You  have to boot to the utility partition to do that right? When I hit f12 on boot there's no utility partition option...

In that case (you must have deleted or removed the partition), you can download it from support.dell.com and create a Bootable CD.

On boot, press F12. Run the MIO-Board Diagnostic. Often, this will reset the MIO-Board.

If it still doesn't work, repeat the steps you linked to. However, do this before starting the re-install section of the procedure.

Thanks so much for the help.

What exactly am i looking to download from support.dell though?

Enter your Service Tag at support.dell.com

Drivers / Diagnostics

Alienware Diagnostics Utility

Read the Installation Instructions (custom ones for AW1382A0.exe) to create the bootable media.

Thanks again, I'll give it a try.

In Control Panel- Devices and Printers, at the bottom ... do you have an unspecified device called "G2 Desktop"  ?

What do you mean by "not working" ?

Try this ...

Aurora - CC Setup
---------------

Set PCI Fan to Ambient Sensor #2
Set Hard Drive Fan to Ambient Sensor #1

Set both fans to Manual (User Control)
Click graph icon and select "Use Curve"
Click Apply at bottom

Notes:
Normal idle temps for all 3 Ambient Sensors is around 28c
Normal idle System Fan is around 1200 rpm
Normal idle CPU Pump is around 1400 rpm

PCI Fan (Curve) - 1700rpm (6%)
HDD Fan (Curve) - 900rpm (6%)

By "not working" I mean the command center isn't even recognizing the motherboard. When I run the AlienwareAlienFXTester.exe from the C drive, it won't even find the board. So when I go into the command center, changing any of the settings won't actually affect anything.

I ran the diagnostics and everything passed so I uninstalled and reinstalled the command center and it's STILL not working. I'm really at a loss :(

Nope, don't see it.   Thanks so much for your time Tesla, by the way.

Sure, no problem.

The fact that the "G2 Desktop" device is missing points to the problem. The MIO-Board driver is missing or the board can't be detected by Windows for some reason.

The MIO-Board is not a Windows Plug-and-Pray device so it's not going to come up and say "I found this device and the driver is missing ... would you like to load it now"?

It's my understanding that the MIO Board driver (or other connection) comes with and gets installed with Command Center. Dell has released little (if any) info about how the MIO-Board works or how it works with Windows (drivers, etc.).

Nope, don't see it.

Thanks so much for your time Tesla, by the way.

When I run the tester and hit Set LEDs is says "It seems there is some problem with the AlienFX board." Hmm it's definitely possibly I'm missing some driver. I had a friend who's much more computer savvy than me do the reformatting and reinstalling of the drivers so it's possible he missed something.

To remind you ... mine is working fine.

When I run AlienwareAlienFXTester.exe ... the whole time it says (No board detected) ... apparently, that doesn't mean anything ... just a glitch in the program.

When I click the "Set LED" buttons ... the machine responds, the colors change, and it reports "Succesful".

For this little tester app. to run, Windows must be setup properly, the virtual Windows MIO-Board driver must be install, and .Net must be installed and working. It might also rely on parts of the main CC app. Pretty much ... if all that is working ... CC is already working itself.