NEED SUPPORT! Will pay for help! area 51 m17x

I wll make this very short and to the point. I am not a high roller, so I bought an alienware area 51 m17x for 1900 from ebay and got completely left in the dust. I had NO idea that the seller wouldn't help me if I had an issue and I did not know that alienware will no provide support, even if you are willing to pay for it. I understand I screwed up, and believe me....the stress I have had the last few days has taught me a lesson.

So the fact remains that I have no access to proper files and cannot get my system to work properly. Luckily, I paid 30 bux for driver robot and it installed most of my drivers so AT LEAST I can use the computer a little. The problems I am having are these:

Webcam displays me upside down (dont laugh)
Mic recognizes voice but the playback is just a clicking sound
MOST IMPORTANTLY- alienware command center does not recognize my computer (m17x ripley no lightpipe) and the zones will not light up. I know they work because I reinstalled and temporarily they all lit up blue. I downloaded alien fusion to see if it would work, and only the number pad would light up on the keyboard.

Here is my offer. If someone will give me some phone support OR get on my computer from a remote desktop to fix the issues I WILL PAY. I have already wasted so much money and my frustration is through the roof. Just put yourself in my shoes.

If anyone is out there that can help me, please let me know! Thanks guys.

 

Have you tried a clean install? Format the HDD's completely and start over. That is probably your best bet by the sounds of it, less hassle than trying to find the root of the problem IMO.

 

I reinstalled last night....I spent hours upon hours. The funny thing is that I have access to the myhive area and not even those drivers work. I am seriously appauled at the inferiority if alienware to dell. I had an xps m1730 before this and downloading drivers was so amazingly smooth and the support supervisors actually cared about customers. Alienware has lost a customer for life, simply seeing how inferior their support database and drivers download page is. How hard is it to download the new command center and get it working? It seems like an impossible task and with all the problems I have seen people have, it just makes you wonder...you know? I am just going to throw in the towel because I am not that computer saavy and its obvious I need someone to hold my hand in trying to fix these issues. I will ALWAYS purchase from the manufacturer from now on and will always add the warranty.

Boy, do I feel stupid. Christmas morning went from anticipated joy to Hostel part 2 on my nutsac.

 

I have the support CD, the vista 64 cd, and the nero 9 cd...all alienware authentic, but no respawn dvd

Does anyone want to sell me one? :-D

 

I don't think you need the respawn cd, can't you just use the respawn partition the system comes with?

 

Also if you bought the system on ebay if it doesnt work you should be able to send it back, check the sellers return policy.

 

20% Restocking fee and I pay shipping, so I lose close to 300 dollars. Isn't it worth just keeping it and dealing with the lack of illuminated keyboard, webcam and mic?

 

don't get me started on this, i had to talk to dell for fricking hours and am not joking about, i wanted the re-spawn DVD and that i would pay extra.
"you have it on the ssd drives"
"yeah and if i full format"?

can you spell DELL ?? i can IDIOTS!!!

i was chewing them good until i got one (and why not my other older 2 alienware laptops had them)

and after all this crap i got from dell they nicely gave my 10% off for these beasts.

still paid £4700 per laptop!!!!!!!

 

webcam and mic i guess may be driver issues. I have this machine, i can double check it when i got home.

The Command center is tricky. It has to follow strict driver installation sequence.
FYI: http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/...2hfdGV4dD1tMTd4IHNlcXVlbmNl&p_li=&p_topview=1

And somehow some key value in your windows registry may also screw up your lighting. Basically command center is reading that key value to recognize model of your machine.

I can let you know the detail tonight.

 

there is a patch in myhive that fixes the light issue and yes you have to have alienware support for that.

 

hum your going to need repair and well alienware's warranty policy is they will not deal with out of warranty owners.

 

Thank you for offering to help. These are the kinds of responses that make people stick around certain communities :-D

I really appreciate everyone's responses thus far and am impressed with the amount of knowledge in this forum!

 

This machine is really tricky to get working properly. alienware software is special and sometimes you can't treat it by common sense as other normal laptops.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Alienware\Alienware AlienFX

You should find a "model" with value "F17RipleyNLP"

this is what I have. I think to safely get it working you should remove all drivers and re-install them in correct order. Before you install command center, make sure the above registry key is correct.

and probably you need to get the latest command center from myHive

 

what is rep power and what does it do when someone says +rep?

 

btw, im going to try these suggestions when I get home from work

 

jack the ripper is on the right track about the command center thing but in myhive there is a patch for the command center if i remember correctly.

 

the very first version of that patch is actually wrong when I got this problem several months ago, if you edit that patch by notepad you can see it is just adding a key to your windows registry. The first version of it was adding a wrong value and it wouldn't solve the problem. I am not sure if it is corrected now.