M17x AlienSense not working, just shows black on windows startup

im trying to get aliensense working but im having a hard time, i think i got it going because when i start up my m17xr1 aliensense pops on on the log in screen of windows, but where my face is suppose to be its just a black. like my camera is not on or something, does anyone got any idea why is not on?

 

As long as the camera light is on (LED next to the camera), its working. Check the camera settings.

 

Agreed. Alienware computers have one of the function keys (might be F9?) that serves as a "camera off" switch. If that key was bumped or the camera is otherwise disabled, then Aliensense could be running but not receiving video.

Also be sure that if you're running Win7 that you've upgraded the Command Center fully. Microsoft made changes to Win7 that required a new version of Aliensense in order to be compatible.

Other question - is your machine attached to a domain? If so, then black video may be a symptom. A version of Aliensense supports domain usage (I'm just not sure if it's been released yet or not), and the version that you have may or may not.

Yet another question: When you log in, what color is the "Alien Head" icon in the system tray?

 

the light is not on, iv never seen the light turn on actually i didnt even no there was a light their
PS: i have vista

also i dont no if my machine is attached to a domain, i dont know what that means, sorry.

the alienhead color in the system tray is not the CC alienhead, its the aliensense alienhead it looks diff, but the aliens eye is green.. but when i put my mouse over it , it says "desktop is inactive, program update received. Please reboot your computer to activate the update" but i restarted the computer and turned it off like 5 times and it keeps saying this, it never goes away

 

bump.. anyone know how to turn the webcam on... my light isnt turning on

 

I have a similar issue - In my case it only works after a restart. If it is waking form sleep it fails.

IMO the driver does not pass the WHQL lullaby test (sleep/wake up). But it got a pass, so I must be imagining it not work after sleep.

 

iv never got my webcam working, is there any settings somewhere that im missing or that isnt installed?

 

This is what I did to fix my camera issues.

A) Enable aliensense (you can disable later if wanted.. but needs to be enabled to get everything working correctly)

1) Uninstall the creative camera program if you have it
2 With vista you will need to download the camera driver from dell's website.. with win7 use the default one
3) Uninstall the "camera s" from device manager
4) Run CC cleaner
5) Reboot
6) Win7 - Let windows install the camera driver (default win7 one)
Vista - install driver downloaded from dell's website

B) You may need to re-install the Command Center program to get aliensense working (follow the aliensense setup etc..)
1) once aliensense is working you can disable the facial recognition if desired

This is what I did and it worked.

Hope this helps.

D.

 

thank you, i got afew questions, where is the CC cleaner? and before i do all the uninstalling i want to see if the camera was even ever installed, this is a refurb m17x that i just got from dell afews weeks ago so maybe they didnt even do it, what should i do just go to dell website and download the camera driver?

EDIT: i just went to dell.com and i all i found similar to what you were saying was "Creative Labs Integrated Webcam" i just downloaded it now. when i downloaded it and tried installing it, it asked if i would like to create this folder "not replace the folder" so im assuming that it was never installed on my system. i installed it and restart my computer but nothing happen when the computer was restarted and no programs were installed in the stat menu so i dont know where to check to see if the webcam program is even installed, is there some program in your start menu about a webcam???

 

bump, how can i tell if i have my webcam installed?

 

Look in the Windows Device Manager.

 

i looked in all the tabs and i didnt see it in the Device Manager