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alien head not lighting

post #1 of 24
11/15/10 at 1:42am
Thread Starter 
i have just bought an m17-r1 and the alien head does not light up anyone knows what could be the cause ?? i also can not get the biometric finger scanner to work it says it cant detect the hardware. thanks for the help
i have tried fn+f10 but it wont come on..
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post #2 of 24
11/15/10 at 5:42am
Sounded like missing drivers and utilities. Is this brand new? What did Dell Support say?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 24
11/15/10 at 10:03am


try reinstalling the latest chipset drivers, and then the OSD utility from Dells site.
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post #4 of 24
11/16/10 at 3:47am
Thread Starter 
i mean the keyboard lights up with all three colors just the alien head stays off. i installed he chipset drivers that alienware has on their site
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post #5 of 24
11/16/10 at 3:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Sounded like missing drivers and utilities. Is this brand new? What did Dell Support say?

cheers ...
i bought it off a guy on craiglist
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post #6 of 24
11/16/10 at 9:49am
Ask the seller if there is know hardware issue. If not I recommend a fresh installation

cheers ...
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post #7 of 24
11/16/10 at 10:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Ask the seller if there is know hardware issue. If not I recommend a fresh installation

cheers ...
It originally came with win vista 32 bits and I fresh installed win7 with all the drivers.. I'm thinking there's a loose cables but how do I go about looking into that?
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post #8 of 24
11/16/10 at 10:53am
Did it work with Vista?

As far as loose cable, the only feasible place is within the LCD.

cheers ...
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post #9 of 24
11/16/10 at 1:33pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
Did it work with Vista?

As far as loose cable, the only feasible place is within the LCD.

cheers ...
Honestly I'm not sure if it worked with vista, it was more or less a composive buy for me, I didn't take the proper time to check everything and now I'm finding all sorts of lil things like the two usbs on the right side are broken and if I try to stick a flash drive it will just shut down with a blue screen but the only way to fix it is to replace the motherboard and last time I checked they ran pretty expensive. Could the cable for the head be some where behind the screen? Can the led be changed if their bad ?
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post #10 of 24
11/16/10 at 1:45pm
can you load the AW Command Center app which controls the lights on the laptop ?

What BIOS version are you running as well.

It is critical to get the right drivers loaded with this unit

As far as the laptop goes have you checked the service tag to see if it is still under warranty - long shot I know, but if it just recently went out you maybe able to purchase an extension from Dell.
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post #11 of 24
11/16/10 at 9:30pm
Thread Starter 
I didnt know this model came with the alien command center since the lights only change three colors not like the new m17x.. I got the latest bios from the forums here b13 I think ... I will check with Dell about the warranty but I doubt it has any. They have almost no drivers for win7 so i installed the vista drivers instead I honesty don't know what else to except open up the lid and check the cables...
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post #12 of 24
11/16/10 at 10:38pm
well if you have a R1 then Dells site should have your files

If you have the original M17 then I believe you need to get your files from the Hive

Does you laptop have a Dell service tag on the bottom ?
If not then you do not have a r1
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post #13 of 24
11/17/10 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 
Well it does says alienware Corp m17-r1 and inside the battery compartment just says m17tm it has a support number and account number and says hon hai bcm92046 on a black sticker I will upload pics if it helps. And I suppose I can't assest the hive since I didnt buy from Dell
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post #14 of 24
11/17/10 at 4:02pm
Thread Starter 
here they are
LL
LL
LL
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post #15 of 24
11/17/10 at 5:23pm
Yeah you have a original M17 from AW, so you need the AW command center app

If you can get into the Hive you should be able to find any software there.

It is confusing that Dell called thier initial M17x a R1 was well.

Try going to www.alienware.com look for the drivers there
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post #16 of 24
11/17/10 at 6:08pm
Thread Starter 
I have gotten every drivers from alienware.com but mostly all of them were meant for win vistas.... I have a cousin that has bought alienware from Dell before and therefor has access to the hive maybe he can let me use it to check if they have anything for my m17. But siriously they messed up calling it m17-r1 when it is not
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post #17 of 24
11/17/10 at 6:24pm
did you get my PM
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post #18 of 24
11/17/10 at 8:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave-p View Post
Yeah you have a original M17 from AW, so you need the AW command center app

If you can get into the Hive you should be able to find any software there.

It is confusing that Dell called thier initial M17x a R1 was well.

Try going to www.alienware.com look for the drivers there
i called dell and they let into the hive i installed command center and even got the alien sense to work but still no light on the alien head ..... at this point i feel kinda lost i dont know, any more advices????
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post #19 of 24
11/18/10 at 1:07am
well it possible the light is crapped, or the wiring to the light.

Taking the display apart may not be easy, I know on my R1 is a royal pain in the A$$
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post #20 of 24
11/18/10 at 2:56am
Thread Starter 
taking off the lid may reveled the problem so that's my next step.. on the up side i got the finger scanner to work =) thanks to dave-p. i also would like to thank every one who took the time to reply to my thread. i will post pics of what i find
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