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

Hi all

Maybe someone can help me out, i am wanting to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro on my Alienware M14x R2. I managed to get everything installed using the drivers from Dell Support site but the OSD isnt working despite it running. When i try to bring up the menu to enable Wireless or Bluetooth nothing happens and thats kinda important as you can imagine.

I tried lots of the other links about using the Windows 7 version and using the one for the M17x or M18x (cant remember exaclty which) and tried all 4 versions from the Dell Support site for Windows 8 but not of them worked either.

Hope you guys can help so i can re-install Windows 8 (just incase it helps it will be a clean install same as last time, i will be running SATA in AHCI and installing to the mSATA drive in GPT partition and using Legacy Boot as i couldn't work out how to setup UEFI boot), also not sure if it matters but i am on BIOS A12 for the M14x R2.

Thanks

Adam

 

It's kind of hit and miss with the OSD (mine doesnt work kinda) I get the normal 'windows' style volume bar and airplane mode indicators. I prefer them since they look cleaner.

For UEFI boot (I use it <10 seconds from cold to login) when you install you need to disable legacy support (you know it works because the bootup bios screen goes from the alien head to 'alienware' written in black and white.

You have to ideally do a clean install if its not already setup for UEFI. Just completly wipe the drive you want to install to (including removing any partitions) and the windows installer will create all the partitions it needs.

Good luck.

 

HI Guys I have a bunch of questions sorry if it quite n00b questions. I recently got a M17x r4 and it didnt came with Windows 8 DVD and there is no windows serial number or COA in the bottom of the laptop or under battery cover.....is it normal now?

1. The Unit i have shipped with 256 gb lite on ssd only with the OS installed in it. Now i want to sell it off and replace that and put probably 2x 1tb 7200 rpm drives or 2 x 750 gb 7200 rpm for now and use one of those as boot drives and later add a 128gb msata ssd and use it as a OS boot drive later.

So how do i do it any suggestions. How can i clone and migrate my windows 8 in the current 256 gb ssd to my hdds? Any guides for that...i heard alienware respawn and acronis image restroring software but another question is when i do that (restoring image to my completely new hdds and remove the 256 gb ssd completely) will windows 8 ask for a serial number or cd key? Any ideas and suggestions will be helpful....

 

If all goes as it should with a clean Windows 8 installation there will be no need to enter a key or activate using the media Alienware provided to you for reinstallation.

To be prepared just in case it does not go as it should, you can obtain your key and backup your activation using this application: Advanced Tokens Manager - Josh Cell Softwares

It would be best not to clone from SSD to HDD or vice versa. Be sure to use AlienRespawn to create a recovery USB stick before you start tinkering. That way you can go back to a factory new state.

Be prepared for some drama if your BIOS is set up with AHCI and Secure Boot and GPT disks instead of RAID, MBR and Legacy mode. If you do a clean install, set the BIOS to RAID, set up the new drives as MBR (not GPT) and disable Secure Boot. Otherwise, you may run into complications with your existing drive disappearing and not being detected. You will need to use Diskpart and run the "clean" command on each disk that you redeploy in a new configuration. These issues can be corrected, but they can sometimes be a major inconvenience and time burner.

Question: why are you planning to temporarily downgrade from SSD to HDD? Almost everyone else is going the opposite direction. HDD is so much slower than SSD, I cannot imagine that you will be pleased with how sluggish it will be running on HDD instead of SSD. Does the M17x R4 have 2 or 3 drive bays? Instead, why not leave the 256GB SSD alone, move your ODD to an external enclosure and add extra HDD(s) in RAID0 for data storage? If you add an mSATA SSD later on, you can use it to accelerate the data storage volume.

 

well practically i need more storage and by selling of 256 gb i could save some cash even....in my country (Malaysia) i can sell it off at USD 200 and from some vendors i can get 2x750 WD scorpio black 7200 rpm at 100 usd or at 85 usd can 2x 750 gb 7200 rpm hitachi hdd....then with the remaining 100 usd i want to get 128 m sata probably crucial m500 or plextor m5m or intel 525 m sata....

M17x r4 have 2 hdd bays...and i want to keep the ODD any suggestions...thank you Mr. Fox...

Question . I cant do clean install W8 as Alienware didnt give me W8 DvD .... so have to do with Alienrespawn i guess to copy the image from my ssd then move the image to my HDD??

 

Try contacting Alienware Support regarding installation media. They should provide you with a Windows 8 USB or DVD installation disk. There is a chance cloning can fail and leave you with no ability to recover or reinstall the operating system.

At the very least, go buy a 16GB USB flash drive and use AlienRespawn to create recovery media. That should work to reinstall Windows on new drives. Be sure to not wipe out the SSD until you confirm the USB Respawn media is successful. Simply remove it and set it aside. Make note of your BIOS boot settings. Either write them down or snap photos as needed. You can also use Macrium Reflect or Acronis True Image to create an image of the SSD. You can use that image to restore from in a pinch. That has proven to be very reliable for me.

 

Thank you Mr. Fox very helpful indeed....last one question....when i restore the image no need to put W8 serial right? I cant contact dell US for DVD or W8 Usb key as I am in Malaysia

 

I'm pretty sure this has been asked before, but I cannot find the answer - does Dell sell a Windows 8 image that's been customized with all the Alienware stuff? If so, is there a price on it in USD?

 

Unless your machine came configured with Win 8, I doubt you could grab a Dellized Win 8 .iso from them, unless you pay the Win 8 fee. Could be wrong though....

 

Based on my inquiries, you can only buy a replacement installation disk based on what you ordered as the OS for a new system. They cannot sell you another version as an OEM OS. Apparently some sort of licensing issues they have to respect. (I attempted to purchase Windows 8 Pro USB installation media from Alienware and they cannot sell it since my system shipped with Windows 7 Ultimate.)

 

Hi all

Does anyone know of a definitive way to get the OSD working on an M14x R2 with the A12 BIOS on Windows 8 Pro x64?

I am wanting to install Windows 8 on my laptop but after the last time i want to make sure that i can get the OSD to work (specifically the key to control the wireless/bluetooth etc) as the last time i couldnt get it to enable the wireless card which made it kind of pointless.

Thanks in advance

Adam

P.S. The last time i tried to get it working, i tried all 4 versions from the Dell support site for Windows 8 (although there seems to be less now??) as well as the one from the driver CD that shipped with the device that was for Windows 7 Pro x64. I also tried the one mentioned in the start of this thread (albeit after the others). None of them worked properly, when i pressed the volume keys and things they worked using the inbuilt Windows 8 display but when i pressed the wireless/bluetooth key (Fn + F3 on my machine) no menu popped on on screen like it does on Windows 7 so i was unable to enable bluetooth and/or wireless (i couldnt find an option in the Killer networking app for wireless radio control either). To install the drivers i followed the order listed on this forum rather than the Dell article which i have since looked at and noticed it is very different from the order i found in the Owner's thread for the M14x, do you think following that order would help??

 

Not sure if anyone is interested in this, but here's a video MS released showing some of the new stuff in Windows 8.1 (i.e. "here, we fixed a bunch of stuff in Windows 8 for you"):

 

Might be a bit late now, but if the volume buttons did work under windows 8, you will get no dialogue (just a aeroplane symbol) when pressing the wireless button under windows 8. It turns off both bluetooth and wireless though.

Driver order doesn't really matter as well.

 

Hi

Thanks for your reply, the volume buttons worked okay and so did the eject button (although it didnt display on screen like it does on Windows 7). When i did the clean install the wireless was working but bluetooth wasn't (although it was turned off in Windows 7 before the clean install to Windows 8 and wireless was turned on). After trying to get it to work with no success i managed to do something that caused the wireless to be turned off too. I then couldn't find a way to get it back on so i instead went back to Windows 7 until i can be sure that everything will work on Windows 8.

I think the drivers that Killer provide for the card were still in Beta but im not sure if that would cause an issue.

 

From what I remember the killer 1202 card will disable both bluetooth and wireless if you hit the wireless button (they are both on the same card essentially).

You might have needed to check the 'windows 8 tile' settings page to enable bluetooth and wireless (might just be one switch). I don't think windows 8 can differentiate them both but I could be wrong.

 

Hi,

I did look on the Windows 8 settings tile but there was only a wireless option initially and no bluetooth option, there was also no bluetooth device listed in Device Manager, which made me think it had remained turned off from the previous OS. That was when i tried the range of OSD suggestions to try and get the checkbox GUI back that used to appear so that i could enable the bluetooth part of the card.

Whilst doing that i somehow managed to disable the wireless part of the card as well and could no longer turn it on from Windows 8 settings area or from the keyboard button. It still showed as enabled in the BIOS but i didnt try and disable it, boot and shut down and then re-enable it and see if that helped.

 

Probably software disabled in device manager possibly? who knows.

You won't be able to use the alienware OSD dialogues or overlays unfortunately. I dont mind the plain windows 8 ones.

From what I remember you can only have wireless (both wifi on and bluetooth on) or them both off, no middle from what I've seen. But I don't have a m14x, my m17x has seperate cards for bluetooth and wifi.

 

You can change that in the BIOS. I have it set to where the WiFi switch turns off WiFI only (not Bluetooth). On a system equipped with WiHD, you can also change it with relationship to that. The default setting is "All" in the BIOS.

 

Thankfully, Microsoft appears to have paid attention to the public outcry against the crippling "features" originally planned for the XBox One.

Your Feedback Matters – Update on Xbox One

Let's hope they give the same consideration to what needs to be done to make Windows 8 as awesome as they would like us to think it is... or as awesome as some of us have made it with third-party utilities.

All I can say is, better late than never. Listening and delivering what customers expect is the right thing to do.

• An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
  

• Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
  

Now, let's get cracking on delivering a proper Windows 8 Start menu, improving UI customization options and fixing the full-screen "Modern" app garbage.

 

Guys, hope this is the right place to ask but I did a reinstall of windows 8 today and now action center is giving me 2 important messages. One of them is for Compal COMPAL Embedded System Control saying no driver is installed on my computer and the other one is for the free fall motion saying the driver installed is not compatible. The thing is I used the same drivers as I always do when reinstall windows 8. Have any idea what might be causing it? Oh, not sure if its related but the message pops up in the middle of Windows Update.

Edit: I found this. Maybe a similar issue? http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19508699.aspx

Edit 2: I tried to reinstall it again without the windows update this time. Action Center came back with the same two messages after I installed the bluetooth and the car reader drivers.
So not sure how or why these drivers would cause an issue. Maybe I'm totally off.

Can somebody help please?

 

Did you try the "Airplane Mode" driver? For some strange reason Windows 8 needs something extra that Windows 7 does not. I haven't figured out why. Manually install it through Device Manager. See attached zip file.

Have you installed the Intel Management Engine and DPTF drivers as well? Those are sometimes overlooked by accident, and so is the Free Fall sensor. The Free Fall sensor should not affect the Compal EC, but there is a chance the ME or DPTF drivers may.

Do you have any items in Device Manager that are disabled or not working? If so, what are the hardware IDs?

 

Thanks for the reply Mr.Fox. I installed windows 7 last night and no problem with the drivers at all as you said on windows 7. But I like Windows 8 better. So I'll install it again will let you know about the hardware ID's.

By the way what is Compal EC and what is it for? Just curious.

Edit: I installed Intel Management Engine but didn't install DPTF as I thought I didn't need it and I don't know what it is to be honest

 

The EC controls tons of stuff, including the system fans and AlienFX.

The DPTF driver needs to be installed with the BIOS set to cTDP. (If you try it without it set to cTDP it will not install.)

 

I see.

It's so weird though. Why did this start to happen all of a sudden? I had never seen a message from Action Center like that before when I installed W8 numerous times in the past. Does it happen to everyone?

Edit: About the Free Fall Sensor. Why is it saying "a compatible driver is not available for this version of Windows"? It's the same windows and same driver I'm using and never had an issue.

 

I have no idea, but I have experienced similar stupidity with Windows 8 drivers... there is a lot of unexplainable nonsense with Windows 8.

As an example, just yesterday my wife suddenly lost her ability to use an old scanner with her Inspiron M5030 that was working perfectly before under Windows 8 for a very long time. It started producing an error message telling her that it needed a WIA driver and the driver package that I installed for that scanner to begin with refuses to install now. I used Windows System Restore and rolled back to a date it was working and now it works fine again. As far as I can determine, there were no system changes that should have caused this. My guess is that a sneaky Windows Update finagled its way in without permission, even though I had set Windows to "Never check for updates (not recommended)" in Control Panel. Nothing I could identify had been installed or uninstalled for more than two months.

 

Interesting. I'm sure they'll get fixed with 8.1. At least hoping.

So here's the update. I installed Windows 8 following the installation order and when I get to install Bluetooth and then Card reader the message popped up again. I don't think the issue is related to any installation order or Windows Update at this point. Just a system message telling me about what's going on. After I installed OSD and Command Center the COMPAL message disappeared and the status said "fix applied" so all good there.
But although the Free Fall driver installs fine and shows "it's working correctly" in device manager, the message still says the same. There are no exclamation marks or anything in Device Manager even when the "hidden devices" is checked.

So weird as I've never gotten the same message with the same driver before. (I tired an older version of the driver and it still didnt work)

 

Although I'm installing the v4.12.0028 for the Free Fall, in the Device Manager it tells me the driver version is 2.2.2.10 which is an earlier version. Have any idea why this is happening?

 

hmm... that's really strange.

Unless I get it for free, I'm probably not going to mess with 8.1 because Windows 8 took more tweaking, hacks and mods to make it acceptable to me than it should have. I actually like it a lot, but in 20/20 hindsight, the cost of the upgrades to all of my systems (everything in my house except the M17x R2, 8 out of 9 machines) in addition to purchasing the aftermarket tweaking utilities I think it was a total waste of money. As much as I love my tweaked/hacked Windows 8, it doesn't really offer me anything remarkable that Windows 7 did not. I almost never use the Modern UI or apps because I don't like either of those "features" and I usually only end up visiting the Start screen when an accidental mouse click occurs (due to the spastic Charms Bar).

 

I like it too. I tried W7 again last night and it was just ermm blah. I just cant find myself going back to using it. But it's just me.

This Free Fall thing is strange and kinda bugging me No error messages in Device manager. I can also go to Programs from control panel and see the Free Fall Application there too. When I open it, it says it's enabled and works as it should.

Running out of ideas here(not that I had many )

 

Installed the chipset driver as well?

 

Yes, that's always the first thing I install.

 

Here is something I think Alienware enthusiasts can support. Please promote this at IdeaStorm.

Windows and Office Storm Session

 

Update about my issue. Well, it fixed itself Not sure why or how but the Action Center messages disappeared by themselves. Even after they were archived automatically, they disappeared from there as well. Go figure

 

I replied to a member of the community in another thread, and the information is relevant here also. So that it is not missed for those looking to emasculate Windows 8 the way I have, here is a quote:

 

Mr. Fox, where did you get that wallpaper from ?

 

Whilst I've not moved on to Win 8 early in any way, I too recon the move is inveitable and bound to happen at some point. Which I why I asked for my replacment M18x to come with Windows 8.

If reports are true, however, that it comes without any install DVD I'm kinda stuck, as I will be fitting my 250GB SSD right away and won't be able to install it. M$ sure know how to treat their customers

********************************************************************************************************

Got in touch with AW and they are sending out Win8 install media. Excellent !

 

Hi
where can i finf the latest Bios update for my M11xR3? The one that is currently installed is the A01.
the one that is available on the dell site is M11X R1 A05 which is for the R1 and not the R3.

can you please help me out.

Thanks!

 

There are three different pages for drivers at support.dell.com for the M11x family. The M11x, M11x R2 and M11x R3 all have their unique driver download page. They are not intermingled.

I believe this is what you are looking for: [ Download Page Link]

 

Has anyone gotten the OSD to work in Win 8 conclusively? The Fn+ hotkeys are working fine but I prefer the more polished OSD of Alienware.

 

After two days I have finally managed to install Win 8 Pro on UEFI. Just a few things I learnt.

As compared to Win 7, in Win 8 the computer name can't be the same as the user name, if you screw it up there's no easy way to change it, esp the user name.

Second, when I was referring to the guide to setting up a UEFI USB boot drive here ( http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html), I found out that the Rufus works the best and it's the easiest. I am not 100% sure if the Win 7 USB DVD tool from Microsoft set it up that way.

Before installing the Win 8, it's advisable to format the drive using diskpart in CMD, then convert it to GPT. Basically just start CMD, type diskpart, list dist, select disk x (whichever the one you want to format), clean, then last step type "convert gpt". If you type list disk again you will see a star on the GPT drive.

 

Dang it, I hate this. I always have Windows Update disabled. I want to be the sole decision maker about what, if and when to apply only the updates that I deem important. I choose "Never check for updates (not recommended)" and Windows 8 finds a way to turn itself back on again without my permission. This is like the 3rd or 4th time it has happened to me since the last quarter of 2012. I have had to reinstall Windows or restore from my backup image due to CPU performance issues that a fully <s>patched</s> botched Windows 8 presents.

I went to shut down my system a few minutes ago and go to bed, but here I see Windows is installing updates during shutdown. So, instead of going to bed, I go back into Windows only to find 56 new stinking updates have been applied, and the automatic update setting is re-enabled. How freaking annoying!

It's bad enough that Micro$oft is trying to force OEMs to implement the Secure Boot/Secure Flash garbage and passing it off as something that adds value, but to circumvent my intentional system settings is unacceptable. I am going to find a registry hack or something like a GPE tweak for system domain admins to make it impossible for Windows Updates to be launched. This really blows gastric chunks. If Linux could replace Windows completely for me, I'd be gone in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Linux isn't capable of doing that. If the hack doesn't work, I may have to regard it as the last chance for Windows 8. If it happens again, I may have to go back to using Windows 7 exclusively. Thanks to my dual-boot setup, that will be a simple BCD edit and a few mouse clicks to reclaim 100% of my SSD space for Windows 7.

 

You should be able to stop it by disabling the Automatic Update service, or renaming the wuauclt.exe file and there are registry settings too, to disable it completely should be able to use the settings below:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DisableWindowsUpdateAccess"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoWindowsUpdate"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Internet Communication Management\Internet Communication]
"DisableWindowsUpdateAccess"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\WindowsUpdate]
"DisableWindowsUpdateAccess"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"NoAutoUpdate"=dword:00000001

Registry strings taken from this guide Configure Automatic Updates using Registry Editor

 

Thanks! That's just what I needed. Disabling it in Control Panel isn't good enough, because it keeps re-enabling itself. But, that registry tweak should do the trick. +1 Rep

 

Glad i could help, i remember settings these settings up as a registry file import at my former place of work to enable us to use our WSUS server with non-domain machines.

I know i struggled to get it to turn off on Windows RT when i had a Surface RT, it used to keep reminding you it was turned off and if you clicked the balloon message accidentally it used to re-enable it.

 

Anyone running Windows 8 on the M11x R3?

Would like to see if its worth the hassle?

 

Maybe this will help with the decision of whether it's worth the hassle.

 

@Mr. Fox I thank you for this thread. But I couldn't get help as I'm amazed the M11x (R1 R2,R3) wasn't discussed. Is it that the installation is simple? Could you just give me a step by step and If I should upgrade from win 7 to 8 for the R2 (i5,8gb,256ssd)? Regards

 

Running Windows 8 on the M11X R3 no issues. Seems pretty fast considering it has no SSD, should be even better with one.

 

I just installed windows 8 on my R2. I've installed everything but the bluetooth (dell 365 BT module). The original driver has compatibility issues and I've tried every other discussed in the dell community (dell 370 - 380) but nothing works. I even went to broadcomm's site and downloaded its own software but that just says connect a BT device. Secondly, after all the drivers/apps are installed I would want to create an image of that state and would like to recover from thatin the future? How do I do that? There is a recovery drive of 6gb but its hidden, would I have to remove it or copy that image into it? Regards

 

On my M17x R4 I pulled the factory installed Samsung PM830 ( to preserve that Factory Win 7 install) and installed a new 250Gb Samsung 840 Evo and did a fresh install of Windows 8 Pro following thew guide Luis posted

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html

The only issues I am having are:
1, that on occasion the computer just freezes(usualy while just sitting either on the desktop or the (Metro) start screen and the only way to recover is a forced shut down with the power button.
2. When i try to launch Alien Autopsy the program starts but then freezes the computer and the only way to recover is to do a forced shut down with the power button.

I have no errors showing in the device manager and all drivers were downloaded from Dell (except video) and as up to date as they can be. So my questions are? Why is Alien Autopsy not working/freezing the computer and is there another program i can use to try and figure out what is causing the random freezes?

Today I removed the Alien Autopsy to see if that changes anything and installed the video driver from the Dell downloads since I was running the latest driver from Nvidia

Any assistance would be appreciated. I am really liking Windows 8 and do not want to switch back to 7 on the original SSD

Thanks