Alienware Aurora ALX - Slow boot/shutdown, buggy front panel usbs

Question

About 3 years ago I had to reinstall windows 7 ultimate on my ALX. Before the reinstall, my computer would boot in under a minute. Since the reinstall the boot time is now around 2min 30 sec, to 3min 55 seconds according to Soluto. It's been frustrating but I didn't want to go through the process of reinstalling again, and everything actually works fine but I'd really like to speed this up to pre-reinstall levels again if possible. Also, shutdown is slower than it used to, although not as big an issue since at that point I'm done anyway so I just walk out while it gets ready to shut down. I did install the latest Bios A11 back then. The strange thing is the driver website has A11 listed, but the date is newer than the A11 I installed at the time. (Is this an A11 update?) Also, my front USB plugins are buggy at best. Sometimes they do not recognize a USB stick at all, and when they do I always get a popup message saying my usb could perform faster. The usb plugins are supposed to be 2.0 and all of my usb sticks are 2.0, but it always says this. I installed the chipset thinking that would fix the issue, but it didn't. I also used to have a problem with my sleep mode. Once in sleep mode, I had about a one in 5 chance of it not waking back up. I would have to then do a hard shutdown. Then one day it just stopped. It's only happened once since then, so that's not a huge concern anymore, but I'd like to know what was the cause in case it ever comes back. Lastly, I could have sworn before the reinstall my computer said Alienware Aurora ALX on there somewhere, but any mention of my computer on my system just refers to it as an Aurora, with no ALX. Also, in the picture attached, you can see my computer is just some generic icon with my pc-name and another icon at the bottom in the Unspecified area that says gaming desktop. I don't remember this being this way before the reinstall either but I could be wrong. Any thoughts? Anyway, any helpful insight into these issues would be appreciated. Other than these issues I'm pretty happy with it. I'm pretty certain this is the R1. I bought it in June 2010. Thanks!

Tesla1856 · Accepted Answer

1. if I enter my service tag, it comes up as only an Alienware Aurora. Just wanted to make sure its pointing to the right place.

2. As a side question, would it be safe to downgrade by bios from A11 back to A09? I think that's what I was running before the reinstall and I didn't have any usb issues. If so, where would I find A09?

3. Or, like I mentioned before, the drivers page says A11 available for update with a newer date than when I installed A11 on my machine. Is this a slightly newer version of A11 or is this the same one? Thanks!

1. Doesn't matter because BIOS, drivers and software are the same between Normal and ALX models.

3. Can't go by dates. I suppose you could download both and bit-verify

2. I've never ventured beyond A09 because:

- My machine works fine
- Likelihood of bricking

- Other users reporting strange USB problems on A10 and A11 on x58 based machines.

... just not worth the risk.

If you do back-flash, I would do it from DOS

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19405753.aspx

I won't say back-flashing is recommend or even supported, but I have heard of users doing it. Usually to regress to older OverClocking features.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Machine will be faster after Windows clean-install because not much is loaded. Every program, Process, and Service slows it down a bit more.

Hard to say about the USB-Port problem. I've occasionally seen that on other machines but not my Aurora. Try back ports. What about the ports on the UltraSharp?

Lots of things can cause Sleep mode problems. If it comes back work the problem.

In Command Center/ AlienFX it should show the louvers and extra lighting zones. That's what makes it an ALX.

"Device and Printers" looks fine but I would uninstall some of those un-used printers and what-not.

If you want speed, install a good SSD. It will seem like a new machine (both booting and general use). Here is my machine over the years.

* Power button turn on
Time for Bios screen to even appear: 20 secs
Time for progress bar to go all the way across: 20 secs
- Total time to initialize BIOS: 40 secs
* Windows Boot loader screen - Select Partition
* Starting Windows screen appears
- Time to load Windows to Logon Screen: Original HDD: 30 secs / Current SSD:15 secs
- Time to usable desktop with everything loaded: HDD:60 / SSD:20 secs

I would say that the total time to boot the machine is (not counting non-UEFI BIOS Post):
HDD OS Boot time: 90 seconds
SSD OS Boot time: 35 seconds

Most of my USB and Firewire ports are used up (but some devices are turned off). I count 9 apps in the SysTray. Of those, I would say AW-CC and MS-Security Essentials take the most resources and time to load. Task Manager says I have 90 processes running (at idle).

designer85 · Answer

Hi Tesla, The back ports work fine. I don't get the "This device can work faster" popup on the monitor's usb ports, but they sometimes have an issue detecting my usb sticks from time to time as well. Wish I could get the front ports back to 2.0, but not sure what to do at this point.

Command Center does show the extra lighting zones, so I guess that's the only indication on the entire machine that says its an ALX? The reason I ask is I noticed on the drivers page at Dell, you can actually select Alienware Aurora ALX when looking for drivers, but if I enter my service tag, it comes up as only an Alienware Aurora. Just wanted to make sure its pointing to the right place.

There are a couple of unused printers that I could uninstall, but I use most of them.

I haven't priced a new SSD since I was shopping for my ALX. So I'm sure they are priced better and have more options at this point. I'll take a look.

Thanks for sharing your boot times. It's good to compare with someone on a similar system.

I've got two 6-port powered usb hubs that are pretty much full that I'm sure creates a drag on boot and shutdown.

Task Manager says I have 102 processes running (at idle).

As a side question, would it be safe to downgrade by bios from A11 back to A09? I think that's what I was running before the reinstall and I didn't have any usb issues. If so, where would I find A09?

Or, like I mentioned before, the drivers page says A11 available for update with a newer date than when I installed A11 on my machine. Is this a slightly newer version of A11 or is this the same one? Thanks!

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