HUGE Problem

Here's the deal. First off, when I would shut the screen on my m17x, it would freeze and I would be forced to turn it off by holding down the button, with a black screen. This was my first issue. After this occurred several times, two days later, when I powered it up, the screen would be black with a blue square in the middle explaining that the computer had froze to prevent data loss or something of that nature. This continued happening, and I saw on the forums here that someone suggested I do a system restore to the last good configuration. This worked until about 12 hours later.

At this point the blue screen started reappearing. Dell techs were no help and they knew less about the machine than I did (not much). So, I decided to reinstall Windows, as someone else had suggested. I put in the Windows discs that the machine came with and when it booted back up, it came without all of the Alienware software and drivers that it came with. I'm just completely lost as to what to do at this point. The techs are no help and they give me the runaround every time I try to contact someone who actually has some technical knowledge. PLEASE HELP. I'm desperate

 

Hi there cheifs.

Did you do the GPU vbios flash update last time?
You will need to make sure you have the latest intel chipset drivers installed and then also the latest GPU drivers.

You need to have the vbios updated chiefs if you haven't already done so since last time.
I PM'ed you some info about this last time.
Without the new vbios you will encounter these errors chief.

Cheers.

 

I understand that but the question is how do I get my old version of Windows back? With the Alienware command center and the wallpapers and themes and whatnot?

 

Oles chiefs,

For those things you will need to download them from here. Some users have posted them up for users who have formatted and or reinstalled the OS.

Are you still getting the errors chiefs? Or they fixed now?

For the command center and OSD there are 2 drivers you will need to install from the dell driver website. They will get you control of your AlienFX lighting back. Other themes wallpapers and stuff you will have to download them off users here. You could also use the Alien respawn recovery method. I believe it is hidden and you might have to enable it. Then use that to restore your system to its factory settings as it was shipped.

It should be a partition called RECOVERY and is 14.65gbs in size.
You should be able to access it from the boot menu or somewhere after booting up the notebook after the bios post screen.

Cheers.

 

Or you can use the m17x r2 resource CD that has all the basic drivers and software.

 

Do NOT do NOT do NOT install Command Center from your resource disk!!! Download the latest version from Dell.

Do not use the Command Center from your Resource DVD! - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

Okay, say that hypothetically this is a new machine now that I've got the OS reinstalled. Exactly what should I download in the way of bios/vbios/drivers and such? I have A08 at the moment. I want to start from scratch with a clean slate.

 

Grimfan has an excellent guide here with the proper order that the drivers should be installed in: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...70-september-2010-incl-vbios-flash-guide.html

 

Looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me lol. Thanks for the info