AlienFX - no lights on battery but works fine on AC before and after a W8 clean install

Hi all

I'm having an issue with my AW14. It has been working great for months and then I had an issue out of nowhere that the AlienFX lights do not come on when on battery. Dell have since changed two motherboards and done a Windows reload and it's still the same.

I've since done another clean install of Windows 8, installing the drivers and programs in the right order, and it's still the same after installing Command Center 3.5. I can't find any options that force the lights to stay on when on battery but it's somewhat maddening as the lights are quite important to me. Dell are still miffed and going to do a call back today with solutions but think they'll probably just throw yet another mobo at it - I think it could well be a software issue since all lights work fine on AC, and when I change the lights on AlienFX editor or via the quick change to any other colour, the laptop lights up for a second or two and then goes off again.

So, does anyone have any idea what the issue could be?

 

I'd make sure that your .NET Framework is up to date via Windows Update as CC/AlienFX are reliant on specific/latest versions and can wreak havoc if not installed. Once up to date, if that has not cured anything, try uninstalling and reinstallaing both CC and AlienFX.....that can cure a lot of issues.

 

Firstly, Install this if you haven't: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 (Offline Installer)

I just checked on my Alienware 18 and the lights stay on even on battery power and that's by default I didn't change a thing in the settings

Make sure this is the order you followed to install the drivers, i've seen different driver install order for these Alienware laptops all over the web and each one says to install them differently, I have found the perfect mix

Even on these forums the driver install order is kinda weird, example:

They tell you to install all the drivers including the VGA drivers then the last 2 apps are to install the OSD application followed by the Command Center

Well let's pause for a second, how in the world am I gonna switch between the Intel Graphics and the nVIDIA GPU to install the VGA drivers if the OSD app is not installed? you see where i'm getting here

here's the perfect installation order:

Follow the below order for installing the drivers and ensure to reboot after every driver installation when asked, do not take any shortcuts!

01-Alienware Onscreen Display Application (OSD)

02-Intel Lynx Point (AKA Intel Chipset Software)

03-USB (this only applies to Windows 7, on Windows 8 no USB driver is needed)

04-IRST (only install the driver manually by updating the IDE/ATAPI Controller in device manager. Unless you are running in RAID mode, the IRST application is not needed)

05-IMEI

06-Free Fall Sensor

07-VGA

You need to install the Intel HD Graphics Driver first, then reboot after the driver installation.

After the initial reboot, you need to press FN + F5 on your keyboard to switch to your dedicated GPU then install its driver

You will get a message saying:

08-Audio Driver

09-LAN + WLAN + Bluetooth

10-Touchpad

11-Card Reader

12-Command Center

 

This has worked for me in the past. Try clicking these options a few times and see if anything changes:

Spoiler

Right click on the AlienHead. AlienFX is buggy. It needs to be repaired/redesigned.

 

Cheers guys.

I updated MS .net framework and also did as J.Dre said and simply ticked then unticked the dim lighting zones upon right clicking the AlienFX shortcut and BOOM!....I got the lights back again. Thanks very much, I'll remember that trick in future. It's been working fine on battery all afternoon with different colours, morph, different themes etc and looks to be working as it did before. So much for Dell thinking it was a hardware issue - I knew it was some strange glitch so thanks very much for the assistance. I'm happy again thanks to you guys. :thumbsup:

 

Nice that you got it back up and running properly...well done!

 

Glad you got it working

Rule number 1 in life:

Never listen to Sales Reps Advice and never bother calling any tech support! You are more likely to find the solution on online forums than to talk to those useless agents.


Secondly, even though I have owned every brand of laptop you can imagine, I consider Dell's driver support the worst in every category, be it the slow updates to the buggy drivers.

Example, which was also applicable to your case. Sometimes the Go Dark / Go Light feature doesn't work so what I have to do is do a Quick Change color change then it would work! I know nothing is perfect but such basic feature not working right and Dell not caring to fix it bothers me.

Another example, the Free Fall Sensor, if you disable it from control panel, like for me I have an SSD so I don't need any free fall sensor since SSDs don't have mechanical moving parts, the next reboot, it would be enabled again by itself! Happens on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 with both version of the free fall sensor:

Versions:

ST Microelectronics Free Fall Sensor Driver 4.12.0040 (A00) [W7]

ST Microelectronics Free Fall Sensor Driver 4.12.0046 (A00) [W8.1]

So why bother instal it? because I don't want any exclamation marks / unknown devices in my device manager!

And this probably was the issue you were facing, the AlienFX was stuck and needed those setting to be altered ON/OFF to work again

 

Good catch brother J.Dre. +1Rep.