New Alienware M15x owner needs help

Ok so my brother just got a (new to him) M15x with the I7 and the ATI 5860 (or what ever model).. I have the restore disk and am trying to get this thing up and running and am having problems..
first the dell website does not list a driver for the GPU
second the wireless card driver never installs and gets up and running it was listed as a intel 5300 and i attempted to install the driver but no luck .. is it a dell 5300 or is there another part
finally the lights on the keyboard and all over are now off.. they say that the alien FX is disabled how is it re-enabled?
sorry for all the questions
I am new to the M15x but I have two m11x's and R1 and R2

 

The last Dell drivers for the 5850 are here: Drivers and Downloads They're pretty old at this point, but stable.

The more recent ATI reference drivers are the Catalyst 11.2's available here: ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver As a general proposition, these will be better and faster.

I'll supplement at the next NCAA game break.

Edit: The most recent version of Alienware Command Center for the M15x is here: Drivers and Downloads Controls the lights, just like on your notebooks. DO NOT USE THE COMMAND CENTER SOFTWARE ON THE RESOURCE DVD -- IT WILL FRY THE ALIENFX CONTROLLER ON THE MOTHERBOARD.

Don't know about the wireless card.

 

Sounds like you installed Command Center from the 'black' disk.
Then, you cannot re-enable the lights, call dell and request a new mother board. its fried (if you did use the disk).
Its not unusual, and has been happening since ...before I got here. It is why I found the forums too.
Go Kentucky .... hehe Rev

 

You can be serious.. What kind of nonsense is this.. What motherboard the entire board or a light board.. could you direct me with a bit more info about this

 

Sorry, its the entire motherboard.
Rev's edit includes the same note.
INAP Add one more to the victims.

UK WINS !

More info: find 'Permalink #1 by Wattos' in this link >
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/488201-new-m15x-owner-information-42.html

 

wow, I wish I would have found this forum a month ago lol.. I got an M15x off of eBay, and had my gf use the supplied discs to factory reset everything. she calls me while I'm at work, saying the lights aren't coming on. we finally call Alienware, and they tell me exactly what I've just read here. they sent me a new motherboard and had a Dell-contracted tech install it. seems to have fixed it right up.. but I have a question that's somewhat on-topic, since it's about the lighting. I've noticed that the lights toward to bottom of the keypad, mainly the bottom row (spacebar, alt key, etc.) are dimmer than the rest of the keyboard. the F keys and number keys are nice and bright.. is this typical or are my LEDs messing up?

 

Once in a while the left side of my keyboard will be dimmer than the rest, I just turn AlienFX off and on again (FN+F11) and it fixes the problem, if thats not the problem I can't help you sorry.

 

It was noted by many when this system was released that the lights at the bottom of the keyboard are nowhere near as bright as the top. The only people who denied this fact (from what I noticed) were kids who didn't want to admit that the expensive laptop their parents just bought them was anything less than perfect. You don't notice it in the dark though, so just keep the curtains closed!

 

The dimm is there even on my lappy. Sometimes, i get tempted to remove the whole spacebar,fn key and the alt key to see if there is something blocking it. I recently accidentally chipped my right key out while playing NFS, but fixed it back ok.

 

oh ok, I just wanted to make sure the LEDs didnt get jarred loose or something. it IS less apparent in the dark, or when using brighter colors (it was worse last night when it was set to orange, than it is now setting it to light blue). it just looks like crap when it's inconsistent

oh, and mommy didn't pay for this. I sacrificed getting some toys for my car lol

 

Sorry, I wasn't directing that comment at you personally. Just saying, from a lot of the reviews I read and the videos I watched I happened to note that the younger reviewers, operating from their bedrooms were considerably more defensive over an obvious defect! Absolutely no offense intended. And I agree, lighter colours definately work better. Apart from white, which just looks dreadful unless you're in a room with blackout blinds. FN key, spacebar, arrow keys, infact the whole bottom row of keys just look crap in moderate to high lighting.

 

is there any particular reason tho? I can look beneath the keys and it looks like there should be sufficient light in some of the darker spots on top.. but then, there are gaps in lighting too, that just looks like a crap design in where they placed the lights