Aurora R13 - Numerous failures after updating Alienware CC to v5.4.16.0_A00

Question

The Alienware Update app notified me of a new update for Alienware's Command Centre. I accepted the notification and it proceeded to update Alienware's CC. After it finished installing, it ran for the first time, and I received a pop-up message indicating that it would take approx 30 seconds to load up. During that period, Windows Security popped up requesting Admin privileges to load Alienware CC. This never happened with the previous version. After it finished loading, it proceeded to update Alienware OC Controls Plugin.

After it finished updating everything, my system started exhibiting the following issues:

I no longer see my CPU overclock panels in the Alienware CC Overclock profile. Only the GPU overclocking panel is visible. When going back to the BIOS to check my Overclock setting, the Overclocking BIOS page is empty and has no options to select. I had to revert back to optimal BIOS settings to see the overclock options again. After setting my overclock profile in BIOS to OV1 or OV2, and after loading up windows and running Alienware CC, I got a message claiming that Overclock setting have been disabled because BIOS overclock settings were reset. I go back to BIOS only to find out that Overclocking has been disabled again. I re-enable overclocking in BIOS, booted windows, loaded up Alienware CC, granted it admin privileges again, and then it still refused to show the CPU overclocking panels.
Furthermore, the following light zones no longer work (1 - Power button, 2 - Ring, 3 - Ambient). They no longer light up nor sync with the other light zones. The other lights zones 4 to 8 are still working.

I tried rolling back to Alienware Control Centre v5.4.7.0_A00 and Alienware OC Controls Application v1.3.50.1360_A00 but Alienware CC still won't show me my CPU overclocking panels despite being enabled in BIOS nor will the front light zones ( 1 - 3 ) light up.

This got me wondering if the Alien FX module's firmware got upgraded in the process and that's what is messing up the front panel lighting now. I also checked the prerequisites for Alienware CC v5.4.16.0_A00 and noticed the it requires BIOS v1.0.2 which I'm currently on, so BIOS version is not an issue.

I'd really appreciate it if someone can provide me with guidance on how to fix this mess. I miss my Aurora R13 front lights.

Thanks.

tansoftware · Accepted Answer

I was able to trace the issue to the Virtual Machine Platform Feature in Windows 11. If this feature is enabled, it will break the Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility which Alienware Command Center uses to overclock the Aurora R13 Intel Alderlake CPU.

Enabling the Microsoft Virtual Machine feature in Windows 11 interferes with the Aurora R13 Overclock BIOS settings which breaks the CPU and Memory Overclock panels in Alienware CC. It also corrupts the ELCSetup load up routine which causes light zones 1 to 3 to fail at initialization.

To fix these issues, I had to turn off the Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Hypervisor Platform features in Windows. Upon rebooting windows, my front AlienFX lights came back on, and all overclocking settings in Alienware Command Center were restored and fully functional.

I tested this numerous times using different Alienware CC versions, and the results were 100% consistent indicating that this Windows 11 feature, when enabled, breaks Alienware CC.

Dell engineers need to take note of this to fix this limitation in their next Alienware CC release. It does not make any sense that we have to give up important Windows 11 Features just to get Alienware CC to work.

Mary G · Answer

Did you get the update from Dell drivers and downloads??

You have posted in the Desktop forum by mistake. Dell customizes laptop drivers to work on the Dell boards. Read the details and instructions about installing the update. There are requirements to follow before installing.

Marcus o Brian · Answer

Additionally you can download command center form the my alienware app there is a box that says command center and should link you to the Microsoft store.

Marcus o Brian · Answer

A final thought, when uninstalling command center do not uninstall the one in apps and programs with the alienware logo. Uninstall the command center suite through control panel > programs and features > alienware command center suite

Marcus o Brian · Answer

the same happened to me, best solution i found is provided in this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rTwrzSPRFw

Secondly after uninstalling everything check in device manager and scroll down to system devices expand it and look for AWCC Driver right click it and uninstall it (if multiples remove them all)

use of an uninstaller such as revo uninstaller may help as well

follow that video and the step I provided and use a version of command center that did not give you issues.

cynthiatx2000 · Answer

I had this same issue after doing a hard drive reformat on my pc. Doing the fix below to 'Disable Virtual Machine Platform Feature in Windows 11' worked for me! Thank you! This fixed my issue and I can now see my CPU and RAM in Alienware CC overclock section. I have one more question though. There is not option to change the RAM settings in Overclock. Is that normal? I'm new to overclocking and just bought this pc a couple of months ago. I also noticed that if I go to the BIOS, XMP is there, but you cannot click to enable it. Thanks for any additional help and thank you for getting my CPU and RAM showing up in Overclocking!

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Aurora R13 - Numerous failures after updating Alienware CC to v5.4.16.0_A00

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