17 R5 AlienFX not really supported?

(** NOTE: Post updated below with more details, showing reproducible steps to break AlienFX on 17 R5 with AWCC 5.2.1 Installed **)

I recently purchased my first Alienware, the 17 R5. Other than replacing both drives (went with an EVO 970 PRO and a Corsair MX500), I haven't had any issues with it until the last couple of days.

I haven't messed with the Command Center too much other than setting basic lighting, but I noticed that the touchpad was no longer showing colors. Searching around to track down this issue, I realized I probably should have seen AlienFX kick in on some games as well, which I actually didn't know about (lights were not my priority in this purchase!).

So going off on this tangent in part due to frustration at the touchpad, I found the list of supported AlienFX games. Most of them appear to be fairly old, but two I had - Supreme Commander 2 and Neverwinter. SC2 shows an option that allows me to turn on AlienFX/LightFX, but after turning on and playing the game, nothing changed (youtube videos showed the expected behavior - I saw none of that). Similarly, Neverwinter had no effect either. I then downloaded a Steam game called Mr Shifty, which an owner of the 17 R3 said works great. Again, no change. Finally, I downloaded UniLight-1.4, a utility to sync my AlienFX lighting based on windows accent colors. It shows the AlienFX system is found and the command is sent, but nothing changes on the keyboard / my lights.

So back to Google I go, and I found multiple posts all talking about an AlienFX taskbar icon that apparently has a context menu that allows you to enable 3rd party access. It's not there, so finally I reach out to Alienware via Facebook, and am told this:

"Hello Glenn, We have checked it and unfortunately Enable 3rd Party AlienFX Access option is no more available on the Command Center. Moreover, there’s no option to enable those from inside the Command Center either. Only games that have been updated to run the latest version of Alienware Command Center may work on this platform. They will run automatically and cannot be undone unless the game is removed from library. If a specific game does not run, you can create a theme for that game. Regards, Martin"

So for any of you who have the 17 R5 (since it appears it's different for this one than the earlier models) - what games, if ANY, have you seen that control the AlienFX lighting?? From what I'm seeing, I can set the lighting myself, but until games are updated to support the new command center, I'm out of luck....

Side note - after trying a slew of things, I downgraded to an earlier version of command center, and my touchpad lighting works just fine again.

*** UPDATE 2018-08-19 9:00 PM MDT ***

I decided to take the full wipe approach - well, the Windows Reset (deleting all my files) specifically. So Windows restored the OS to the state it was when I first purchased it, complete with the old AWCC command center etc etc. I should have tested immediately at that point, but when launched it wanted to update itself, so I installed the latest version of AWCC for the 17 R5 at this time, which is 5.2.1 (released two days ago). I verified that AWCC had no problem changing colors on the various zones (other than some oddity with the power button, but, not worth explaining to complicate this). So, clean system, AWCC works fine.... What could go wrong.

I then installed Steam, and had three games all of which say they support AlienFX - Supreme Commander 2 (super old), Mr. Shifty (new), and Middle Earth Shadow Of War. All three showed essentially the same effect.

With each, shortly into launch, the lighting would change to a static color (I believe purple for all three games). So clearly they all tried to communicate with AlienFX. But after that, nothing. After I exit the game, the FX stayed in that state (colors). And from that point forward, any changes to AWCC did not apply. Nor did FN-F12 turn on / off the lighting.

After a reboot, the purple colors were sitll there, and I noticed that Device Manager now showed a new "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)" entry. I've seen other posts about this tied to AlienFX on older models.

If at this point I perform a shutdown (instead of restart) and manually restart the laptop, on boot the colors cycle (makes sense), ending up in their default color. However, AWCC is still unable to make changes at this point, and the unknown USB device is still there.

If I then uninstall the Unknown Device, AND perform a shutdown / restart, AWCC is again back in control.

This cycle repeats EVERY TIME I launch an AlienFX game.

So at this point, I would like advice. I am guessing this is a driver issue. If it was a hardware / controller issue, I would assume AWCC would also fail. Obviously all my lights work, they have the full color range, they have the color features (pulse, breathe, etc), and so on. But once a third party program tries to use AlienFX, it's like the controller board is locked up until a full shutdown / restart reinitializes it. I don't think I would see any difference if I went through the RMA hassle.

Of course, I'd love to hear from someone else who actually has a 17 R5 and one of these games.... Anyone out there?

 

Its better to use WUMT wrapper script since WU downloads AWCC (Command Center and its sub-compoenents from win Store, its a hit or miss if you haven't fully uninstalled classic win32 apps and UWP apps. They don't like each other.) Another thing you can do is, download .Net core 2.1.2 Runtimes

 

Thank you for the reply Vasudev! I already have the .NET Core 2.1.2 SDK installed, but indeed I did not nave the runtimes installed. I addressed that, rebooted to just be safe, and the issue remains - command center can change the lighting, nothing else appears able to do so. As to WUMT wrapper, I must admit I was unfamiliar with this tool until I googled it. That said, this is a very fresh install (I haven't had the laptop a month), and AWCC was never the classic 32 version, so I don't think that would help me here. By chance do you have a 17 R5 and can point me to a game or two that works with AlienFX for you?

 

This post isn't going to be helpful but in my opinion, I've never really liked games to change my theme for me. so I've always disabled that feature.

The fact that your trackpad isn't making light at all is concerning though. Those things light up even in BIOS ... so that might be an RMA there my friend.

 

That was my concern as well Muezick. But then on a whim I created a new Windows Account, and AWCC had no issue with changing the touchpad color. After that I followed the dell steps for uninstalling AWCC (deleting some folders, registry keys, etc), reinstalled an older version (first attempt with the latest still didn't work), and since then the touchpad has been fine.

As to AlienFX, I may never use it in the end. But the laptop wasn't cheap, so I'd love to know everything is working as it should, even feature I may never use again (first world problem indeed). But I'm having a hard time verifying there are any games that actually work with the 17 R5 and AlienFX at the moment... I've seen the lists for sure, but none that work for me, and the 17 R5 specific AWCC has me suspicious as to whether or not it still works.

 

edit: Sorry I misunderstood what you just said. Yeah I guess the AlienFX just don't work with the new alienware laptops, and it's all in the alienware command center.

They did a live Q&A like last week talking about how the new Alienware Command Center was going to be backwards compatible with all previous alienware products in the coming months. So it's my guess they are looking to retire all other "Alien" Software suites.

 

Dotnet core SDK has runtimes included.
Run the commands in cmd prompt in admin mode or in powershell

Code:

cd C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
ngen update
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
ngen update

 

I'm really not sure what to think at this stage. I just want to know what it's SUPPOSED to be doing with the 17 R5. It says the new command center uses "AlienFX 2.0", but as far as I know, that's what the 17 R4 used. Frustrating.

 

Thanks Vasudev! I did indeed run this, same net effect. I can change colors through AWCC, it appears no games that have AlienFX support actually work....

 

Right click AWCC in tray and see if AlienFX 3rd party access and events are ticked.

 

Hello Vasudev. Thanks for trying to help me out! Note from my original post that there is no AWCC in the tray, and that the option you're pointing me to is not applicable for the Alienware Command Center version used in the 17 R5s. Alienware's reply via Facebook specifically stated "We have checked it and unfortunately Enable 3rd Party AlienFX Access option is no more available on the Command Center. Moreover, there’s no option to enable those from inside the Command Center either. "

 

Ohhh crap. I didn't know that!

 

Sorry to extend this thread one more time, but I felt it was worth it especially in case other 17 R5 owners venture by.

I decided to take the full wipe approach - well, the Windows Reset (deleting all my files) specifically. So Windows restored the OS to the state it was when I first purchased it, complete with the old AWCC command center etc etc. I should have tested immediately at that point, but when launched it wanted to update itself, so I installed the latest version of AWCC for the 17 R5 at this time, which is 5.2.1 (released two days ago). I verified that AWCC had no problem changing colors on the various zones (other than some oddity with the power button, but, not worth explaining to complicate this). So, clean system, AWCC works fine.... What could go wrong.

I then installed Steam, and had three games all of which say they support AlienFX - Supreme Commander 2 (super old), Mr. Shifty (new), and Middle Earth Shadow Of War. All three showed essentially the same effect.

With each, shortly into launch, the lighting would change to a static color (I believe purple for all three games). So clearly they all tried to communicate with AlienFX. But after that, nothing. After I exit the game, the FX stayed in that state (colors). And from that point forward, any changes to AWCC did not apply. Nor did FN-F12 turn on / off the lighting.

After a reboot, the purple colors were sitll there, and I noticed that Device Manager now showed a new "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)" entry. I've seen other posts about this tied to AlienFX on older models.

If at this point I perform a shutdown (instead of restart) and manually restart the laptop, on boot the colors cycle (makes sense), ending up in their default color. However, AWCC is still unable to make changes at this point, and the unknown USB device is still there.

If I then uninstall the Unknown Device, AND perform a shutdown / restart, AWCC is again back in control.

This cycle repeats EVERY TIME I launch an AlienFX game.

So at this point, I would like advice. I am guessing this is a driver issue. If it was a hardware / controller issue, I would assume AWCC would also fail. Obviously all my lights work, they have the full color range, they have the color features (pulse, breathe, etc), and so on. But once a third party program tries to use AlienFX, it's like the controller board is locked up until a full shutdown / restart reinitializes it. I don't think I would see any difference if I went through the RMA hassle.

Of course, I'd love to hear from someone else who actually has a 17 R5 and one of these games.... Anyone out there?

 

For anyone coming to this thread later... I contacted Alienware via Facebook. Here are some of the more interesting parts of their replies:

"Alien FX game feature has never worked properly, it is developed by third party engineers, and we are still waiting on case being under investigation. We don't really know if the feature will be fixed or just removed at all on future releases. For now, we recommend not to use it at all since issues may arise from its use."

When I pointed out the lockup that occurred (with colors turned on and "locked"), or the crash, for any AlienFX enabled game, the buck was promptly passed:

"At this moment the best option is to isolate the games that has AlienFx interactions and either contact the developers for the 3rd party software support or uninstall them to prevent the lock-up on the controls"

So for anyone in this situation, this is what I did for the time being. Your mileage may vary, but this worked for me to prevent the locked-up colors:

* Uninstall Alienware Command Center

* Look under C:\Windows\System32. Rename the file "LightFX.dll" to "LightFX.dll.old"

* Shut down (NOT simply restart)

* Turn your laptop back on

At this point, the system will boot back up, showing the "default" AlienFX colors (solid light blue). Running AlienFX-compatible games will no longer break, as they look for a loaded LightFX.dll.

This is far from an ideal solution, but at least I no longer get locked into a random color when I launch an AlienFX compatible game. I must admit, their response discouraged me from ever purchasing an Alienware device again. You can't sit there and market the hell out of AlienFX, and then point the finger to "third party developers", when issues of the feature you promoted are identified.

 

You can disable 3rd party AlienFX access by right clicking on AW CC in notification area.
Already posted at #12.

 

Hello Vasudev. This is not accurate for owners of the 17 R5, as you and I discussed a few replies ago in this very thread. See post #12 up above ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-really-supported.822173/page-2#post-10782979)

 

UWP apps don't have it. I tried the UWP apps for AWCC on my old PC as well.
I tend to forget names, so very sorry. I did feel I discussed it somewhere.
I always assume non UWP versions at Dell's site still works w/o needing update.

 

It's too bad the install packages for AWCC 4 do not allow me to install them on a 17 R5. Would be interesting to see if it worked. Granted, I might be able to - I haven't examined the MSI package closely.... Might be something to try over the weekend.

 

Get the older releases and run them in compatibility mode of Win 8.

 

I tried compatibility previously, but the MSI package does a hardware check and says it cannot run on my device. They've specifically coded it to not work with the 17 R5.