On/Off button Illumination? - odd or not?

Yet another noob question here...

I have two systems atm and have noticed a difference and wondered why or what it could possible be due to.

Scenarion is that when i press the power on button on both systems, on one (my original) the power button lights up immediately and flashes indicating HDD activity......

The other will not illuminate at all UNTIL it gets to the logon page....no HDD activity indicator, no rim of light around the alienhead etc...

Anyone else have this - i just hate things not being correct or as they should be and dont know if its something to be concerened over as the system which doesnt light up "properly" is my new replacement.....need to know if this could be wrong somehow......

 

I have that too sometimes. My replacement M17x should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully this (among other problems) should be gone then.

It is definately not normal, the light should come up immediately.

 

I have started both systems on battery and one lights up immediately and the new system will not light up at all until the dsktop is reached.

I will post back my findings when both are plugged in and see what happens then.

 

update the firmware of AlienFX by installing the latest version of Command Center from the dell drivers page. regardless of whether or not you choose to uninstall the software later (i do, because i don't use it) the firmware will still be updated permanently.

 

the system is a week old and comes with the latest command centre...........

 

It may actually sound silly, but i don't think Alienware really "installs" the apps on your laptop.

They might use an image for all the laptops they set up, so you are the one that logs first into the computer and does the final setup.

So that said, i won't know if without installing the application for real, in a setup process run in windows 7, there might be a good chance that with dell's preinstalled image, the AlienFX firmware is not uptodate. So just try to re-install it, so you are sure that said firmware is flashed... I wonder if there is actually a seperate firmware for the alienfx or if it is handled by the original bios.

Edit: Taken from M15x forum by DellChrisM:

It may not necessarily describe your problem, but it is said that while installing Command Center there is indeed a flashing process to the system board/keyboard controller/whatever Dell is thinking of. So it is quite possible, that with only slapping an image onto the harddisk, there is no flashing process and they might have just grabbed and put that said controller without the latest firmware into your latop.

 

Still suggest running the Command Center installer (from support.dell - not the resource disc) again. It never hurts.

Also, in terms of the AlienHead not lighting up on one system - what BIOS is on that system? Be sure you are on the current A07 BIOS. If on A07, reflash it. I recall reading in one of the other threads this was corrected with a BIOS update.

 

In an ideal world, Dell synchronises the BIOS and firmware versions on the mainboard and AlienFX controller with the Harddisk image. If for some reason these two are out of sync, weird errors might occur.

You could try to reflash the system BIOS and then reinstall the latest Command Center. Make sure to download both from the Dell support site to be sure they're the newest.

That being said, on my current (soon to be replaced) system, I have updated everything, and reflashed stuf multiple times and still this problem occurs occasionally. Just not all the time anymore. I would definately keep an eye on this, and if a reflash / reinstall doesn't solve it, contact Tech Support and tell them what you've already done to resolve the issue. They will probably replace the media-button-strip first (where the power button is), and if that doesn't resolve it they will replace the mainboard. You might also get a new PSU along the way.

Yeah, been there, done that.

Hopefully just reflashing solves your issue though. That's so much easier than all the Tech visits.

 

New one is on A06 striaght from the factory....original is on A07 that i flashed recently....mind you, while the original was on a06, it ran fine with the lights thingy.....i dont think a07 offerered any support/fixes for those...just cpu stepping.

 

Could always flash it again Stevie... If you do and feel you want to roll back to A06, I believe you can grab it off the support site under 'previous versions'. ( Dell - Support)

 

Hmm, i'm also still on A06. Did you already try to reinstall latest Command Center so the system board gets flashed during that process? So we can atleast leave that out of question for further discussion.

And no, A07 didn't improve anything besides support for the i7-x40 cpus i guess. But you never know what they might have forgot to implent or bugged something while moving from an earlier build adding new options. That is something you should always consider when people develop something. A fix does not necessarily say it doesn't break something that used to be working.

 

I HAVENT done a thing to it!...its straight out the brand new box so i SHOULDNT have to go about reinstalling stuff for it to work right should i!

My new replacement is as it was when it shipped from the factory....havent done ANYTING to it yet it has these issues and others besides (keep getting messages saying thhat the display driver has stopped etc etc etc)

Now, forgive me if im dubious, but sounds to me like ANOTHER dodgy system to me. After my first experience with my original faulty order, im getting rather hacked off with Dell.....

 

I know it is frustrating having issues right out of the box, but if you are not willing to take any measures against it, you shouldn't really compare that system equally to your previous system, as it may have different software (pre)installed, and therefore is actually different. I'm sorry if i cannot reproduce your issues, i still like to point out the obvious imo.

It's easy to ask around the forum for tipps (but then you should be atleast willing to follow our advices), but if you want to make sure that there isn't an actual problem with your system in behaving like that, you probably should call Dell.

 

I have NO issue in seeking advice and following it to resolve issues.....my whole ethos behind this though is that i shouldnt have to be in this position in the first place (for the second time around with a dodgy system).

Like every owner, i have paid good money for a fully functional laptop which doesnt start giving me grief straight out the factory box...it should work flawlessly for the thousands we pay for them.....thats my argument and if Dell cannot provide me with a system without issues out the box, then they arent very good at making laptops are they!

 

You do have a point there, though i am not a big friend of out of the box systems with all those unknown and packed software that comes preinstalled along it from a standard image they play on your hdd. I actually only know the system if i also set it up by myself and doing one thing after another. I try to understand the system i'm using, and if i just take it out of the box, i will never know what might have caused any issue that might have come up suddenly.

But as you said, if it's unacceptable for you, and you do not want to mess with it, then you should let the Support know, i hope they can help you sorting it out.

 

steviejones133, you definately have a point. It is ridiculous to pay so much money for a system that doesn't work properly.

I just (less than 30mins ago) received my replacement R2, and guess what. I unpack it, turn it on and the powerbutton/HDD lights are not illuminated. All the way through the process of setting up windows for the first time they stay off. When my desktop finally appears, they come on.

I will do the steps I suggested myself to find out if it changes anything.

 

I am playing around with my replacement (the one with the problems) and i thought it may have something to do with stealth mode.....mabe no illumination due to power saving. I have made sure that both systems are running on full power and connected to a/c yet the lights remain unilluminated until all the desktop tray icons have loaded.

This does not happen with my original system - all the lights come on immediately as i touch the on/off button.

Also, i have noticed that with my original system...when it is completely off but plugged in with a diminished battery, the alien head on the lid will glow to show charging (it doesnt when fully charged for obvious reasons).

Now, the new system will not do this. I can have it exactly as described above with a diminished battery ...off and plugged in and the alienhead on the lid will not illuminate.

Both systems are running the latest version of command centre.
Both systems have a delta power adaptor.

Booting from battery is another issue for my new replacement. If i boot both systems from battery at the same time, the new one with 820qm takes around 30 seconds longer to load to the desktop.

I feel this is a fault and isnt acceptable.

 

stevie, I think your best option at this point is to contact the rep who facilitated the system replacement. they are familiar with your case and should be able to assist you.

 

I can't say anything sensible about the issues other than the lights, but in my case the lights issue seems to be solved by uninstalling and reinstalling the Control Centre.

Using the AlienwareAlienFXTester tool, I found out that my FX board had an old Firmware installed (1.00.09). After the 'upgrade' the new Firmware (1.01.03) was installed. Now the light seems to work fine. I have only tried restarting a few times, but the problem seems to be gone.

You could try this to resolve at least one of your problems.

Just to be sure, you could also reflash the BIOS. It wouldn't hurt, and it helps you exclude causes for the problem.

It would also help you speed up the communication with your tech support rep.

 

Thanks for actually testing it Mitchell and verifying that there was indeed a flash process during the Command Center Install to the System Board. Very good to know. This should confirm previous, already mentioned advices.

 

No problem.

In some other thread BatBoy suggested using the AlienwareAlienFXTester.exe tool (its in the C:\Program Files\Alienware\Command Center\ folder if I remember correctly).

If you run that it shows the current and new (if any) firmware version. This way you can check. I made a screenshot, but that's on my other system right now, so cannot upload it now.

 

I am new to this forum, but I would like to post my experience with this problem.
I just received my refurbished M17x-R2. The laptop came with
A05 bios so I updated to A07. Now I know that the power button worked
correctly before the bios update, but it displayed the same problem with
no lights around the power button after the bios update. The lights would
stay off until it displayed the desktop. To make a long story short, I found
out that Dell had released an updated control center compatible with bios A7.
After I updated my command control center the lights started working properly for me.

 

Welcome and thanks Ronald for testing it out, and that it worked for you out aswell.

Another thanks Mitchell, i probably should sniff a bit more sometimes in the alienware folder, that's very handy to find out, wish i knew this earlier so i could point it out. But the laurels are on you.

As i'm still on A06, and everyone seems to be or get A07 bios with their M17x now, i'm gonna update aswell and see if the FX Board gets flashed/changed while doing so, and if i notice anything with the lights

 

Actually BatBoy pointed it out some time ago, I just remembered, that's all.

The FX board doesn't get flashed with A07, it gets flashed with the Command Center update. But flashing to A07 doesn't seem to hurt anything...

 

I just checked the FXTester and i'm already on 1.01.03 board. Gonna update to A07 now and see if i notice anything else. Though it shouldn't have influence on the FX Board, it might have some other side effects, you never know when someone develops something new, they might forget to add previous fixes to it or break anything else while they do so. Just my thought from an engineering standpoint

Edit: just updated to A07 no change related to the lights (still saying 1.01.03 in AlienFXTester), still work as they should, after pressing the power button it took like 2 seconds until the lights came on, went into Bios changed Harddisk to Raid0 again, then it took me about 1 min to get to the AlienSense Login Screen and like another 25 seconds until windows was loaded on A/C. (of course my system is trashed with useful and useles software already, i also have connected two external hdd's, a lan-cable, bluetooth mouse and wireless via router on. )

 

100% on target. System BIOS will never touch the AlienFX firmware. If a change is made to the AlienFX firmware, it is done via the Command Center installer.

 

Just a FYI here but spoke to Aw again today...they told me that is wasnt normal for the logo's not to illuminate whilst charging or upon immediate boot.

Maybe there is a simple fix via reflashing with command centre but i wanted to know firstly if this WAS a fault.

Now that i know that indeed it IS a fault, I can look at addressing it proplerly.

I know alot of you will say maybe its an easy fix but im not that savvy....(and besides that.....i expect something to work out the box without issue and if it doesnt....it goes back until the manufacturer get it right - thats a simple way of looking at things especially when the said item costs thousands)

If the manufacturer of said equipment fail to provide a fully functional system out the box then by that admission, it is indeed faulty. I for one dont put up with that.

I knwo its not thhe place to be ranting so i wont continue.....just wanted to let you all know.

 

While this might be true in a perfect world in mass manufacturing not every single piece of equipment will be 100% perfect. Your solution has been given to you FYI. The system is fully functioning you just are getting irritated by a light not coming on. Command Center will fix it if you just re-install it. The system is not faulty the software just got a hiccup in it and if you are not savvy enough to reinstall a program then....(also if this makes you irate than be glad you never bought a SXPS16 which I paid thousands for and had multiple issues with outta the box which was just faulty machines being built... not the case with AW) Just realize they provide drivers and software updates for a reason.

 

Im not saying any more just to get shot down in flames. Close the thread. Done deal.

 

Thanks for your analysis! This is what I'm looking for.

 

Just to update this thread which I started.....the simple solution if you have this problem is to uninstall command centre....programs/uninstall...the CC will go through its uninstall process.

Restart, download latest CC from Dell and run it....follow on screen instructions....your all set.

Job Done - worked for me. All lights working properly now.

 

yeah this happened to me to after a motherboard replacement , the solution was the one you mentioned , a clean install of command center

 

I didnt notice this untill i read this thread, i thoughts its the way its suppose to be (i.e. the head only lights up when windows is loaded). didnt pay much attention to the head before.

1. I uninstalled the command center.
2. rebooted
3. installed the latest command center
4. rebooted
5. AlienSense stopped working
6. Rebooted
7. AlienSense still not working
8. Shutdown the laptop
9. removed the power cable and battery
10. held the power button for 120 secs
11. installed the battery and plugged in the power cable
12. booted in windows and the head is lighting and AlienSense working

 

Im not 100% sure why this happens...i have a feeling it has something to do with the procedure that things get installed prior to shipping....i had two systems exactly the same and i didnt realise that uninstalling/reinstalling would resolve it....neither did tech support!

Again, thanks to advice from NBR, i got my issues resolved with this little error....i was being overly scrutinous of the last system i got so i was paying attention to everything, no matter how small...

Its worth doing, to make sure everything is as it should be.

Hope this thread helps others out like it helped me.