M15x With XP 64

Hey Guys,

Now I am all prepared for being berrated for installing XP 64 on the M15x, however there is good reason. I have posted previously that the M15x belongs to my boss who has 8GB RAM, thus the need for a 64 BIT OS. The system came preloaded with Vista Ultimate 64 and after spending no less than 4 WHOLE DAYS installing apps etc she used it for about 3 months and both of us decided that Vista was invented by Satan. I could go on about the problems we had, but I wont bore you any more.

Thus XP 64 bit has been installed and its taken me about 1 day to get to the stage where I have all the drivers installed in the correct order and all the Microsoft Updates installed. I have not installed the webcam driver yet because thats where my problems begin. Basically I install the command center (I use the Vista 64 bit version) and it installs no problem and I can use AlienFX and Touch (sense isn't there yet because I haven't installed the driver for the webcam yet). My problem is this, I cannot no matter what I do (and trust me I've googled til I can google no more) get the keyboard to light up using the AlienFX utility!!! I can use the Aurora Lights software, however at every login I have to set the keyboard light as the laptop starts up blacked out. I found the registry hack from another post and tried that....Didnt work. I cant even phone Alienware because I have changed the pre-loaded OS so they wont support it, which I think is a total joke considering we have spent nearly £4k on this laptop! Anyhoo enough ing!

Can anyone please please please help me, I am at my wits end! If Aurora Lights can switch it on then surely to god there is some registry hack that can do the same thing in AlienFX. When I go into AlienFX the keyboard lights are not even on the picture of the laptop.

Oh man this laptop is driving me mad!

Second problem is that whenever I install the webcam driver, when I shut down the laptop I get a devcon error. This is probably the lesser of the two evils, but its still a nightmare and I cant really hand the laptop back to my boss with this happening. Any hints would be great.

PLEASE HELP!

 

(BUMP)

Sorry for bumping this back up the list, but I am desperate for an answer! Surely someone has an M15X with XP 64 installed, I cant be the only one??

(I AM A DESPERATE WOMAN!! PLEASE HELP!)

 

btw, why you not stay with Vista Ultimate 64 ? Vista is better than XP, isnt it ?
and did you try to contact AW CS for ask them how to install XP 64 ?

 

We are not using Vista because we are in an organisation that uses only XP and some of our group policies have issues with Vista which is a complete nightmare to diagnose, plus from an IT Admin point of view Vista is pile of steaming crap. I hate how Microsoft moved from using the old Documents and Settings profiles to a system that makes it difficult to administer. I think the whole Vista setup is dire to say the least. XP is like this decades windows 98, I have never had issue with it and with the release of SP3 I just would never move to Vista. We only used Vista because that is what came preinstalled. Half the software we used didn't work on Vista. Microsoft are trying their hardest to become OSX, but lets be realistic, unless they sort out the backend, the GUI means feck all.

Anyhoo, the point is, we are not going to use Vista, even if we have to put up with lighting up the keyboard manually at startup and not using the webcam, its a small price to pay for not having to use Vista.

I phoned Alienware and they wont support us using anything other than what was pre-installed. I might however give them another bash and just ask for some info.

 

Well, as an update I've finally figured out how to get the keyboard working after many many long hours searching and hacking and searching and hacking.

Following the XP installation of all the drivers, which are as follows:

Chipset
Audio
On-Screen Display
Install other video card driver (press FN + F7 to switch)
Network
Wireless
Remote control receiver
Touchpad Driver (need this in order to use Touch)
Media Card
Raid
Bluetooth
Windows Updates

Once you've installed in this exact order, I would recommend taking a ghost image so that you can mess about.

Now that you have a good image install the latest command center (use the Vista 64 bit install). Then you must apply the following registry hack (put this into a text file, save it as a .reg file and double click):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Alienware]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Alienware\Alienware AlienFX]
"Model"="MDRipley"

Open up the command center again, close the current theme and open a new one and low and behold you should have the keyboard again!!! thank feck.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get Alien Sense working. I can use the webcam, it goes through the enrollment procedure but when you open up the command center, there is just a spaceship in place of the sense configuration. Any pointers would be useful?

Im going to try installing the FA webcam 64 bit driver before I install the command center and see if that works.

I hate this laptop! I'm glad its not mine.

[EDIT]
I have decided to not bother using Alien sense as my boss is not interested in using it and it was causing more issues for me. Basically if you are happy using the command center using only the FX and Touch elements then, navigate to (I am having to do this from memory, because once you uninstall the folder is gone) C:\Program Files\Alienware\Command Center\Alien Sense and find the uninstall file (I think its called fauninst.exe or something like that). Once you run that it will uninstall sense and the next time you open command center you'll only have FX and Touch. It will also stop trying to scan your face at login.

 

just curious...

vista on my corporate domain has many issues. we have no plans on going to that or windows 7. we'll keep xp pro for another 10 years if we have to.

every single laptop and desktop with vista i was testing... when joining the domain. the biggest pain in the butt,... was for some reason DHCP WOULD BREAK. and you'd have to manually give an ip address everywhere. this wouldn't be so bad for desktops as i give static ip's for them.. but for the laptops... deal breaker. granted vista caused many issues in our banking software... which they dont support.. and never will. HAHA..

anyhow, i tried a bunch of fixes involving the broadcast flag, etc... but after a couple updates... it didn't work anymore. i use vista on my desktop gaming pc at home, but that's it.

wondered if you noticed the same weird dhcp issues. i wrote a huge rant about it on the tech net forums

 

Try this theme...
I finally found how to change color in BIOS as well and hopefully very soon you will be able to use AuroraLightsFX to change colors and preserve them on next reboot... ie. completely say bye-bye 2 Command Center

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24947&d=1222749196

 

thanks findvikas!!! It would be a pure unadulterated joy to get rid of the command center!!! lol. That software has been the biggest nightmare. The aurora lights is brilliant, but I just know that with not having it preserving the settings after reboot would have been an issue for my boss. However, when the new version comes out, we will definitely be using!

Thanks.

 

I think you need to change your group policies.

 

Brilliant!