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Give The R4 Some Love Please
This for all my friends at Dell. I like Dell computers, I mostly like Dell service, and I have always LOVED the passive support for my systems on the support website (support.dell.com). I am now looking in “My Account” and I see 2 Inspiron laptops, 1 XPS laptop, 1 XPS desktop, and one Aura R4.
I can select one of these systems and make it my default system and with ease get product support, drivers, parts & upgrades, and documentation. This all regardless of the warranty status (most of which have expired).
That is, except for the Aurora R4.
I have no hardware problems with this system, I got into this issue because I purchased a Sound Blaster Xtreme Audio card from Dell and decided it would be a good idea to make a System Backup before disabling the on-board audio and putting in a new card and drivers. The short story about AlienAutopsy and
AlienRespawn is that there is currently no such thing as AlienRespawn. This was confirmed by a brief post on this Alienware Club community site that AlienRespawn is not supported under UEFI boot mode systems. There have been no follow-up posts further defining this issue or it's possible resolution. Without this resource available I attempted a normal Windows Backup. It is possible to backup files and folders but the 'System Image' segment always fails error code 0x80070001. Finally, I decide that it may not be necessary to do the backup since this system came with a 'RECOVERY' partition.
Well, on the support page/support by topic/Alienware Alienrespawn 2.0 is described as the recovery method that utilizes the recovery partition but is defined only for Vista, no mention of Windows 7. Not a good sign. Since Alienrespawn can't be installed, the recovery partition is useless. I have no idea whether there is really any recovery information in that partition. It's properties show some, but not all of it, contains some data.
It's been suggested that I get some third party software to do my backup. Let me just say that if I wanted to get some third party involved in maintaining my system I'd have purchased it elsewhere in the first place and I certanly wouldn't have sprung for a 3 year warrenty.
I really would like to get this issue resolved and will start contacting support personnel soon. Just in case anyone from Dell happens by this post and wants to respond, here are a few of the other items on the support site that aren't Alienware R4 friendly. These are all accessed using my Service Tag logged into my account:
Product Support – Parts & Upgrades will not recognize my service tag when entered manually nor will the Dell System Analyzer find it. While there is a generic Alienware that can be browsed too, the R4 is not listed separately as are the R2 and R3. It's odd to me that the X51 is there and not the R4.
Product Support – System Configuration – Current Configuration - Analyze System analyzes forever with no results.
The Drivers and Downloads Analyzer finds nothing for this R4 when there are actually 12 files available without the analyzer.
Support by Topic – Alienware contains exactly zero Featured Articles about the Aurora. Somebody needs to start talking about this backup/restore issue.
I love this computer. We all need this support site updated. For those of you that actually read this far,thanks for your patience.
Any information about the inability to install Alien Respawn would be very helpful.
compnut
90 Posts
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April 16th, 2012 16:00
I second you on that ................ The salesman from Dell said I could make a 'RECOVERY' disk when got my Aurora-R4, now I find out I can't, my Aurora has been great so far and i'm hoping they resolve this soon.
rstear
41 Posts
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April 16th, 2012 20:00
I have the two DVD's that shipped with it, The resource one and Win7 64b. I forgot to mention that the support site lists a link where we can 'Download all of the original software installed on your computer' that does NOT work. Talk about being up a creek with no paddle. I'm hardly confident that I could actually reload it all from there and get everything working, especially this Command Center. I just installed an Xtreme Audio sound card that I bought from Dell and they shipped the Creative CD with it. Installing from that CD messed up the Command Center and I finally searched the Dell support downloads and found an older version of the Creative software to download for it. Afterwards I was able to get the command center working again. After I found out that the Xtreme Audio doesn't support Soundfonts, I sent it back. Now Customer Support is telling me they can't sell me the Titanium that's still listed as an option for new systems. Left hand, Right hand, both blind. I might have to start upgrading my Aurora at Amazon.com.
Too bad it appears that no one who might be able to say anything about this little quandry wants to reply here.
I'm with you compnut, please don't break.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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54.9K Posts
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April 17th, 2012 09:00
Spare Parts 1-800-357-3355 should be able to sell you this -
F333J PCIe Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Card
3XCY1 Driver/Software Kit
The Full System Recovery should work like this below. Are you saying this is not installed?
Launching AlienRespawn from within Windows
* Click Start- All Programs- AlienRespawn
* Click Restore
* Click Restore your entire system to a previous date or to the factory state
* Restart the system when prompted
* Once the systems restarts, click Restore without preserving new or changed files
* Click Next
* Click Yes, continue
* Click Next
* A progress bar will move forward through the process. Once it reaches 100%, click Restart
* The system will restart and take you back into Windows
Launching AlienRespawn outside of Windows
* Restart the system and press F8 as the system restarts to get into the Advanced options menu
* Once there, choose Repair your computer
* Select your keyboard language and then click Next
* Your user name and password may be required. Just enter the login information and then click Ok
* At the System Recovery Options, choose Dell DataSafe Restore and Emergency Backup or AlienRespawn Restore and Emergency Backup
* Once the systems restarts, click Restore without preserving new or changed files
* Click Next
* Click Yes, continue
* Click Next
* A progress bar will move forward through the process. Once it reaches 100%, click Restart
* The system will restart and take you back into Windows
rstear
41 Posts
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April 17th, 2012 11:00
Sorry I missed your comment about the sound card. Apparently sales gave up before they found the option you mentioned. I searched around and located the card PCIe Titanium at Amazon and ordered it. I will be sure to search Dell for drivers for it based on the issues I had with the previous iound card.
rstear
41 Posts
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April 17th, 2012 11:00
Yes I am Chris and apparently I’m not the only one. AlienRespawn was not installed on this system. When I launch AlienAutopsy it offers me a selection to ‘Download AlienRespawn’. When I do so and try Easy Step 1 to “check if my computer has everything required to run AlienRespawn”, DSLcheck.exe runs and fails with the message “AlienRespawn cannot be installed because your hard drive does not have the Windows Recovery Environment”. It appears to me that either it cannot find my RECOVERYpartition or it is invalid.
In the discussion thread “To install AlienRespawn or not” Frank Lizano posted that the boot mode on these computers is UEFI and AlienRespawn is not supported. That was never clarified by anyone. I see a RECOVERY partition on my drive but I cannot access it via F8 and (probably correctly so) I see no files in it.
Booting and selecting F8 has NO effect so your suggestion will not work.
I did have a look at my bios and saw SATA set to ACHI but I have no knowledge of UEFI so I can’t say if Mr Lizano knows his stuff.
This system is still exactly as I received it with the exception of loading it up with my games, etc.
I do appreciate your response to this issue, I am a retired software engineer and do always believe one cannot maintain enough backups.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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April 17th, 2012 13:00
Here is another example:
en.community.dell.com/.../20090072.aspx
... of why that even if it worked, I don't think I would trust it anyway. I suggest you find a different solution (see my previous posts on the matter in other similar threads).
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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April 18th, 2012 07:00
Mr Lizano knows his stuff! Do not doubt anything he says.
rstear
41 Posts
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April 18th, 2012 09:00
Well then I take that as great news Chris. I hope that means that someone knowlegable knows this is broken and is dilligently working on a solution. I hope to see more posts by Mr. Lizano in the near future.
FYI, the soundcard you suggested does not support soundfonts and that's the only reason I'm not satisfied with onboard sound. Some of the newer Creative cards support it but I wanted to be sure I got the exact card sold with new R4's.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
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54.9K Posts
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April 19th, 2012 06:00
UEFI is turned on by us at the factory on the Aurora-R4 and the X51. Therefore, AlienRespawn is not available. Your options are as follows -
* Use Windows 7 Backup and Restore
* Wait until a new UEFI compatible AlienRespawn version is released (no ETA)
* Reinstall the operating system using Legacy boot mode (changed in BIOS). Then install the AlienRespawn application
rstear
41 Posts
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April 19th, 2012 10:00
All I can think of is :-( to no ETA and so brings up more questions.
Does UEFI also explain why pressing F8 once or repeatedly during boot has no effect?
* If I reinstall with the dell supplied software in 'legacy' boot mode will I regain the RECOVERY boot ability?
* Is there actually any recovery data in that partition?
* If there is, will restoring from it reset the boot mode to UEFI?
* If there isn't, how does one initialize it and make it useful?
* Should I simply eliminate the RECOVERY partition and abandon all thoughts of AlienRespawn? (this has already been suggested but somehow I think a feature advertised and included in this system should be made to work properly.)
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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April 26th, 2012 13:00
Chris asked me to past these answers on to you...
From: DELL-Chris M
Subject: UEFI Alienware questions
Does UEFI also explain why pressing F8 once or repeatedly during boot has no effect?
* Yes.
If I reinstall with the Dell supplied software in legacy boot mode will I regain the RECOVERY boot ability?
* Yes, if you change the boot mode to legacy, just reinstall windows and installing Alienwarespawn will recover the F8 functionality.
Is there actually any recovery data in that partition?
* With UEFI no.
If there is, will restoring from it reset the boot mode to UEFI?
* Since there is not one, no.
Should I simply eliminate the RECOVERY partition and abandon all thoughts of AlienRespawn? This has already been suggested but somehow I think a feature advertised and included in this system should be made to work properly.
* Yes, even though we are sending systems with UEFI, it looks like manufacturing are trying to install respawn but since it is not working, the data is not useful.
compnut
90 Posts
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April 26th, 2012 14:00
Thanks for the info it answers some of my questions, I am hoping Dell will have a UEFI compatible AlienRespawn version soon as I too think a feature advertised and included in this system should be made to work properly.
rstear
41 Posts
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April 26th, 2012 16:00
Indeed, that was most helpful information. I think I've decided that since a reinstall of Windows is required to get AlienRespawn and the RESTORE partition working again, I'll wait it out like Compnut. If something goes bad and I need to do a reinstall, I'll take your advice unless UEFI compatibility happens first. Meantime, I've added another terabyte drive and will be using third party backup software.