Alienware 17 FX lights

my lights seem to do their own thing too sometimes on my m18.

its alien FX control, its glitchy. Also, when you play certain games they make take control of your alienFX. you can disable this feature too.

Try reinstalling alienFX if you haven't already.

Random desperation ftw?   After I finished typing the last post, I restarted for the 50th time after installing windows updates and reinstalling the control center.    Here's what got my lights working again... at least, for the moment.   I quick-changed my colour. 2 seconds and then black again.   I enabled 'Dim lighting zones' and the lights actually CAME ON. ? And they stayed on.   I disabled 'Dim lighting zones' and the lights became brighter, and stayed on.     Let me know if this works for you. I think I'll make sure any auto-dimming is turned off from now on. Seems there's some insidious bug with it.

Fantastic. I'm going to be trying this! I'll let you know if it works. *Frustrating*

Hi FLEISCHSALAT, It's good and bad I guess to find someone that has the same issue. I'm not sure when it 'exactly' happened or even what I was doing. I just noticed it yesterday when I started up. I also only have steam and the free DOTA2 game installed really. Not alot else. I've tried to update everything to it's latest drivers etc.

Like you when I change profiles the lights in the correct colour appear but only for a few seconds. I think I've spent about 3 hours tonight trying to fix it, basically doing everything you have done. I've also tried un-installing dotNet, and disabling UAC in windows 8. Not sure what else next..

I'll keep looking around and trying things and If I find something I'll post here. I'm sure if were having the same issue that there is a good possibility others are as well!

It is frustrating not having the lights. It's not a 'must have' for me but I just paid alot for the laptop. 

I have the exact same problem with the new Alienware 17. As we speak I am currently still trying to fix it, it's really annoying me. Mine started doing this at roughly two weeks as well. 2 - 3 seconds of lights when I boot/change profiles and then darkness.

I have done all the things you have done, as well. I have followed various guides on how to 'properly delete' the command center. I have updated all my drivers, removed all software I have installed, etc.

I too found all the old posts on older models where people accidentally downgraded their control center which upset the firmware on their fx chip. I'm beginning to wonder if somehow the firmware on mine has become corrupted (I am not sure how, I had literally done nothing to my system apart from install a couple of games).

What were you doing when this happened? Maybe we can compare notes.

I had left mine idling, and my profile was set to dim the display and go dark on the fx after some period time, which it had done a few times previously. However, the lights never came back on when I moved the mouse. 

I really hope we can get some answer on this soon, as I am very disappointed after spending a small fortune on Alienware :(

It worked. I've literally been at this for hours. All I did was Dim the light settings then they came on.    Your a legend Fleischsalat. Hopefully this will help someone else with the same issue.

Awesome! Glad to hear it worked for you too!

Like you I wasn't fussed about the lights, at least, they weren't a factor in my decision to buy AW. But when I got it, I realised how much I like having a backlit keyboard. And then when the lights stopped working two weeks in, and several hours of uninstalling and updating stuff didn't fix it -- my alienware experience was becoming tainted rather quickly :)

Hopefully this thread saves others the frustrations we had!

Oh my god! It works like a charm! I totally got crazy with these lights who don't work ! I was already thinking to call Dell and return my Alienware 17 to the technical support... 

You're the best FLEISCHSALAT ! :D

I'm having the same exact problem with my Alienware 17 . I can't seem to find the 'Dim lighting zones' .. pointer please??

I'm having the same exact problem with my Alienware 17 . I can't seem to find the 'Dim lighting zones' .. pointer please??

It's on the popup menu if you right click alienFX in your system tray. 

Thank you! I was looking for the 'dim lighting zones' for a good 20mins after I read this post and as soon as I posted for help I found it...lol, but the point is I was in panic mode trying to figure out what had happened to the lighting since this laptop is bran new + no warranty. I tried everything that every other post recommend but lucky I came across this one, because  it worked for me also! You are a life saver! 

im having similar issues to all of you guys, just bought my alienware 17 a few weeks ago. my issues differs a little from everyone elses i believe. i have an issue where my lights are stuck on, mostly the whole left side. the right side has no colour and neither does the back cover where the alien guy's head is. and i cant get it to fix no matter what i do.

OMG it worked.  Identical issue here.  I was staring at the "dim lighting zones" options last night but didn't do anything as brilliant as you have - actually play with the to see what happens.  I was about to do everything else you have already done. then tried your crazy fix and it worked.  I actually took a vide of the problem and of applying the fix showing that it worked - will pop it on YouTube shortly and credit you.

Here is the video showing the problem and Fleischsalat's fix:

Hey,

same Problem here, looked up the hole internet to get an solution for this Problem.

My Alienware is an AW17 with the i7 4700 Nvidia 770m and Windows 7.

I got my Alienware 17 only a week ago and i thought  about sending it back to Alienware if there was no solution.

All startet after closing my Laptop while i was ingame, i forgott that i hadn´t removed the sleep trigger in the energie management.

Tried almost everything like reinstalling AWCC  Biosreset and other stuff  but no respond. After 3 Days! i found this thread.

Thanks a lot, but we might should write the solution in German as well becaus when you´re typing something like "AlienFX licht leuchten kurz auf" you won´t finde anything that helps.

Maybe dell could do something about this till there is an update for the AWCC.

Hopefully you get what i mean despite my bad english :-P