HOWTO GUIDE: Running Vista x64 on m15x

Mystik,

Please see if any of the 4 solutions works for you. (I have them in my FAQ )

5) My AlienFX Died , no lights working , AlienFX SYstray gives this error "There was an error while AlienFX Controller was communicating with the computer. This might have been caused due to a problem with the hardware or the software." Please help!!!
5) Try these 4 solutions one by one
....a) It just can't die... sometimes being a USB device it is not detected by your machine. Solution? Reboot!

....b) Give it a cold boot. Shutdown machine and unplug the battery. unhook the power cord. now put AC power back in (without battery) and turn it on.. can you see the lights? what all lights can you see?

....c)
........1) Windows+R -> Run -> devmgmt.msc -> Enter
........2) Expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers" (must be the last one in the list)
........3) Select one by one all controllers and delete all of them
........4) Wait for some time and they all will come back automatically, should not take more than 5 minutes
........5) Reboot... does it work now ?

....d) Switch the Graphics Card from external to Internal. Use BinaryGFX to switch the cards and once done you should be able to see the colors back to life. If not then do this.
........a. Shut down the machine completely
........b. Remove all power source, battery and AC power
........c. Keep the power button pressed for 15-25 seconds while there is no power source to squeez out any power left
........d. Put the AC power back in, do not plug in the battery yet and turn the system on
........e. Hopefully you have the lights back, now you can put the battery back.

 

hi findvikas,

today i tried to install the command center you preferered in your guide,
but the installer always told me (i tried different versions, also a version that was send me from the alienware support), that it can only be installed onto an Alienware PC.

I searched the knowledgebase at alienware.com and found that the command center should only be installed if the mainboard rgb rev. is at least 5.1.

Mine is rev.4. so i assume that i cannot install the command center.

Previously i had Vista32 home premium and AlienFX 1.05 came preinstalled.
Now i got Vista64 business and i got no AlienFX on my support cd.
So falling back to Vista32 didn't work too.

Is there any way to just install the AlienFX controller without the command center? I just want my light back on, nothing else

Best regards

PS: Forgot to tell u: i have a desktop, P2 case

 

Try my ColorWheel application
http://rapidshare.com/files/153823902/ColorWheel.rar

 

It may or may not work depending upon the files that comes with your Command Center version.

I have to rework the entire color wheel and this time I might use the SDK that Alienware come up with new Command Center

 

Doesn't work, since i got no valid installation, neither of AlienFX nor Command Center.

Btw: where can i get the SDK?

Or can u zip me an installed Command Center so i can try to run the controller manually?

 

I have placed all the required files in one place. So you need not any other installation. Download them here and try it again.

http://rapidshare.com/files/156628746/StandAloneColorWheel.rar

Less than 2mb installation for AlienFX, it should work with your system.

 

Ok that worked somehow
All the lights are off now, instead of the backlight behind the frontplate.
But it seems like a can change that color.
So it might be possible to run the controller from alienware without any installation? Can u just pack me a file with the AlienFXController.

Still can't figure out y the Command Center installer says that this is not an Alienware PC

But thx so far

 

I'd like to say any of that worked. nothing so far... but I keep getting a TUSB3410 device install error message... comes up in windows device manager as "COM3" (then COM4, COM5, COM6... as it kept trying to install it, currently, it's COM9)...

keeps saying "the driver is not intended for this platform"...

there are two other system devices that are unknown in Device manager, but they go away when I switch to binary graphics... probably has something to do with the Video Card... but so far nothing has been bad on that front. probably just acpi monitoring for fans/temps... stuff I don't care about, and that the system wouldn't need while the card is off... no big deal.

this COM thing is aggravating. I've been trying to find a driver, but nothing so far. I've been slowly leaning towards thinking that the ROM update for the AlienFX board made it go wonky... and I'm half-inclined to re-install the x86 Vista Home Premium that came with the system to try to confirm that... I'd like to keep x64 though... it's a tough call.

 

maybe it's because he's using Vista Business? maybe Business lacks some things that Home Premium/Ultimate (what most guys here are using) have?

 

That'd be a great explination, except when you factor in the fact that right up until the reboot after the "automatic update" from Alienware... everything was working fine...

 

That should not be the problem, I have already faced this problem with my Ultimate. This has to do with the improper update that you had to your AlienFX BIOS.

I faced this problem when I shoot too many commands to AlienFX in a second, just an attempt to make my WinAMP plugin and it lost its life. Every time I reboot Vista asks me for "TUSB3410 Boot Device" drivers. I did not tried much in debugging as I had XP Pro 32bit installed as well, I booted into XP with BinaryGFX (integrated card) and did a reinstall of command center. after installing the command center it fixed the issue.

I would recommend you to Switch to Integrated and reinstall the OSD and CC. If that does not work then I will think of something else

 

I reinstalled both, but using the descrete graphics... you really think it'll make that big of a difference?

 

I think you should give it a try, it never worked for me on nvidia graphics.

 

making my attempt now... I'll update when I'm done.

 

no luck. I'm going to do a full system back up and try again in x86.

if the Vista that came with the system won't run it, I'll probably have to send my unit back to AW.

 

not yet... we will fix it Mystik.
Can you send me the msinfo32->file->save report?

 

I'd send it to you, but it's 1.03MB and my IIS server is acting up.

 

My IIS server has problems sharing .nfo files... for some reason.

It's rar'd, here

 

It seem your AlienFX port is used by mouse.
Uninstall the Synaptic Driver and any external mouse you have installed
Update the Chipset drivers
Reboot

I will dig into it further when I wake up, need some sleep now...

 

Chipset driver can be found under "My Hive"
http://aliendl.alienware.com/Mobile/m15x/m15x_Chipset_Vista_8.3.0.1014.exe

 

Thanks vikas, I'll do that and you'll have results for when you wake up.

I'd give you more rep, but they won't let me.

 

no such luck... I had to wrestle with my computer for a bit on making that one work... every time the touchpad would get uninstalled, it'd take out the keyboard... so i'd be stuck with no way to manipulate the system

Edit: I can post another system information file if you need it Vikas... the one on my server is still the original.

 

Yep, I might need another copy of it.
Also export the following key from registry

1) Run->Regedit.exe
2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum
3) Right Click "Enum" and Export it
4) Rar it and share it with me

PS.: This is the repository of hardware installed in your system.

 

it was easier for me to post the file here rather than struggle with my IIS server (this directory is also available to me via SMB over a VPN tunnel to the server)...

new link, exactly what was asked for, self-signed SSL tunnel.

 

hello, this is my very first post on this forum! i know its probably the wrong place and im sorry, but i wanted to ask findvikas, if you had given any more thought to alienfx for linux? as iv just ordered an m15x (first alienware! exited!)

i am a keen beginner, i jumped into the deep end (gentoo) and love it! i cant go back to windows now! but at the moment i obviously need to keep it to change colours. im tempted to say i will help you develop something for *nix but iv never attemted it before!

out of curiosity how did alienfx and ubuntu run? i presume you used wine?

thanks in advance!
tom

 

AlienFX is 99% written in C# (.Net) so you can use Mono to run my color wheel application. But the problem is to get the USB device id for which they use HID.DLL which is not implemented in Mono and I do not have Shared Object (.SO) file for that. Honestly I have so much in my plate and I keep on thinking what to eat today ? Linux was on halt due to very few users who care about it. Then came the new Command Center version which took my priority.

Being honest I am not at all working on linux project yet, will look at it sometime later. If you know how to send raw bits to USB device (really risky) then I can probably tell you what data to send to USB for what color & what led. fair enough?

 

oh... Welcome to NBR

 

thanks for replying. I dont have a clue what you just said but i will do some research and hopefuly figure it out! the laptop should be here in a week or so, so i will start looking then! linux is quite informative as im sure you are aware so it should be moderately easy to determine where to send what, i hope!

just out of interest, at the moment without alienfx or equivalent working in linux, what happens to the the lights when you boot into ubuntu or anything else youve tryed that isnt windows? do they stay as you set them in windows the last time you booted?

thanks again!

 

i suppose they'll just stay off, seeing how there's nothing telling them a) to be on, and b) what color to show.

 

that is what alienware told me when i spoke to them whizzo, but im not too sure, i found this post:

"I'm not dual-booting. I turned the machine on when I got it, booted to Windows, changed the colors to the way I wanted them, then installed Linux. I haven't looked into changing the lighting colors since then. It would be a good thing to be able to do though."

sorry i cant post any URL's because i have less than 15 posts but if you google "m15x ubuntu" it should be the first result entitled "alienware m15x anyone? - ubuntu forums"

the whole thread seems to say that most things work (including the lights) exept the speakers and some fn+alien keys which is understandable. no one has said that the lights DONT work (im pretty sure people would be posting their disappointment if they didnt) and the above post seems to suggest to me that i can use windows to set the colours and then boot to any OS i like.

i have also seen an m15x video on youtube of someone running OSX (im not going to get into any legality battle) but the lights seem to stay on, now whether he/she was running OSX in a virtual machine on MS is another question but i am aware it is difficult to run OSX in VM (iv had no success).

 

really? interesting... i wonder how this works... must remember to ask findvikas.

 

Alright let me clear the myths... AlienFX uses its own BIOS memory to keep the settings. Thats why when you boot your machine lights turn up, right? You need not to have any OS or better even if you remove the HDD they will stay ON to the color and settings you saved last time. So you can boot into anything and colors will stay "as is".

I ran ubuntu with Sound, Lights and almost everything just fine. Few things did not work obviously like BinaryGFX and Command Center. Rest works great.

Now talking about OSX, yeah that can work on any x86 machine - though that will void your OSX license if you have any Google for a community project named as OSx86 who put continuous efforts to run OSX on x86 platform.

 

thanks for clearing that up! im so pleased to hear they will run in any OS! does the fact that the values are stored in its own BIOS open up the possibility of writing directly to the BIOS or is it connected only via usb?

i have previously tryed OSx86 distributions and have had little success. hopefully newer hardware will render greater success for me.

i probably should have asked after your first reply, but why is it really risky to send raw data to usb devices? did you mean that if you get the content of the data wrong that it could kill the device?

 

I've run into this a few times and can probably reproduce my results if I ever get my AlienFX working again (vikas, have you had a chance to analyse my recently uploaded information yet?). The issue I ran into was that after a few resets of the AlienFX board not recieving information (usually 3+), the lights shut down and don't start up again until the CC tells them to.

This has happened several times when booting ubuntu previously (even when the lights worked in Windows)... if i'd restart, and drop right back into ubuntu, the lights would eventually not start up with the system.

It's really normal IMO, and explains why my system is "dark"... I wouldn't mind losing control so much if it didn't mean that in 3 or 4 restarts, I wouldn't even have lights at all. I can handle it being only the last color I selected... but it's kinda getting to me that it's not on.

I'm gonna either fix this problem soon, or reformat x86 to prove it works (then put x64 back on and install properly.)

 

Mystik, I did look into it and it seems to be driver stack is corrupt. I am no expert in this matter and that's why it is taking time. A clean reinstall should fix it. It does not matter if you install x86 or x64. rebuilding the driver stack will fix it.

As a last attempt before you go and reinstall it, I want you to try

Disable the Selective Suspend feature
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817900

 

done, restarted, no change.

jeez, this whole thing is kinda depressing. anyways, I'm gonna shrink my x64 partition and drop Vista Home Premium x86 on there to test if it works (restoring from my AlienRespawn disk)... first a defrag, then into ubuntu for some Gparted, partition resizing, then into the Vista installer...

this should be fun

 

Mystik, i have read you post sever times but i think cider is stopping me understand wot you are saying. do you mean that every 3 to 4 times you boot into ubuntu all your lights turn off? this in turn would obviously force you to boot to windows and start them again, is that what you where saying?

im sorry you probably make total sence but im too intrigued to wait untill im sober!

 

what I'm saying is that if I boot an operating system that doesn't have CC, whether it's windows, linux or otherwise, if it doesn't have CC, and I start it 3-4 times IN A ROW, the lights will deactivate. they will not reactivate until I boot Windows with CC, and it tells them to turn back on.

so basically:

boot Vista w/CC: lights on.
boot Ubuntu: lights on
boot Ubuntu: lights still on
boot Ubuntu: lights off.
boot Vista w/o cc: Lights off
boot Vista w/CC: Lights on.

they seem to turn off after a few boots without having some communication with CC. that is all.

 

thanks for clarifying, seems a strange thing to happen!

i wonder if any other m15x user experiences this? do you

when i get mine i will be straight on the case with a linux CC or atleast making CC run in wine or something! (i might need some help if thats ok please findvikas! )

i wonder if it would be possible to atleast make something to refresh the BIOS at every boot to stop what is happening to you mystik!?! it would be interesting to know if you also experience these symptoms findvikas?

 

for anyone following along, I've booted into a gparted live disk (from USB), and it's currently resizing my Vista x64 NTFS partition. to it's credit, it's moving rather fast. 70-90MBps while processing the data... though, I don't expect the speed to keep up...

I'll leave this to finish overnight (since it seems to be working), and take the AlienRespawn disk with me to school tomorrow to do the actual install.

 

Hi guys I have a little problem with the new command center, i have uninstall the old one and follow your guide for installing the new one but i have an error when i boot on windows vista 64:


I'm french but it say that: The following Dll: alienfususionapi.dll can not be loaded bla bla

Can I have some help?

Thanks guys

 

I have found the problem, i have take the old alienfusionapi.dll (33ko) in the system32 and move to the new alienfusionapi.dll (10ko) in the syswow64.

Your guide for me has a mistake because i need to take the alienfusionapi.dll in the syswow64 to the system32 directory.

Thanks for your very good guide and I try my experience with the new command center may help you

 

wow, we have a french m15x user?

that's pretty neat!

 

Of course there's lot of french M15x users

 

I think that's pretty cool.

to update everyone on my situation: I've finally gotten Home Premium x86 installed... I jumped the gun, couldn't wait for class.

now to install and test out CC...

 

updated my guide there was a bug for new CC

 

"If you do not have the m then there is no worry."

FTFY

p.s. AlienFX works fine I so happy to see lights again!

 

lovely... you reinstalled x86 first or directly fresh install of x64?

 

not my fault tiny touch keyboard

 

I resized my x64 partition using Gparted live CD (run from a USB drive)... then installed x86 to the newly created empty space... installed, more or less, just the OSD and CC to the new installation, and it started up as soon as CC launched.

I still have the x64 install, if you wanted to do some further troubleshooting? I want to test something before I blast them both off the disk and return back to a single x64 partition.... my data is essentially ready to be backed up, so I have everything I need in that regard...

hehe