Keyboard lights

Jan wants to change the lights without using AlienFX not with it. I haven't heard of any 3rd party programs that can do that.

Sorry Jan, I feel you on not wanting to use the AlienFX software more trouble than it's worth.

Hi jmrowley

My name is Jyotsna and I work for the Social Media and Community Team at Dell. In regard to the issue that you have mentioned, Yes we can change the lights for the keyboard by installing AlienFX lighting software. Please visit support.dell.com and download Alienware-Application Command Center & OSD Application.

Thanks & Regards
Dell_Jyotsna_A
Dell Social Media Responder
You can reach us at:
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Jan, I don't understand why you say that the Alien FX software is "stupid" and what troubles did you experience that you attribute to it? I too have an M17x R2 and have no problems with the Alien FX software other than the last version stripped off the best of the functions it had in the R1. Even so, it does nothing to upset the correct running of the machine, nor the keyboard lighting.

Alien FX is an integral component of the Command Center which is responsible for several critical functions of your machine. You say that the machine works better without it but I can't see how that could be possible as several important functions will no longer be available to you. In short, you must install it.

As to the Aero/video issue, it sounds like this is also due to the Command Center missing. If not, launch the Control Panel and check your energy settings because it may be that they are set to switch off Aero when playing games or watching video in order to save battery power. And if it isn't that check the settings of the video player itself.

7Leagueboot: my issues with the alien fx softeware was aweful...for one thing i could not unplug my laptop for power and go into battery mode without locking up...I had to shut down the laptop and restart in safe mode then do a restore in order to get back to windows...second I do not see any sense in the software as it has no presidence to how the computer worked it only allow inhancements to the computer that cause havoc...therefore I do not want to run it...

For me it is an aweful program and I find it troublesome.

Sorry mate but we both have the same machine and mine runs perfectly. What you have described sounds more like an unstable Windows installation and/or the need to flash the BIOS to the most recent version. Loads of people had the problem you described but it was fixed in the last BIOS update. It has nothing to do with the Command Center or Alien FX.

At the end of the day it's your machine so do with it whatever you want.

Hi jmrowley   My name is Jyotsna and I work for the Social Media and Community Team at Dell.   In regard to the issue that you have mentioned, Yes we can change the lights for the keyboard by installing  AlienFX lighting software   please visit support.dell.com and download Alienware-Application Command Center & OSD Application   Thanks & Regards   Dell_Jyotsna_A   Dell Social Media Responder   You can reach us at:     https://www.facebook.com/dell   http://en.community.dell.com/   twitter.com

 

The OP asked if there was a way to control the lights WITHOUT using the Alienware software.

I have a m17x r2 laptop and I want to be able to change the color of the keyboard lights without using the alien software...is this possible??? i formatted a month or two ago and have not installed that stupid alien software yet as when I had it on there before I kept having problems so this time I left it off and everything works much better...so if anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.   Also my other issue is my video won't stay in aero mode. it keeps switching back to basic theme. does anyone have any suggestion to what could be causing this?? Thanks       Windows 7 home premium   Alienware   1.73Ghz i7 with 8GB ram 64bit operating system   ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 video (1)       Jan

 

Hello

 On some systems with ESA support like the Dell XPS 630,730,730x  you can do it with something like the Nvidia ESA software but I'm afraid the only way with Alienware is with the ACC software. Another thing is you don't need to use all of the ACC software. I only use the AlienFX and Thermal app. I disable the other two. So if you want you can try that. We could also try to trouble shoot the issues you have with ACC if you want and get it working again for you. Rockstar Tesla1865 is a pro at getting the ACC working and I am sure he would be more then happy to help you out.

The Aero problem can be a couple things. Sometimes a program will cause it or if the dedicated GPU is being switched off. I'v seen a couple versions of the Nvidia drivers cause this too. Is it switching to Aero after you close a program? Do you ever get the Window pop up saying " Windows has detected your computer performance is slow yadda yadda "? It could even be a vram issue. Try to give me a little more info on when it does it so we can figure this out.

You could also try to Google the Aero issue since it is very common. There will be a ton of info out there on it.