*Official* Alienware Official Windows 8 support thread [Questions and Discussions Here]

I do not know what to say, I have it installed on all my systems since the day when it has been released and yes all clean installation.

Save everything on another hdd / ssd (backup) and better to disconnect all other drives while installing windows 8 on C (just as a precaution). Everything, including drivers work just fine and yes you need to install everything one by one. Use all the drivers from dell's website except do not install the Nvidia GPU driver / AMD GPU driver. After the drivers installed and windows update does his job, I make a backup without the video drivers in case I need to reinstall the operating system again because of a driver failure (I highly recommend doing this especially for AMD cards, that's how I learned my lesson; however I do not face the same problem with Nvidia, but I guess it has become a habit).

I have not tried the Alienware 'look', but I see no reason on why it should not work. Most of the things that were working in windows 7 are compatible with windows 8.

 

I'm in the process of updating right now from 7 to 8, but i only selected windows to carry over personal folders, so all windows 7 related material will be wiped, its for the best, i'll update once it has finished and relay any issues (the compatibility check already told me i will have to reinstall a few items since they will not be compatible due to drivers related, but they do have windows 8 drivers for all those programs that need to be reinstalled, which is fine by me).

 

We don't really need a bunch of separate Windows 8 threads, so I merged this one with the official Windows 8 thread. As others have already chimed in, chances are not good for success with an upgrade. It doesn't end well for most of us. Here is a guide that will help everything turn out right... http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...l-windows-8-support-thread-8.html#post8974490

I think you will end up saving time by doing a clean install. In the long run, you will likely spend more time doing the upgrade and chasing problems if it turns out like the upgrade did for a number of us. (Windows 8 is not the first version that performs sucky if installed as an upgrade, though.) Windows 8 is overly aggressive with file access permissions and you'll most likely end up frustrated with things not working properly. I almost wrote of Windows 8 as a lousy OS based on my upgrade experience, but after doing a clean install, I really like it.

Don't install the Creative audio drivers. Windows 8 supports almost everything in your M18x R1/R2 natively. I installed them and the audio stopped working, but the native Windows 8 drivers work fine for the audio.

 

Just to make sure, your saying don't install any other drivers other than the ones you listed above? What about the Bigfoot driver?

 

Just to let you know, ive succesfully upgraded from Win7 to Win8 with no issues.
Runs great.

 

Yes, that was what I meant. If Windows 8 supports the Atheros WiFi chipset natively, let it ride if it works well.

That's good news. Not everyone has been that lucky. A clean install is usually best, but there is no harm in trying the upgrade route just to see what happens.

 

Off topic, but I have three drives in my system and I want to create an image of my current system now. Will AWR do that with the free edition or do I need pro? Also I would I go about doing that (creating image)

 

You should be able to use AWR Basic (free) Version to image your machine as it is right now, BUT - if you still have the factory recovery partition in tact, AWR will just image that and NOT your current OS install with programs etc etc....

So, first, if you haven't already created "Factory State Recovery Media" and you have the recovery partition still in tact, I would probably make a Respawn USB of the factory image first of all. If you have already done that, or after doing that, you should be able to delete your recovery partition (you may need to use the DISKPART command at an elevated CMD prompt to do this) and reinstall AWR.

What should happen next is that AWR will install on your machine and it would create a new recovery partition for you. Once that's done, you should be able to make another Respawn USB which would be the image of your machine as it is right now.....with all the programs etc etc that you have installed now.

One thing that probably won't work is unless all 3 drives are in a Raid Array, I *think* that AWR will only image the drives that are associated and that have the recovery partition on.....for example, If you have two raided drives for the OS/Programs and a third separate drive for Data Storage, I think that the AWR image would only be of the drives that the recovery partition is on......I think you would have to backup the other drive independently..............but I could be wrong. I imagine Brother Fox can elaborate more on this one as I know he has multiple drives and I'm pretty sure he could give you a definitive answer of wether or not AWR images EVERY drive....

Hopefully that makes sense.....

 

Okay, what is this UEFI and whats the benifit of using it? Do you install W8 any differntly if you want to use it? I also say something about the Alien image not being their if you do use it.

That actually makes a lot of sense. Question is, if I get the full version can I bypass all the extra steps of deleting partitions and installing AWR all over again? I'm guessing Mr. Fox waited till he installed all his programs and everything to install AWR to get an image size of 17 GB? Also I'm just curios on how it backs up all 3 drives? Another thing, what bios version is everyone thats on W8 using?

 

Hmmm.....I got all my stuff installed that I wanted to....downloaded AWR and installed it but my AWR splash screen is all Fubar'd compared to the above shots....here it is in the spoiler - anyone any ideas?

Spoiler

 

Basically, this is a big to do about nothing, in my view. UEFI is being touted as a wonderful security thing, but it's more a means of command and control for OEMs and Microsoft than anything else. And, that signed driver thing... good luck upgrading your M18x R2 with newer video cards or using modded drivers with UEFI and Secure Boot. It is already a bit of a pain in the tush with Windows 8 without UEFI and Secure Boot, but it is still possible to boot with DSE disable. With fast SSD drives and high specs, I think it's not a big deal to wait an extra 5 to 10 seconds to get to your desktop. To me, what is far more important is having a computer than runs like a banshee after I reach the desktop, and one that I have the liberty and latitude to do whatever I feel like with it instead of what someone else wants me to be able to do with it. I would prefer to see that sort of draconian control stick with the Apple crowd.

I am not sure that AlienRespawn recovery media has all the user's data files. I believe it does not unless all of that is resident on the same partition as the OS. But it does include the full OS installation and all installed apps if it is installed after everything else is installed. That is why my recovery media is so large compared to a bare bones factory install. I believe the USB or Optical Disk recovery media restores the content of the OS drive only, but not a complete system (multi-disk) recovery. With the purchased version, you have more robust options available for data-only and additional drive backup, but you don't necessarily need that. It is better to have system recovery media and data drive backup managed separately. Drive images can generally be used in the same way as drive cloning, except it is image-to-disk versus direct disk-to-disk. That means everything on the drive is wiped and replaced by the content of the image, and the size of the drive can generally be larger or smaller than the original as long as the drive is large enough to hold the content of the image.

I got your PM Brother Steve. I have never see anything like that before with AlienRespawn. I am wondering if it has something to do with font substitution, or maybe an improper file association for reading XML or CSS. It may have something to do with .NET Framework.

 

Thanks for the info. Sio what would be your suggestions to do for my situation? I have 3 drives that I want all backed up. If I have to purchase the full version of AWR I do t mind, because I do want a program where I can get my computer backed up regularly. Also what about after I install windows 8. I like that you had it create a system image after installing all your apps, but I would also want one before installing anything too if that makes sense.

 

This is weird, Bro.....last night I re-installed my old Win 7 Factory Respawn Image....downloaded AWR again to a thumb drive......clean installed Win 8 Pro (again lol) - now, before doing ANYTHING, I wanted to see if AWR would install (I was planning/thinking that if it did, I would just re-install and start over - job done, AWR working correctly) so I installed from the fresh download....no Dice....same weird AWR splash screen.

I was thinking....I know you said you did an in place upgrade/activation - did you have AWR on your beast then? - kinda wondering if that has something to do with it not working properly for me......I mean, even the free version should be displayed correctly so that rules out having to have the paid version for it to install right in the first place!!

 

Yes, when I did the in-place upgrade that ended up working like pure crap it was with my Windows 7 installation with Alien Respawn. But, it was the older version of Respawn. The older version absolutely refused to install under Windows 8. That's why I was excited about the new Respawn. It installed and works perfectly for me. I have no idea what's going wrong on your end now. Doesn't make any sense the way it is goofing up.

 

I've installed windows 8 with a fresh install but I can't get OSD to show the Alien icons. I tried the OSD fix and it didn't work either. Please help anyone.

 

Alright guys I need some suggestions (just installed Windows 8), earlier I tried to install the Dell Intel(R) IvyBridge HD Graphics (9.17.10.2817, A00), and then the Dell AMD Radeon HD 7970M Drivers (9.002, A01), Which are both on Dells website for my setup in Windows 8. Now that works fine, but once I tried to install the AMD 12.11 Beta 11 with the Cap 2 over the stock Dell AMD Radeon HD 7970 (9.002, A01) driver, upon restart the system crashes and starts the minidump stating: DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATIONS: ATIKMPAY.SYS and will keep repeating until system restore is enabled. *Also tried to just install the 12.11 Beta 11 Cap 2 drivers without installing the 9.002, A01 drivers after the 9.17.10.2817, A00 were installed first, with the same issue as stated above. **(Clean driver wipe was done prior to each combination attempt)

So I did a clean wipe of all the drivers and just installed the (9.002, A01), and then the 12.11 Beta 11 with Cap 2 over the Dell AMD driver (9.002, A01), so currently I do not have the 9.17.10.2817, A00 driver installed due to the issue. Now when running with the iGPU enabled the laptop can be unstable, but it will actually boot and occasionally BSOD, due to the driver conflict or lack of. So currently I am only running on the 7970M with the 12.11 Beta 11 with no issues at all.

So what I am seeking is others who have found a solution to this conflict on their R4 systems with Windows 8 (it was a clean Windows install by the way) because I would like to run with Enduro features, but with a proper Driver or MODed driver for the 9.17.10.2817, A00 or equivalent, thanks.

-Mike

 

Happy Sunday, Mike. Don't know if it will work and I have no way to test it to find out. But, here is what I would try, which would not include any Dell drivers.

• Uninstall all Intel and AMD drivers, reboot
• Run DriverSweeper (or Driver Fusion) to clean out leftovers, reboot
• Run CCleaner's registry tool to delete obsolete registry keys, reboot
• Manually delete (or zip and move) installation folders for previous Dell and AMD drivers
• Confirm display adapters are lacking drivers in Device Manager (if not manually delete them)
• Download and Install HD 4000 driver from Intel, reboot
• Download and install AMD driver from AMD, reboot

The idea here is to allow the AMD driver to discover and install support for Enduro without any interference from the Dell driver.

Windows 8 seems to have anxiety issues and is over-the-top stupid about file permissions and "security" to the point it is sometimes broken. I think everyone on the Windows 8 development team must be OCD in one way or another. (Some must have worked for the TSA as some point.) Luckily, they left us a way to make it a usable OS. If the above steps do not work, after running CCleaner and before each driver install, boot Windows with Driver Signature Enforcement (DSE) disabled. You will have to do it twice because the next restart DSE will be turned on again. I am looking for a way to permanently disable that crap "feature" LOL.

 

I would think it would allow official drivers to install since they are all verified and trusted, also here is a screenshot with Enduro enabled when playing FC3, and after about 5min of gameplay it stops responding and force quits to desktop (due to driver conflicts with the Dell intel HD4000 drivers). As you can see the different shading, this only happens with endure enabled/iGPU

I never thought about the Intel dirvers for the HD4000, ha, ok ill try your method and report back.

 

Hey, Pablo.....

I said I would get back to you after trying it out but I have run into problems trying to get AWR to install correctly on my Windows 8 Pro clean install. I have posted (with pics) about my issues on the following thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...rket-drive-alienrespawn-q-28.html#post8983275

 

Thanks Fox for the extra insight, I found a way to get the Drivers to work, but your suggestion helped steer me to it as well.

 

Still having no luck with getting the Alien icons to show with OSD, but I'm kind of over it now. Hopefully Dell will address this issue soon. Other than that, I'm in love with W8, at first was kind of hesitant but it was def worth it. Only problem I'm having now is that from a cold start-up at the login screen my num pad lock isn't automatically on. Also I noticed today that the media control bar does the same thing too. It only happens when my comptuer has been shut down for a long period of time. Also has anyone used any of the window 7/SSD optimizing tweaks?

 

You can check the BIOS to be sure the NumLock is set to be "on" by default.

I have not tried any of the Windows 7 SSD optimization tweaks. My SSD RAID0 array runs fine without any tweaks and is faster than it was under Windows 7 with tweaks.

 

I just did a complete reformat and fresh install on windows 8

I tried to install AWR



Can I get some insight on this matter.

Strange how it installed before and not now.

 

Looks like the alienrespawn recovery partition isn't there so I guess it fails to install since it can't find one. I'm suprised it doesnt try to create one. Last I heard there are still issues using the EFI boot and Alienrespawn anyways.

Otherwise my clean install of windows 8 has the same partitions I think.

 

This is a shot of one of my Win 8 clean installs to a completely empty unallocated drive. On this attempt, I tried installing AWR as soon as the Windows 8 setup had finished, prior to installing any drivers etc. Although the GUI of AWR is always completely FUBAR for me (that's another story LOL) it does create the recovery partition successfully - as you can see, on this occasion it's 3.99gb in size. Note that I am not using UEFI/Secure boot beacuse I can't on my M18x R1....

Did you clean install to a completely unallocated drive?

Spoiler

 

Sent you some new links, Brother Steve. I think the PM broke the links by parsing them.

 

Got 'em - thanks bud.:thumbsup:

 

If those things do not help, grab an ordinary HDD (if you have one available) and slap it in your beast. Install Windows 8 and Respawn and see if the problem goes away. You can rule out (or confirm) the question of an issue with your Dellienized Samsung SSD setup by doing so.

 

I'm runing w8 with not problem.

 

There is something usual that Steve is running into with Respawn, not Windows 8. I am starting to think it might be his Dell-branded Samsung SSD setup. Otherwise, I have no idea why Respawn does not correctly install and function on his system with a clean Windows 8 installation.

 

Windows 8 seems to run just fine, that's not the problem here....the only issue that I (and GaryO) now have is that respawn doesn't install quite as it should. Both Gary and myself have Dell OEM Samsung drives and suffer the same problem exactly. It may be coincidental that Dell have pulled the combo of 680m SLI and ANY normal size SSD from the website....I can only speculate why this is.

 

Right... it's not a problem with my OCZ Agility 3 RAID0. So, if it turns out to be that, I am guessing the issue is specific to a conflict with the Samsung SSD (whether the Samsung controller or Dell's tweaked firmware remains to be seen). It would be nice to hear if someone with retail (non-Dell) PM830 SSD RAID0 has the same problem or not.

It is however, at least indirectly, a Windows 8 problem if the AlienRespawn software works properly on Steve's and Gary's Samsung SSD setup running under Windows 7.

 

Exactly, Bro......works fine for both of us under Win 7. Something is triggering this within Windows 8. If Dell have pulled the SSD/680m combo because of this issue, it implicates Nvidia as a culprit too - maybe something to do with their Win 8 drivers....who knows. AMD remains unaffected, which to me means that Win 8 and Dell SSD's are just fine and dandy, IF you choose any other gpu solution...it's only if you toss 680m SLI into the mix that they (Dell) tell you it's not compatible with their SSD's.

Of course, the reason for pulling them from the website could be something different altogether.......one thing's for sure, I don't see anyone with non-Dell SSD's having this particular issue.

 

I'm running two retail Samsung 830 256GB drives in RAID0 and AlienRespawn installed properly. I have not tried using any of the functions, but it seems to have made the factory image properly. Is there any tests anyone would like me to run? Hope I can help out.

 

Hey Bro! - how's it going? - good, I hope.....

Are you running Win 7 or Win 8 when you install AWR with no issues??

 

I'm well, just busy! Fortunately, I have a break coming up soon. Thanks for asking.

I'm running Windows 8 Pro on a fresh installation. I installed the OS, drivers, Raided the drives, and then installed Respawn. The only problem I seem to be having with the OS is the OSD, which I've heard is because I'm on A08. I've yet to figure out how to revert back to A03, since A08 is a pain.

 

That's interesting. Did you install to one single SSD and then create/extend to make your Raid association after installing Windows 8? - my OS installs have been done based on my existing Raid array being untouched. I wonder if that could be an issue. Either way, it now seems even more hit and miss as GaryO has the same issue as myself but his Dell SSD is not raided anyways........the plot thickens LOL


Ahhhhh.....just re-read your post before.....RETAIL 830's - not Dell firmware.....makes me think even more so that this issue is related to Dell PM830 firmware compatibility issues.....that's a great help already knowing that your retail versions of the same drive pose no issues - other than OSD issues related to A08 for the R2....

 

Just wondering which BIOS type you are running legacy or UEFI?

 

Normal boot mode here ....

 

If I recall right I remember a certain Alienware Rep promised us..for those that wanted it a class on windows 8 sponsored by Dell/Alienware
any word on that lately?

 

Check out this new video from our engineering team on the new features of Windows 8

Windows 8 Tour with Alienware

 

Thanks for the link, Luis. Good job on the video, Brother Mark.

I learned a few things about Windows 8 from watching it. The best tip was how to close Windows 8 apps the easy way (grab the top edge and drag down).

Also, right clicking at the bottom left edge of the screen to get the "power user" menu was a good tip.

 

Guys,

Any idea when the W8 OSD drivers for M11x R3 is going to be available?

Cheers.

 

Just wanted to add that if you currently are running A05 Bios, you will not have a functional OSD (Media buttons). Update to A09.

 

I believe the latest BIOS version for the M11x R3 is A05.

 

Sorry let me add with the R4, that is

 

There is another way to activate windows 8 while doing a 'fresh / clean' installation using the upgrade disk (dvd or usb, does not matter).

After you have done a clean installation on a 'new' partition:

1 Open regedit by pressing Windows-q, entering regedit and selecting the result from the list of hits.
2 Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
3 Change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0
4 Go back to the start screen and enter cmd there.
5 Right-click Command Prompt and select to run it as administrator.
6 Type slmgr /rearm on the command line and hit enter.
7 Reboot Windows now.
8 Run the activation utility afterwards, enter your product key to activate Windows.

Enjoy it!

 

Any update on the AlienRespawn issue ?

 

Hi, basically this is not more on support but i have one question. If i purchased a new alienware is the windows 8 already included?

 

If you order it with Windows 8 it does. You can order a new system with Windows 7 or Windows 8. If I were ordering a new system, I would go with Windows 7 and buy the upgrade for $15 from Microsoft to have both options at my disposal.

Windows 8 has a lot to like, and I do like it. The more I use it, the more I appreciate how awesome Windows 7 is as the more mature, more flexible operating system. I'm now dual-booting because Windows 8 by itself is limiting for overclocking, benching and it is not as tweakable. I have no good use for the added security "features" of Windows 8. They tend to get in the way. I suspect Windows 8 will get better with time. Windows always does... and, it's pretty decent for a newly released OS.