Bricked Alienware Area 51 R2

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
1

Hi all,

Through enless Google/Reddit search I have found this forum to ask question…
I have an Alienware Area 51 R2. I just moved to a new city so my machine remained unpowered for a period of 2 weeks. After I moved and settled, I plug in the power cord and eveything, but there is no video on the monitor. I opened up the case and found that even though the pc is powered up, the video card fan is not spinning. I figured I need a CMOS reset, took out the battery and waited, same thing. I also tried jumper reset, same thing.

I then started google and reliazed it is actually a common issue among this gen of alienware. I followed the guide in this blog post and acquired a CH341device, even waited 3 weeks to get a JSPI1 connector from Aliexpress…and the result was not satisfying.

I followed the instruction, backed up, load, and write the new bios. The AsProgrammer shows the chip was detected and the task was executed without errors. However, the motherboad remained bricked and unable to get to the POST/any video connection. The graphic card’s fan wont spin, but power source led indicates it’s powered.

Can someone shine the light?
Here is the screenshot of the AsProgrammer showing chip is detected.

Thank you!!!

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Capture1866×532 48.8 KB

2

Read the actual content of the chip again and post / attach it.

Post in addition the file you intended to write.

3

Here is the link to the bios I found Link to the original bios

Here is the link to what I pulled what I pulled

Thank you for taking a look.

4

Login requested :roll_eyes:

Did you dump the (assumed bricked) original firmware before flashing? Attach it, too.

5

Hi. I forgot to change the access. Here is from the bricked dump bricked

Here is what I want to flash withFresh BIOS

6

OK. If it’s a stock bios you tried to flash then it’s easy:

Either it’s not flashed properly (there is a difference to the original file compared to a separate dump taken directly after programming).

Or

In case programming is OK (content of the chip is a 100% identical to the file you intended to flash when dumping it again) the reason for the brick isn’t the firmware.

7

Thanks for bearing with me. I checked and confirmed. I used Beyond Compare and did find out my bricked firmware is different from the fresh one, and the fresh one is successfully written into the chip. However, the computer remains in the same state after the fresh bios. It looks like it’s something else that went wrong. This is so frustarting.

8

That part is expected since the ME region of a stock bios gets initialized after first boot as will be the NVRAM EFI volume(s) which are part of the bios region. In addition there’s machine specific information like type, model, serial, service tag, windows license …

You might want to check other easily replacable items, often the power supply is one of the first suspects.

Good luck!

9

Thank you for the suggestion. I don’t have a spare parts alllowing me to conduct the test. Maybe it’s easier to just rebuild :weary: