AlienFX Problems/Questions Thread

You're in Europe, right? I know that European users can't anytime upgrade to Ultimate (or something like that) they're suppose to use Ultimate N. I wonder if Anytime Upgrade scanned your system, saw a U.S. product key and snuffed out the upgrade since you were probably hitting a European server? No doubt, when you bought Ultimate and installed it, you killed your OEM Key.

Realistically, I don't see there being a way to install AlienFX running Ultimate. You might need to just chalk it up to an expensive learning experience. What do you use Ultimate for? XP Mode in Virtual PC? Your other option is to get a huge hard drive, partition the sucker down the middle and just put Home Premium on one and Ultimate on the other.

Edit: Just glanced at that thread. Be cautious about buying a Key from anywhere other than Microsoft, even Amazon. Was it from Amazon or just a seller on Amazon? Shoot, I've bought a counterfeit guitar from a seller on there before. Amazon stands behind their customers, but there is very little quality control on who sells there.

I know that there are a LOT of keys floating around out there. There are thousands of people that have bought upgrade keys, upgraded to Professional or Ultimate DIRECTLY DOWNLOADED from Anytime Update, only to have their system's promptly fail Windows Genuine Check. I would dig harder for the right contact information for Microsoft in Europe. If the AlienFX software requires a Dell OEM Key, then either Microsoft or Dell will have to provide you with one or you will have to find a way to hack your own, which is the same thing as pirating software and there's no way in anyone here is gonna go there LOL (and you shouldn't either because there can be nasty stuff hidden in things like that)!

 

I had absolutely no issue upgrading from Home to Ultimate with the Anytime upgrade. I purchased the full retail version of Ultimate and entered that key in the Anytime Upgrade.

 

This is pure, baseless speculation on my part:

I'm thinking that maybe people in the US shouldn't have this problem. What I'm thinking is that if he tried to upgrade from Home Premium to Ultimate online in the UK, then he wouldn't have been able to. UK users are suppose to purchase Ultimate N. Is Ultimate N suppose to be available through Anytime Upgrade? I have no clue on that. What I suspect is that the retail version of Ultimate N replaced his OEM Key which is necessary for AlienFX to install. The version of Windows is really irrelevant. If AlienFX is only reading the Key and nothing else about the system, then I think the only solution is to get an appropriate key from Dell or Microsoft.

 

Sorry for the slow replies all, things have been busy lately.

I'm in Europe (UK) yeah, but I bought the laptop from Alienware via Dell UK - apparently the US customers get a special black folder with various paperwork and a hive customer number and such which apparently EU members (and myself) did not get, so I assume the version of Windows is localised to Europe too? I've not seen Ultimate N around, but according to Amazon and various people on other forums Anytime Upgrade *should* work fine - although obviously it didn't. I sold the upgrade key and package on eBay, and it worked fine for the guy who bought that to upgrade his copy of Home Premium so it definitely wasn't a key issue. I guess I would have killed the OEM key though, since I did a full format with Ultimate and not an upgrade.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that it won't run on ultimate - well, it will (it's only a software issue - if the program / computer could be tricked by installing OEM branding, which I assume is just a simple sys file or a few registry keys), the installer would run fine as it's only not working because it thinks that the laptop isn't a Dell at all!), but I've not yet been able to figure it out. Any other replies regarding doing the above is welcome though.

Reasons for getting Ultimate - yeah, XP mode and things like gpedit, which I use a lot and don't work properly or at all on non-pro/ultimate versions of Windows. Currently I have installed Home Premium on the other hard drive - I'll get to that later on the post.

The Windows Anytime Upgrade disk was bought directly from Amazon itself and not a reseller and arrived sealed in shrink-wrap and with the tag still in place, so it was definitely unused - of course that means little since people writing keygens for Win 7 could accidentally pick up my serial key. That wasn't the problem though, since the error for an incorrect key is different from the error that I was getting (which was that the upgrade is not compatible), and I sold the upgrade key on eBay after buying the full Ultimate version and wrote to him to check that it worked - and it did.

I do have an OEM key for home premium - I think it's the fact that the installer disk that I'm using (OEM Home Premium one) generated logos and other branding info which the AlienFX installer somehow uses to determine that the laptop is an Alienware, so it's not an issue for me not having an OEM key. Also, with regards the pirated copy thing, the real irony is that I've had far less hassle in the past with the many pirated copies of Windows 7 out there than I have with the full, legal versions that I decided to buy for this new laptop in the hopes that it would save hassles in the long run *laughs ironically*.

That's great that you had no problem with it, but I did unfortunately. Maybe it's because you're based in the US (if you are) and US/EU licensing has different issues or compatibility or something. My original attempt to use the Anytime Upgrade disk was after I had installed and configured a lot of apps so I did a fresh, clean install to see if that would work instead - no dice. See my other thread (linked above) for any issues on this - I'm pretty sure I was doing everything correctly but I could be wrong.

It's good to hear that others are having better luck with Anytime Upgrade, but I personally would not recommend to anybody here to use it - either buy your laptop with Ultimate to start off with, buy it later as a full version, or stick with Home Premium / Professional / whatever - because £100/$180 or whatever is a lot of money to take a gamble on, especially when even big players like Amazon and Microsoft hide behind automated lines that send you round in circles and fob you off until you have no choice but to chalk it off as a failure.

Again, I've not come across "Ultimate N" but if it is truly supposed to be the UK/EU upgrade to the UK/EU version of Home Premium, they haven't made that fact very clear on Amazon. That said, I've bought a full version of Ultimate now anyway. With regards AlienFX reading the key, from what I've seen on Google people are saying that it's the actual branding - I.e. where it appears as "Alienware" in System Properties, etc - that the installer is based on. Of course, these people aren't programmers so this could be pure baseless speculation. As the OEM installer puts the serial key in *for you*, there is no real way to know without an AlienFX programmer stopping by to say what the program is looking for.

The very fact that the app needs to look to see if the machine is an Alienware is just crazy, though. It's not like the program would be useful to anyone *not* running an Alienware PC, anyway.

That said, I'm sure if it *is* a serial key issue, then Dell would require me to pay out for ANOTHER upgrade to Ultimate, this time on their special Dell branded disks, and honestly I've had about enough of paying small fortunes to jump through Dell and Microsoft's hoops by this point. I've tried to call Dell about the issue before (well, the Anytime Upgrade issue, but still...) and I just get through to constant lines of people putting me on hold, transferring me, speaking in nigh-unintelligible foreign accents (yay outsourcing!) only to finally tell me that it's Microsoft's problem, not theirs. Oh, and guess who Microsoft says the problem lies with? Yep, Dell.

*Pants*
Rant over.


********************************************************
Actual Progress Stuff
As I mentioned before, my laptop has two hard drives - the 750GB one that came with the laptop and a new 750GB one that I bought as a backup when I was having the Anytime Upgrade issues, to replicate Windows onto. I have installed my OEM Home Premium disk on the second hard drive, and can now boot to both - booting to Home Premium (with Dell branding) makes AlienFX work fine and I can change the colours, etc.

Obviously this is still a bit of a pain since as soon as I reboot to my Ultimate partition, the lighting is locked and if I want to change it, even just to turn the lights off, I have to restart and boot to a totally different installation, change the settings, and then reboot again.

My next stage is to try installing VMWare (a virtual machine app) and installing my OEM disk on a virtual machine within my Ultimate installation, with the hope that I can simple "boot" my virtual machine and change the settings that way, without needing to reboot. It's still a giant pain in the though, so if anyone has any ideas about simulating / creating Alienware/Dell branding on a non-OEM installation of Win 7 Ultimate, I'd appreciate it .

I'll update the thread with how the VMWare install goes.

 

I just got my M18x today, and have had a ton of fun messin with the LED lighting scheme.However, i notice that the transitions arnt very smooth, but i was hoping there would be a way to decrease the timing between the transitions.

Would there be any 3rd party apps, or modifications to the AlienFX control center that can help it look better? i know people have done some crazy things, like hook winamp into it.

Thanks in advance.

 

Don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but it is neat. http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-depending-things-like-cpu-temperature-4.html

 

Have this issue with AlienFX: when i press Fn+F11 all the lights go dark, when i press it again everything lights up except the Macro Keys! I have to run Command Control and switch to any different color for the Macro Keys to light them up...

Driving me nuts... Any clues?

 

I've actually seen that. Its pretty awesome, i'm just waiting to see how it develops.

 

Update to my last post (one above Red Line's) -

Tried VMware, it couldn't seem to pick up the laptop at all (nothing showed up when I installed and ran AlienFX, and trying to open a theme gave an error "This theme could not be opened").

So, it looks like the -ONLY- way to use AlienFX is to use the supplied Dell OEM disk. So, for me that'll be installing an entierly new O/S on a different partition just so that I can turn the lights on or off .

If ANYONE knows how to modify a Windows 7 Installation so that it thinks that it's an Alienware / Dell and/or inserts the branding necessary to make AlienFX work, please message me ASAP.

Apart from that I'm admitting defeat. Know this - if you buy an Alienware computer and try and install a new retail O/S, your AlienFX software will not work.

 

Have you messed around with the advanced settings? I have had some very good, very smooth results through some tweaking.

 

I did a clean install of win 7 ultimate. My AlienFX installed and works just fine. My windows is activated as OEM Alienware. SLIC is part of our bioses, so there is no need to mod them, or use loader, ect.

 

OK, how in the world did a bunch of threads that are not related to the AlienFX Problems/Questions thread get merged into the AlienFX Problems/Questions thread?

At the very least, I see "Dell Outlet New" & "Refurbished Quality" on the last couple pages.

 

I have a problem with m17x r3 that I bought used yesterday.
I noticed that the Alienware logo under the screen is not lit up and the Alien head on the back is not lit up either.

I installed the newest CC. Tried the power discharge by taking out the cmos battery and holding the power button for 30 seconds.


All the other lights work like they are supposed to.

Thanks guys

 

Hey guys, I am having a big problem with my M17x R1. I had to format and reinstall my entire os because of a previous hard drive problem. I followed the steps on this site:
Alienware : The Best Custom Built Gaming PC for the Ultimate PC Gamer!

I used the disc that was given and all my lights went out. I reformated my entire hard drive again but this time I used the dell website to get the drivers. Unfortunately, I still have no lights on my M17x. I followed what Bat Boy said of uninstalling, safe mode CCleaner, restart and install the old Command Center (2.0.10.0) but I keep getting "The theme could not be opened" on Alien Fx screen. Can someone please help me, I am lost. Also when I formatted I did a "clean all" in command prompt at boot and formatted when I put in the Windows 7 disc. So hopefully I didn't mess up my motherboard.

Thanks

 

pls help i owned a brand new alienware m14x with windows 7 sp1, but after windows update my alienware command center not working it showing " CLR ERROR: 80004005 The Program will now terminate"
and command center not opening. now without command center the fusion not working also the GPU not working so the gameplay totally stopped.
so please tell how to solve this issue, even i reistalled the command center but same error showing

pls help

 

Have anyone figured out how to make the light surrounding the number 8 zone black ( I do not know whats i´ts called in english )!? I never use this and would like to turn of the lights. When I try to select the black colour it won´t work. On my old M17x R2 I could make it invisible.

 

LOL. Its fixed now. Thx for pointing this out.

Its the touchpad zone. As for making it go dark -

right click on your alienfx tasktray icon, uncheck 'keep status zones on during go dark'. When you go dark, all zones will now shut off.

the other alternative is to manually edit your theme file (open with notepad++ or notepad or whatever editor you want) and locate the zone. Once found, manually set the value to #FF000000.

moving post to alienfx thread. follow-up there please. thx

 

Ok. I am having problems trying to find which one is the touchpad zone though.

Got it!

 

is there a way to disable just the lights around the trackpad and the part where you turn up the volume etc, i feel it woul dlook more clean for me

done it

 

a question.
Is there a way how to hide the alienfx icon in taskbar ? I mean, what is the difference, when its there, or when i select exit ? Thank you.

 

is there a way to make the lights brighter ? the coulours imo look quite washed out and weak and im sat in the dark, the track pad howether is very bright, just right.

 

I have a M11x R1. Its out of warranty and HDD just dies, I put another HDD in and did a fresh install of win7 HP.

After installing all the drivers, I installed OSD and then Command Center but none of the lights are responsive. Command Center saves the new settings but that`s about it. I have tried battery trick, updating Command Center with latest one but nothing seems to work.

Any help?

EDIT: Is it the motherboard or the power board that controls the actual AlienwareFX?

 

Did you use the version of command center that came with the dvd your computer came with?

If so, your fx is dead now

Dell changed some things around so that the old version of command center will destroy your lights if used with the newer bios versions.

I believe the m11x light controler is located under the cover above the keyboard. I am not posative, but all the LEDs go into that board, and its pretty big to just be a indicator for the wifi and caps lock.

 

This is the first time, I did the fresh install on m11x. Before this, Motherboard was replaced by Dell Tech once tough. Bios version is A05.

I used Command Center and OSD from Alienware website.

Anyhow I ordered a new board to see if it solves the FX issue.

 

Hi there would anyone be able to tell me if this is possible or not.

Im using windows media player and select the alienwareFX visulizer to get the lights going, but the alien head that stays on the screen is awful, is there anywhere of using the current albumcover for the song playing plus the lights? or do you have to have the alienhead there.

Anyway of having the alienFX and current album cover for the song

 

Hi Is there some way to change background image too i customized colors but need to change image too...

Regards!

 

As per my previous posts, I ordered a new Alien Fx board but havn`t got it yet.

Today I noticed on pushing down on the palm rest (left side, just behind the left speaker) makes left speaker grill light turn on. When I stop pressing it either turns off or slowly blinks and then go off.

now I feel there is something wrong with the mainboard

 

Could be that the ribbon cables are pull out. remove the cover over the power button, remove the battery, then remove the keyboard. This should give you access to most of the cables for the alienfx.

 

Definitely not the ribbon cables. I already checked every single cable.

Also I got the new board LED board today and as soon as I plugged it, all of the lights came on (albit blue, maybe the default setting). I removed old command center and got the current one from Dell website.

All of the lights seem to be working now. But still when I press on the left corner of the palm rest, green light comes on and mixes with whatever color its set to.

 

Hey folks,

I recently joined the dark side with my m17x R2. Having a bit of difficulty making alienFX do exactly what I want it to, and figured nobody would know better than this forum.

What I'd like to do is turn off all the lights except the media bar with the volume control, next song button, etc. Unfortunately, alienFX won't let me turn everything off, specifically the power light or the light around the touchpad. I can "go dark" to turn those off, but then I lose the media bar. Is there any way to shut off all the lights except the media bar?

 

Merging with AlienFX sticky.

What you need to do -
right click on the AlienFX status icon (notification icon - next to the clock - bottom right).
uncheck 'Keep status zones on during Go Dark'

As an alternative, edit the theme file using an xml editor or you can simply use notepad and set all zones with the exception of the media bar to FF000000.


-

 

That's just the issue though. AlienFX considers the "status zones" to be the power light, the touch pad light, AND the media bar. I only want the media bar illuminated. With alienFX on, I can't turn the power light or touch pad light off. In "go dark", if I uncheck "keep status zones on" the media bar is dark.

I'll give the notepad editing a try. Thanks for the information

 

Hi guys. I am not sure if this question posted before , i could not find it.

I bought m18x and wondering why AlienFX application events theme do not override the Default theme.

I tried to set application theme for Starcraft2 and WoW but nothing changes. Anyone has idea how to fix it?

 

Hello, Panja and welcome to NBR.

Attempt a full power drain to clear CMOS and go create a new theme, remember to save/apply it and see if it works.

Also +1 REP for posting in the right section/thread too

 

Whenever I install Command Center it gives me an error that looks like this:

Code:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040154): Class not registered (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG))
   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo)
   at System.Management.ManagementEventWatcher.Start()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.DeviceDiscovery.Classes.DeviceWatcherClass.HidDeviceInsertedWatcher()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.DeviceDiscovery.Classes.DeviceWatcherClass.Start()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.DeviceDiscovery.Classes.AlienFXDeviceDiscoveryService.RegisterForDevicesEvents()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.DeviceDiscovery.ObjectFactory.NewAlienFXDeviceDiscovery()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Tools.Classes.ObjectFactory.get_DiscoveryService()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Tools.Classes.ObjectFactory.NewAlienFXDeviceRepository()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Tools.Classes.ObjectFactory.get_AlienFXDeviceRepository()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Tools.Classes.ObjectFactory.NewCommunicationService()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Controller.LightsZoneController..ctor()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Controller.ControllerMainForm.initializeLightController()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Controller.ControllerMainForm..ctor()
   at AlienLabs.AlienFX.Controller.Program.Main(String[] args)

I know it's a COM error. But I just don't understand why I am getting this error. CCleaner does nothing and even cleaning up .NET doesn't work. Any ideas?

EDIT: The Lights still work on my M11X, they are using my old theme which I set up before CC stopped working. I don't think this is a Hardware issue.

 

argh, the link doesn't work from the OP.

how could i do the alienfx winamp thing ?

 

Purchased a M17X R1 from a buddy, yesterday. He had told me that he called Alienware and they walked him into turning off the keyboard lights, etc because they drain the battery. I figured ok, I'll do a fresh install anyway and reinstall everything.

Used the Windows 7 CD that it came with, formatted the partition and installed the OS. Then I installed the drivers via the list Dell specifies, here: Alienware M17x R1: Initial Drivers Installation | Dell

Installed the 4.0 framework from Microsoft, before installing Command Center like the guide says.

Now, I have a problem. None of the lights work anywhere and nothing pops up in the editor. I get an error message. I close them, create new, but none of the tools pop up. I've been researching all day and still can't figure anything out. Below are the screenshots of the errors. Can anyone help me at this point? This is my first Alienware computer and it seems like a big part of it is missing.

 

You're right - you're missing a big part, and the LEDs don't even use significant power in the context of the already abysmal battery life.

I've gotten a similar error before, although I don't think AlienFX was the culprit. I've noticed that a lot of Alienware's software (OSD specifically) spazzes out when you use a generic video driver - I always fully remove drivers with DriveSweeper from Safe Mode between updates, and when I restart to install the new drivers, it always throws multiple errors due to the missing driver. Did you install video drivers, and, if so, did you use Dell's or recent ones from AMD/NVIDIA?

Also, maybe somewhat of an obvious question - Does the R1 have an AlienFX function toggle, and, if so, have you tried using it?

Finally, check Windows' Advanced Power Settings, as it has the ability to toggle it on and off as well. I wouldn't expect that to work, so you might also want to try reinstalling Command Center and see if it has any effect.

 

Anytime I try to get into AlienTouch it gives me this huge error message saying it cant locate this file etc...I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it and it still does the same thing. I think I may be a result of using the program Remove Empty Directories or something...anyways anyone know how to fix this?

edit: nvm got it just had to update touchpad drivers

 

When I put my m14x into power savings mode my lights still come on during start up. it's not until I go into the start menu to open Alienfx do they turn off. Why doesn't my lights stay off during power savings even though I have them off in the power savings advanced settings? And why do I have to manually go into the Alienfx program to have them turn off as soon as it opens?

 

When alien FX fails, it can be a pain. you should try different versions of command center untill you get alien fx to work...

 

i disabled the command center to start up because i was limiting the amount of programs that boot. All i did was re-enable the command center to start up and it worked out.

 

Is it possible for a program to change the alienfx led lights based on information directly from the sound card rather than gathering the information from media players like winamp or windows media player?

 

Is it possible to load color schemes without opening the editor?

 

Just wondered is there anyway to get the alien FX to work with spotify or are we only limited too winamp, itunes and WMP?

thanks

 

Yes, it is possible. The problem is each sound card has different drivers. So you would need to build the app for your spacific driver. The other option is to do it through Direct X. DX has a method for getting the audio levels.

 

No, it is not possible.

 

Does anyone else have variations in the FX colors between the different components? Attached is a pic of a M17xR1 outlet purchase (which was subsequently replaced with a M18x) that shows various colors of FX lights that are all set to yellow. The indicator lights are orange, keyboard is yello-orange, touchpad is yellow and the front lights are yellow-green. You can see on the display they are all set to yellow.

I have an outlet M17xR1 that everything matches except the indicator panel and the two replacements I have been sent were actually worse. I was just wondering if this is a common problem.

 

i figured out that you can use winamp to change the lights based on the sound card. all you do is ctrl+l and then type linein:// in the url box.

 

this has probably been answered but i didnt feel like reading through 25 pages of the thread. can you disable the trackpad, quick launch lights. mine stay on when i turn off alienfx and i dont have the option to black them in command center