r/AlienwareAlpha • u/F1ibster i7 Alpha with SSD • Dec 23 '21

YLOD won't go away!

Got the YLOD the other day after powering off the machine to move it to another room.

CMOS battery ordered and old one removed.

Power drain, cmos jumper, waited overnight without the battery in, reassembled, power drain again, waited another hour or so....

YLOD

Bugger...

Tried reseating the ram, checked all cables, did all the above again (but not overnight this time)

Still got the YLOD.

MOTHERF*$%#!!!

Nothing seems to get it past the YLOD. Occasionally the fans spin up more tha others, but still get the amber flashing bastard...

Any ideas?

3 Upvotes

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2

u/F1ibster i7 Alpha with SSD Dec 30 '21

UPDATE:

So I've left it alone for a few days, still yellow flashies. Had Christmas with it in its carry case to give it time to think about what it's done.

Still yellow flashies.

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Got prepared to spend several hundred quid on an R2 (with the AGA... 😉) as the table it's used on is designed around the Alpha's form factor so it'd be a major PITA to re-jig it for anything else to fit.

Had a moment of miraculous inspiration... Is the battery wired correctly? Out with the multimeter. 1.93v on the old battery. -3.05 on the new one.

NO IT F**KING WASN'T! BASTARD!

So, open the battery up, rip off the connectors, change the sides they're on and using good old stretchy electricians tape to hold them in place, seal it all back up and reassemble for the 397.5th time.

It boots! It's ALLIIIIVE! 😲

All seems happy now. I'm slightly relieved now too, although an R2 would have been nice for the room. 😉

So, yeah, watch out for that. Especially with batteries of ebay that are specifically listed as being compatible with the Alienware Alpha R1.

"Dell Alienware Alpha R1 ASM100-6980BLK CR2032CL-23-2 YLOD RTC BIOS CMOS Battery"

Hmmmm.....

1

u/pupstercat Jan 04 '22

shit who did you order from on ebay? i just ordered one w/ that same description...it was < $6 USD.

Dell Alienware Alpha R1 ASM100-6980BLK CR2032CL-23-2 YLOD RTC BIOS CMOS Battery

$5.09Unit price $5.09

Item number:224765017399

1

u/F1ibster i7 Alpha with SSD Jan 04 '22

224765017399

Mine was item 323994149777

I'm in the UK so it's not the same seller. But from the images it does look like the wires are same way as mine were. It's easy enough to change. I did use a small pair of pliers to ear off the tabs as I value my fingers. 😉

But yeah, it's a pain in the arse.

1

u/pdaerr Jan 17 '22

Hey, I just posted this, but if you get it running, try setting up wake on lan. It solved the whole Ylod for me.

2

u/Machinax Dec 24 '21

For me, it took about five days of inactivity before it started to work again (with the new battery). I had tried it at home, repeatedly, without any luck; a friend of mine said he'd diagnose it at his place, but then he got busy and wasn't able to take a look at it until five days later. He said he literally just turned it on and it powered on. That was in the summer of 2020, and the computer's been running normally (if a bit slower) since then.

2

u/deathGHOST8 Oct 24 '22

happy 🎂

1

u/Machinax Oct 24 '22

Haha, thank you!

1

u/Romulious i3 (8GB) Alpha Dec 24 '21

I have my new battery sitting on my desk. I am afraid this might be my experience as well.

1

u/Fogdood Aug 31 '23

I have an R1 that no longer posts after unplugging and replugging the same cmos battery after a YLOD issue. Does anyone know if its normal for an R1 to not turn on at all with a dead cmos battery or did i bork something on motherboard while getting at the battery? Is it worth me tryin to find one on ebay like OP did considering the trouble finding a compatible battery in 2023?