Alienware fx lighting not working properly

Same problem here with a brand-new Alienware 18 right out of the box. The left light stays on, and I can't change any of them or go dark. I just tried "respawning" back to factory and the problem is still there.

EDIT - performed the reinstall of the command center as advised and it seems to have fixed it on mine. How about you piyushkothari3?

Hi Thiink,

I am glad that the steps provided to piyushkothari3 worked out for you. Feel free to reach out if you face any issues in the future.

I'm having a problem with the lights on my new 18 also.

It was working just fine last night when I closed up to go to bed. I left the machine running but in sleep mode. This morning, the lights were on, then went out.

There was a Windows update in the works when this occurred, I let things alone until the update was complete. I rebooted to complete the update then looked at the FX panel.

It shows normally, but none of the lights are on.

I activated the FX icon in the notification area and right clicked as the help file recommended. It shows Go Dark, I did click it and got the notification that FX was disabled, and got the red eyes. I right clicked again, saw Go Light, clicked, the eyes turned green but still no lights.

I've had this machine only for three days now, I've been loading software and files from my old machine. I finished that task last night before turning in.

I had the same issue pal. Only a full reinstall of Windows 8 rectified it. Tech support was gonna send out a new motherboard to fix the issue, but I deleted all the recovery drives and did a fresh install of Windows 8 and the installed Command centre 3.5. It seems to be working now. Try this though and let us know what your results are.

Go to c:, then program files, then alienware, then I think it should show all the AlienFX files (if not it might be one more folder in) scroll down to Alienfxtester and run that. It should tell you what firmware you're Alienfx lights are running, if it comes back as blank as mine did, then it's either a full reinstall of Windows or maybe a new motherboard? If it tells you what version it is running (like mine does now) then you can test your LED's and it usually reboots the board at the same time.

Let me know how you get on.

Hello, thank you for the information, this is my first Alienware and I've only had this for a week now. I'm still learning what it can do.

Anyway, I opened the AlienFX Tester, it skipped the firmware update.

I clicked on Set LEDs RED, a popup asked if the LEDs are red, I clicked no, the tester shows failed and stopped working.

I can reset the tester and try again, it does the same thing.

In thinking about what happened, I was logging on the other day when most of the lights went out.

I opened the Command Center and tried fiddling with the settings, nothing seemed to change. Then a few minutes later all the lights went out and none of them have worked since.

After this I had shut down and installed a Sanyo SSD and got it set up.

I went to the Dell help site, I setup the auto check system, it recommended two driver downloads. One for the card reader and one for the chipset controller. The chipset I assume was to support the SSD I installed. I hadn't suspected that as part of my light issue, I installed it after that happened.

I had found an article on the Dell site that recommended deleting the CC from the system and reinstalling it. I did so, nothing seems to have changed. In fact as far as the CC seems concerned, there is no problem. It seems to be doing what it is supposed to do, less controlling the lights.

I believe I had to reinstall the control software to get them working again. AlienEffects or something like that.