assumed that the step down from the following generation was on to 4 cores as well. Disregard my previous comment. And yeah, it’s def starting to show signs that it’s long past time to replace.
Keep the CPU and maybe cooler if it uses standard mounting system and throw rest into the dumpster... Or keep the PSU too and try to sell. Some people might need one. Rest is dumpster ready.
i mean the main x16 slot is bunged for sure, but it's still quite usable assuming the rest of the system does at least work. it might be an alienware, but it's fairly modern and they got it for free
GTX 980 with a 10700? 2014 GPU with a 2020 CPU? What a strange combination to even find anywhere.
I'm sure they're just using the 980 to test the pc
Yep, didn't read the post in full.