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September 6th, 2013 05:00
The ALX-Files: Area 51 R1 Motherboard Swap Asus 4770k USB3.0 + Command Center 2.08.11 = Proud new Poppa
edit: 3.20.16 Top external USB 3.0 ports upgrade added to bottom of post
my Z87 Haswell
38mm Aurora R4 CPU cooler, R2's 1500w Delta PSU & custom Cablemod cables
A Survival Guide for the Area-51 R1 MotherBoard Swap
edit 11.12.14: I typed this up when it seemed there were only a couple Area 51 owners that came here. The approval I sought was from them: I published, I got a hand-shake, it's all I wanted. I knew none of them would probably do a swap anytime soon - regardless what I said in this - but it was there if they ever did think about it. It was a form of: "btw, if you drop $500 on new stuff, you'd better watch out for this little pit-fall I ran across". I'd tested 5 mio's, I needed to publish the data I gathered. But w/every passing second I realized I was producing an unreadable document. The problem was, I have a life here, & I knew no matter what I said, my peers preferred their stock hardware. There seemed little reward to create a perfect swap bible, I was sick of it anyway, I had to get out from under all the data & all the what-if's & enjoy my computer I'd pimped out. It never occurred to me that what I typed here would be highly scrutinized or become 'the only place to look' for an answer to try to bail out of a swap dilemna. There will be no such thing as me going back down in there & stream-lining it to be more pleasing to your ii's nor unravel it to be more understandable: like Charles Emerson Winchester: 'I do one thing, I do it well, then I move on'. My best shot, given the scenario above. As it sits, anyone anytime can message me if they need clarity.
I would hope you understand that once all the variables pile-up on themselves, it's a tangle not so easily undone with words, & in the end, I probably make it sound harder then what will transpire there in your work-space, & that would be my fault as the writer. If you've been to college, you know there were those subjects that took you to your limit. What bailed you out was you studied. You read. Finally you grasped. This is my best advice: repeat the same hard work, & it should work out between you & your Alienfriend: this a pocket-survival-guide only, that might help lead you to the promised land: information deemed extraneous or tedious to one, may be a key that unlocks the door for another. The fluff that exists in between the "information" are my own self-indulgencies, of which we are all prone to in the end. I typed it. And I wished to have a little fun when I do so, as is normally the case.
If you have problems w/post-swap AlienFx, drop a line here: maybe we'll get it solved
New Power Supply & Cables for Your Alien
If you've thought about a power supply swap, see my how-to below:
here, my Hale90 1200w
On a Practical Approach to the Area 51 Power Supply Swap
here, Airene's Black Satin DoomsDay Machine: Corsair ax1500i
my 51-R2 1500watt, as seen in my how-to guide
New 2016 Motherboard & Power Supply Swap Guide Posts / Links
Link to Paso's EVGA Z170 Classy + 1600watt Platinum Swap Guide
Link to Winter's $650 Asus, $2000 6950x, dual-1080s + EVGA 1200w Platinum
Area-51 ALX: the Alien Transplant
Aurora R1-R4
If you own an A-51, I'm about to address the Aurora crowd a moment; the entirety of my so-called 'how-to' is tailored strictly for A-51, but I have a sympathy of sorts for Aurora owners who come here scratching & crawling & sifting through, looking for a nugget or a possible way out or possible way 'in'.
If you own Aurora as I do, & you've not done a MoBo swap as I've not either, it's difficult to say if what cauldron simmers down below me as a 'scary wall of text' will be of any use to you or not. 'Perhaps', is the best I can say. Know this: Command Center 2.08.09 is the last version that can install on a non-Aware mthrbrd. 2.08.11 & 3.5 simply will not, where 3.5 is 'the one to have' while running on win8. Dell.com offers CC 2.7 (drivers page); it was used to 'cure' a stubborn new Asus build:
Will other CC versions work on Win8? Maybe:
- Area-51 Command Center & Windows 8
- we understand that 'flashing' your mio during the CC install process is as 'risky' as flashing a mthrbrd's bios. Hit & miss. 'Backwards flashing' from a newer version of CC to an older version is a risk. If it goes 'wrong' the mio will 'brick' (useless, dead). This is ok I think, par for the course, since a replacement mio is relatively cheap these days. Best maybe to buy a spare mio to flash (keep your good one, lol, pull it out of the case, out of the line of fire etc).
Here's a list of 'old' CC's, though Dell may have removed some or all of the downloads (we're being boxed out - we are obsolete consumers ...useless breathers ...):
If you need the latest CC, there may be a last resort work around down there called: Operation Chimera. If you can, image your drive 1st. If the pre-swap Windows install you run on right now is up to snuff, your best bet might be to simply run it on the new mobo: allow your new drivers to install, install your new software, uninstall what you can of your old drivers & software. Your Respawn / proprietary Aware stuff may not work w/new mobo, but this is the count of the cost you would pay for a swap. I hate win8, I don't keep my thumb on the pulse of how to fix Fx with 8 on board, but this is a community & people do pitch in with useful help if you ask
Golden Tip: CmndCntr 2.8.11 / 3.0 / 3.5 / 3.6
How to Install Command Center for a Non-Alienware Motherboard
- Justin: the Aurora Swap King -
Last but not least I will say it again: I contacted a fellow Alien Enthusiast who sells custom-painted Aurora's on eBay & can install a new mobo for you too, AlienFx guaranteed; He haunts the AlienwareOwner's forum too (links as of 12.14.14):
- seller id: justin9985x
- Custom Alienware Aurora ALX Chassis w/ 875w PSU and Asus ROG Motherboard Mod
- Alienware Aurora ALX Side Window Mod /w AlienFX Ability!
AlienwareOwner's id: DugiHowser
- http://www.alienowners.com/search.php?searchid=555096
- FS Custom Alienware Aurora ALX chassis with Asus ROG board!
I'm not suggesting you bug him for swap info, I am here to tell you he told me he does Asus swaps w/a 100% success rate with AlienFx. What version(s) of Command Center he installs I'm sure is his trade secret, (he'd probably like to keep making a living off your inability to have post-swap AlienFx) so I din't ask. Some version of CC works for him time after time: good news. I'm gonna ask you nicely not to bug him w/your swap woes, & don' tell him you saw his name here either. If you need a pre-built system, buy one of his: he boasts 25 successful Aurora mb swaps all in a row ... does custom paint & side-window mods as well.
Justin's vision of a full-ATX ALX
just red interior? no. we've seen Justin's white red & black so far, he does it all
@Spookz Asus Maximus VIII Gene + 980Ti
- Aurora Factory Jumper Trick? -
As stated, I've not done my R4 mthrbrd swap yet. Aurora mio's have a factory jumper dead-center: Area-51 mio's can try to be induced if a qwiet mio won't 'talk' to the new mobo by fooling w/the factory jumper reset 'trick'. I've never heard of anyone doing the jmpr trick on an Aurora, but that is meaningless. One might try the Area-51 factory jumper reset procedures found below, if an Aurora mio gets stubborn (no post-swap AlienFx. You tell me if the jumper trick worked on your Aurora, ok?
- Raiders of the Lost Ark -
The thrust of the cavernous pit that exists down there below me is this: When you shut down your Alien for its last time, hopefully your master i/o board will be in the same good mood it has always been in time after time. Do your mthrbrd swap. Then boot up with your same hard drive / Windows install. If lady luck is ready to deal you a good hand, your mio should work, as if nothing were amiss. This is akin to waking up the Sleeping Giant, & not being crushed under foot (or - sadly crushed into a down trodden mass on the spot)(a simple grease spot / the human stain etc). Better yet, think of this as your great Indiana Jones moment, where you've now carefully rolled the 3.5lb bag of sand onto the altar ... & snatched the golden effigy for yourself like a thief in the night ... you & your whip will either walk away with it care-free & in your satchel - or - the jig will be up, & you'll be chased out of the tunnel fearing for your life. Hopefully, René Belloq & his jungle hoard of savages will not be waiting on the other side, thanking you for having the steel nerves & mettle to go in there & retrieve 'his' head for him.
May the Force be With You
_________________________________________________________
old edit here: 8.23.14
If you're swapping your mthrbrd out, your 1st line of defense for testing if your AlienFx will carry over to your new mb, is to boot straight up w/your current Windows install - there's no need to try a fresh install - if your new mb is an intel chipset, your current (x58) Windows install (used for your old mb) should boot right up w/the new board, & after Windows starts installing/shuffling drivers etc, in 5 minutes or less you should know if your exterior Fx lights will light up (you'll already have CmndCntr installed on your "old" Windows hdd). Generally speaking, if your lights were ok w/old mthrbrd then your lights should light up w/new mb & old Windows install - & if they do - then you can think about a fresh win install for the new mb (disconnect usb_3 1st, reconnect after .netframework is laid down) or maybe keep running your old install after new mthrbrd drivers loaded/software etc). If your lights don't light, troubleshoot from material you'll gather below or holler @ me here ...
teezer pics of MSI x99a, it's an April 2016 build I helped with
edit: today is June 3 2016 & Broadwell-E just hit the shelves 3days ago it's so new, no one's swapped into it yet, but you'll find some x99 Haswell-E & z170 Sklylake builds below. Asus & MSI have a solid track-history inside A51 for retaining AlienFx, Gigabyte works too, at least for one build I saw
clicking the links to the builds you see down there might lead you to valueable swap info
also, below, find my 2013 post in its original unashamed 'wall of text' form
_________________________________________________________
Trouble-Shooting My Way to Haswell + AlienFx in Area-51:
My Area-51 desktop with it's older i7 960 has been ridden hard and put away wet on many a night for almost a year now. After a 'short' feasibility study recently that yielded more questions than answers about the prospects & likelihood of keeping Command Center after a motherboard swap, I felt the time was now to put my money where my mouth was, turned two cents of opinion into near 500 dolla in cold cash this past Labor Day, I took that Nestea plunge I spoke of & did a personal swan-dive straight into brand new Intel socket 1150 gen IV Haswell micro-architecture. All that theory was tested in trial-by-fire practice to good result; I made the right call by going w/an Asus SaberTooth Z87 & I'm pleased to report my A-51 motherboard swap is a success, due to the fact Command Center is alive & kickin' ... though I had to spank my child 1st before it gave its birth cry ... I'm calling this one: Operation Clean Sweep ...
Your desktop before a motherboard swap may become a different desktop after a swap in more ways than one. True, A-51 can gain more horsepower under the hood w/a fresh new board & cpu, rejuvenate & stay modern, but all this might come at the cost of losing Cmnd Cntr in the process. And what so profit a man if he gaineth the world, yet loseth his soul? Cmnd Cntr is the heart & soul of Area 51, it's stand-out feature; w/it your desktop rules, but w/out it? Cmnd Cntr is indispensible in its ability to carry over the heart & soul of Area 51 into the new motherboard. Reports have surfaced of losing Cmnd Cnter features after a motherboard swap, so the simple pre-swap question being asked is: will Cmnd Cntr stick around after a swap? Will my case lights work? The answer is yes & no: some people have no problems after a swap. Some people do & can't exactly figure out why. Which will you be? Like Master Yoda, we may have the full power of the Force at our fingertips, yet we are unable to use it to look ahead into Luke's future ... see what awaits the heroes ... & for the ambiguous reason: "Impossible to tell ... always emotion is the future ..." ...
There is no doubt you want Cmnd Cntr to function after a board swap, so that in the least your exterior case lights will light up. I don't have a tactx mouse or keyboard yet, but Cmnd Cntr is essential to their bells n' whistles too. W/out Cmd Cntr, your case mouse & keyboard may all become dark hollow shells of their former selves. Dud's really; like that frog that wouldn't sing n' dance if it wasn't just you in the room w/it. If you do a board swap, & you lose Cmd Cntr & hence lose your light show, I'd call your board swap a partial failure, & probably so would you. W/out AlienFx, you'll have nothing to show off to your friends, you'll lose your bragging rights, & your case loses its sexxx appeal. So we will have an in-depth look into ways you can recover Cmnd Cntr in the aftermath of a motherboard swap.
People come to the forum looking for fast answers & fast help. My project couldn't be done fast nor be explained so easily, but I did (re)confirmed that yes, you may lose Cmnd Cntr after doing the swap, but it also confirmed you can get it back so long as you roll up your sleeves & deal w/it. More data needs to be collected on the surest ways, procedures and hardware to run on to keep Cmnd Cntr or to recover it after a board swap. However, I have uncovered useful data that you can use to help fight your battle to get CmndCntr back. The toughest battles may require a daughter board swap to make it happen. Either way, the more you read, the closer you should get to winning your battle & getting on w/your life w/your new & improved desktop.
There's a strong 50/50 chance your case lights will light up on your 1st attempt; from there you will "keep" CmndCntr after the swap, in which case most of this won't apply to you. Chance favors the prepared; if you've found after a board swap your Area 51 is as dark as a house on Halloween when nobody's home when you know for a fact it should be as lit up as a Christmas tree ... there are ways of plugging the juice back in, finding the bad bulb that prevents the show from going on & either fixing it or replacing it. And like Star Trek after the days of Cap'n Kirk: the show must go on ... U.S.S. Enterprise must boldly go where no man has gone before, even when it's w/out the original cast n' crew. Which may involve doing a hardware casting call til you find a Capt. Picard who'll readily step in, take over the helm & make it so ...
Mark's Maximus VIII Hero
I'm no expert. In fact, "I'm not Capt Walker ... I'm the guy that keeps Mr Dead in his pocket" ... expert or no, I am the guy that just pulled off the big one ... Mr Haswell is not only in my pocket, he's behind the Asus curtain running the lights cameras & action in my 51. What you can learn here comes from someone who's done the research, had success & went through *** & high water to have it. You have a shot @ glory, but do you have what it takes to take the Nestea plunge? ... Help is here
Kiax MSI X99 5820k - Motherboard Swap Project
But I'm a busy guy; I doubt I'll be able to field questions, hold people's hands through their swap etc. I don't stop in the forum often, I don't have time to handle the after-care of the information I produce in here, nor spend time worrying about other people's ordeals and getting people out of a bind. What I want to do here is take the 6 hours it's gonna take to type this, say what I need to say, go back to my life & not be bothered w/all this "how to get Cmnd Cntr to work after a swap" fuss anymore, because it was a drag man. I'm writing this as a courtesy in the hope it will help you move out of your old mb-cpu & into newer hardware when your time comes & keep your lights in the aftermath.
The point is, w/diligence I found a way to have a swap success story & you should be able to have your success story too. I failed before I succeeded & therefore you may fail before you succeed also. Be prepared for a failure before having a success is my advice. I will offer an explanation for that soon. You do have a solid chance that Cmd Cntr will work w/your new motherboard on the 1st time you try it, but if @ 1st you don't succeed, try, try again. If you fail @ first, you can fall back on the lessons I learned along the way to turn my success into your success.
So let's do this ...
Sandy | Ivy Xtreme Asus Sabertooth X79
If you own an Alienware, you either speak "a little" Alienware, you speak it fluently, or you will have to learn to speak "Alienware" from scratch, like I had to. We will build a small glossary along the way.
It is useful to know the basic minimum of how the hardware behind Cmnd Cntr (CC) "works" in your case right now, b4 your mb swap occurs. Call your current motherboard your "old mb" & its potential replacement your "new mb". Your old mb is on your case wall, we all know that, but in the floor of your A-51 case, to the right of the power supply there is a "daughterboard", a "mini-motherboard", it is your Master Input/Output board. Call it your mio, as in O Solo Mío! Your master i/o is responsible for making your case lights work, & it is the finickiest lil' Devil if ever there was one ... a little Devil in a blue dress ...
As it stands, old mb & mio already have a history of spazzing out together; simple forum searches reveal all the issues owners have between old mb & mio working on a consistent basis. Mio must somehow pair up w/new mb just like it did w/old mb & function in this new environment w/the same propensity to working or spazzing out as was already the case. We will spend some time talking about the subtleties involved if & when your M.I.O. goes M.I.A. in the aftermath of a new mb swap.
Tesla, a VIP in this forum, said once that the mio "communicates & reacts w/the mb" in ways that he is "unfamiliar with" and hasn't "seen" b4. So this is a sneaky little invention, not w/out its flaws working alongside your old mb as it was. How it communicates is beyond our scope, but it does communicate, must communicate via a discrete USB data-link w/the mb, & ultimately interacts w/& is manipulated through CC software itself.
Mio is a simple USB communications device. Your old mb/mio tandem is of some value to our discussion. It is a pre-requisite that your mio be able to communicate w/your new mb exactly like it did w/your old mb from the outset through their usb-link in order for CC to then install & work.
z87 Asus Maximus
A 'dead' usb data-link situation (a block on meaningful data exchange) between your mio & your new mb will hinder your chance @ CC & ultimately your light show. It is an either or situation. You either will be graced w/a live usb data-link between your mio & new mb from the start & directly by-pass all this associated fuss n' hassle, or you will be cursed w/a dead usb data-link & you will need to deal w/that in Plan B by electrically resetting your mio or by replacing your mio instead. It depends on your mio, it is all up to what mio wants to do. Your mio frog will either sing n' dance of its own volition or it won't. If it won't, you need to induce it to sing by removing the "block", or, simply replace it w/a new candidate unit, one that won't incur the dreaded data block.
This is what we think we know: some mio's can & will chat freely (exchange data) w/a new mb. Some mio's can't or won't chat w/a new mb ... & no one know's why some are Chatty Cathy's & others are Hellen Keller's at the moment of truth. A mio that can't or won't chat w/a new mb, alas, has no hope for running CC software, hence no exterior lights ... hence, no soup for you! You must either kick it in the pants with a factory 'reset' which opens the way for live communications exchange, or replace it.
Right now, everytime you start your dektop, your case lights work. What this means is that if you remove your old mb right now & install a new mb right now, we expect mio to be none the wiser. Its last known instance of power up was in a working state w/a live usb data-link w/old mb & we expect it to keep the link alive w/new mb. Either it will & you're good, or, on 1st start up new mb will "pulse" mio w/foreign code & mio will otherwise "close" communcations w/new mb, until the data embargo is lifted of course; through a factory reset or mio replacement. Got it?
Here is what we could observe happen between your old mb and your mio: if you do a clean reinstall of Win7 for instance & you leave your mio's usb-link connected to the mb throughout the entire install process, we know we can & we will get exterior lights off & on. This is key:
X79 Summer Project Asus ROG
*** During a clean install of Win7, ext lights are capable of working even w/out CC installed; 'lights on' isn't a software dependancy ***
Learning this lesson is a big clue as to whether you can physically see your mio chatting or not chatting w/your new mb from the moment you're trying to establish their very 1st shared usb-link together. In other words, if you power up & w/in 30 seconds you see your exterior lights quickly spark to life, then mio & your new mb are exchanging usb data back & forth. The opposite is true too: if you power up & soon you can tell your case lights won't come on, that is a counter-productive sign. It means mio & new mb are NOT on speaking terms, & that is the problem you must correct one way or the other. Ok?
Now then, Tesla's advice for doing a clean Windows reinstall on the old mb, which I've followed, is to touch none of the wires except you should unplug the fat black "mb_1 usb header" which is located "due south, bottom-middle" of your mio next to the Bluetooth connector - or - if you are wired properly - simply unplug the USB_3 connector from the mb header - unplug one or the other, so long as one of them are disconnected during the entire reinstall. Tesla has info that you do not want the mio to chat through the usb-link during a clean install for fear that Windows has been known to mysteriously "brick" people's mio's during a clean install, even while using the old mb (!), where brick means: permanently cripples it for good, so bricking your mio is a bad thing. That's all I needed to hear, so, I always unhook mio's usb-link through a reinstall. Mio is a simple external usb device, it is perfectly fine to post-pone "installing" mio until later on & in fact it is preferrable to wait.
AVicD's MSI Godlike Carbon / Intel x99 Xeon, Corsair ax1200i, TitanX, Aurora R4 cooler
My own experience shows that even if mio turns the lights on during the initiation of a complete reinstall of Windows on the new mb's hard drive, @ the tail end of the Windows reinstall mio mysteriously blacks out ("hibernates", like Han Solo ... do I hear the Han Solo Mio ???) making the need for the factory reset mandatory to wake it back up. My advice is to disconnect mio's usb link before a clean install of Win7. After the new mb's full driver suite is installed, after Windows updates & .net4 framework are installed, then you will reach the appropriate time to think about reconnecting their usb-link & see what response mio gives to your new mb & vice-versa ('special' mio drivers SHOULD auto- install)(Win7 Pro installs w/.net4, so, you could probably hurry the mio install process along on 7 Pro, say, after new mb drivers are loaded, & pre-win7 updates, you make the call).
Most A-51 owners are not privy to Tesla's advice to unhook their usb-link during a Windows reinstall. We do know that installing a new mb will also mean reinstalling Windows fresh. If we pretend a situation where you've connected their usb-link after your mb swap & then gone on to clean install Windows, in a perfect world, on 1st power up, after a short delay, mio will turn the lights on. For lack of a better term, power is placed to new mb, new mb sends mio a "wake up signal", mio is receptive, mio wakes up, mio obeys by turning exterior lights on.
It is the wake up command we're interested in that occured between old mb & mio & must occur between new mb & mio that has nothing, ZERO to do with Cmnd Cntr or Windows. The prize happens when mio hears a new mother board's wake up call & doesn't skip a beat. A stubborn mio skips the beat, crackle's its voice at its 'new' mother, saying: Mio isn't here anymore Mrs Torrance! ... which makes it a very willful mio... a very naughty mio, if, I, may, be, so, bold, and it must be delt with I fear in the harshest possible terms Mr Torrance ..
What would naturally occur between old mb & mio "should" happen w/a new mb & your mio. The same thingshould happen. By the time you powered your desktop on & ejected your dvd tray & inserted your Win7 dvd for your 1st attempt @ a fresh Windows install for your new mb, in that little bit of time your mio should have established communications w/your new mb & gotten a form of command to turn all the lights on, and done it, ok? In an imperfect world, none of the lights will come on, REGARDLESS that the usb data-link is connected. Call it a dead link. A dead link means no lights on, a dead link means mio needs reset or replaced. Either mio is fine talking to new mb & obliges by turning lights on, or mio is unhappy with new mb & refuses to turn lights on. Yes?
Whether you hooked up their usb link or heeded advice & waited til later, the most important thing you can learn right now is that if you swap in a new mb, & connect your mio to your new mb through the usb-link for their very 1st time, if you see your exterior lights turn on @ anytime between power up & the time it takes to get to your Windows desktop, your mio is talking to your new mb & everything necessary is being paved toward a successful install of Cmnd Cntr. On the otherhand, if you do not see your case lights turn on, you will follow the factory reset procedure & attempt a restart later which will or won't prove successful. If not, you will replace your mio & begin this process all over again until one of your mio's finally gets majik for you. Ok?
Moving on, I should inform you that I have 2 of these desktops; an A-51 & an ALX. Plus, I have 3 "spare" mio's on hand, so, that makes 5 mio's here in my possession that I worked with. I can & I did work w/all 5 of them. 2 mio's failed at 1st. 3 mio's worked w/out issue. I corrrrrected those 2 bad mio's w/a factory reset, now all 5 run Cmnd Cntr & "speak" to the Asus. 100% success in the end.
The Windows installation on your new mb's hard drive may or may not be similar to my procedure. This is how I did mine. Before doing a clean install of Win7 Pro for the Asus, heeding Tesla's advice, I disconnected the USB-link from mio (usb_1 MB) & left it disconnected through out the entire install process. My lights all stayed off predictably, which added to the mystery of what mio would have in mind w/my new mb later on. My 1st clue that mio #1 was set to fail, is that after a clean install of Win7 Pro, after all Asus drivers were loaded, after Win7 Pro was fully updated & after .net4 framework & all its updates were installed, I powered down. I hooked up mio's 'usb_1 MB' connector, I powered the desktop on, but @ no time did the exterior lights come on. After booting into Win7, Win7 did not find "new hardware", it did not install a single mio device driver & flat out that mio failed to chit-chat in any meaningful way w/the new Asus board through their shared usb link on their 1st try together. Ok?
Needless to say, what we have here is ... failure to communicate. This behavior of a mio "rejecting" talks w/new mb are finding their way into the swapper community. It is a hassle to say the least. Mio #1 works fine w/my old mb. Fine I say. Quite a happy pair those two. Mio #1 needed a kick in the pants, a factory reset job until it got all majik on me. Uh, like Pulp Fiction ... if your mio is in a coma on the case floor like mine was, you might jab an adrenaline needle in it, & @ startup, if it wakes up from the dead & your new mb asks mio to: "say something" ... hope that your lil' mio says: "something" back to your new mb the way mine did.
My Mio #1 has been removed from the category called: "bunk" into a new category which I am claiming credit for coining: the MAJIK Mio ... as in MJ-12 ... the Majestic 12 :) MAJIK Mio is now a part of the Alienware lexicon and thus a part of our glossary ...
After a factory reset job, Mio #1 now has ultra top-secret MAJIK clearance to run the latest version of Command Center @ Area-51. Because it needed electrical shock therapy to majik for me, I have named it 'Mac', as in R.P. McMurphy ... Cookoo's Nest? Nicholson? He-he ...
I'm prancing into the forum & making the big announcement that I feel I've cracked the mio mystery wide open: a Factory Reset is a key that can unlock the HellenKeller X-Factor that was otherwise making 2 of my & untold countless other mio's deaf dumb blind & mute to a new mthrbrd for whatever inexplicable reason that was. Liken it to a pair of heart defibrillation paddles sending a voltage shock to a mio in a state of data cardiac arrest; a tool which you have there @ the ready - & when properly wielded - can lead your coma patient through to full resuscitation & recovery: the Factory Reset can induce a Lazarus Effect & it is now our new MAJIK Wand ...
Now then. 3 out of 5 of my mio's were already majik; they needed nothing. They worked right out of the gate like a charm. Lil' Mac (who was otherwise bunk), immediately after a factory reset job performed just like the good ones did: after usb_1 MB connector was connected, I powered up, bam, they chatted, bam, mio turned the lights on, bam, Windows sensed new hardware, bam, it installed the drivers:
- it recognized the mio as: Gaming Desktop & BCM2046B1 (& installed drivers for each)
bam, I was now ready to install Command Center, bam, I accomplished a successful mb swap. I won my Cmnd Cntr battle. If this is how yours behaves the 1st time you try yours out, you do not need to reset anything! Your mio is already MAJIK baby. Cmnd Cntr will be yours for the taking.
*** 9.16.13 Adendum: Every illustrated procedure & conclusion published was attempted on a new mb using a standard Intel heatsink w/4 pin pulse-width-modulated (pwm) fan. None of these procedures were tested nor conclusions reached by re-using the stock Alienware liquid cooler. Results may differ by re-using old liquid cpu cooler, such as system/radiator fan performance, or other. Side-effect noted by author on 9.15.13 w/radiator fan performance after re-using stock liquid cooler which may or may not change expected Cmnd Cntr features or typical Cmnd Cntr functions spoken about through out this article. All testing w/stock liquid cooler was done AFTER this article was published. If re-using your stock liquid cooler & you experience an unwanted situation of top system/radiator on high speed @ all times, you may consider disconnecting (or not connecting) Alienware's cpu_fan (wht 4-pin 3-wire)(org ylw grn) connector, or, temporarily plug your top sys-rad fan into your new mb cpu fan header (Caution: stock radiator/system fan is approx. 1.4-1.6 amps) until a solution is reached. See Section, below, on re-using liquid cooler, please. ***
* If you do not see lights/hear fans throttle @ startup, if Windows does not find new hardware, does not install drivers, just take a second. For Win7, go to Cntrl Panel>System&Security>System> Device Manager & look for an unknown device or a device w/a yellow icon on it. If not, highlight USB devices & "scan for hardware changes". If nothing happens, power down, recheck your usb_1mb connector or usb_3 header, power up, see what happens. If same, no lights on, then power down & see plan B.
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*** Plan B: Try a combination of Factory Resets ***
If you comb the Alienware Forum, the Engineers @ Alienware have passed down to us 2 reset methods to deal with "Cmnd Cntr related issues". Both of these reset procedures are already recommended for use in combination w/the old mb. These are the recommended steps to take for when Cmnd Cntr or a mio or both are acting a fool.
These methods majik'd 2 of my bunk mio's, it might majik yours too.
* You will perform the simpler "drain residual power" reset procedure 1st. This is a pre-emptory reset task that either will or won't work right away. Power off, unplug your pc wall cord. On a hunch, my spidey-senses tingled causing me to unplug, yes, unplug mio usb connector 'usb_1 MB' (or USB_3 from your mb header). The normal strategy is to leave mio connected through the usb to mb connection. So consider unplugging the usb link as purely optional. Unplug usb headers, leave them plugged in, try it both ways, but either way, then go press your top front power button & hold it down for 1 minute. (The normal response is the power supply will sometimes try to kick-start w/residual power in the system. Pressing the power button down 1 minute drains the system, & hopefully drains mio too, leaving it in a state of "reset"). After 1 minute, stop, reconnect 'usb_1MB' (or usb_3). Plug pc in. Power up. You might get lucky. Wait for lights on/fans to throttle, wait for Windows to find new hardware/install drivers. If this is the case for you, then this simple reset worked, & you can do your CC install soon. If your mio acts bunk, power down & you will redo the "drain residual power" reset again followed by the factory jumper reset task as follows:
- *Power down. Unplug pc cord. (Optional: unplug usb_1MB / or usb_3 @ mb header). Press pwr button down for 1 minute
*You will now perform the factory jumper reset which I learned from Chris_M of Dell (in combination with the drain-power reset for good measure!), borrowed from this post:
- Desktop Command Center Issues with fans, lights, or vents
- http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19338298
*In this order: Look into your case floor, find mio, find tiny green jumper at lower left corner. Note it's pin position, remove jumper, replace onto opposite poles to the one it is on now. Plug in PC cord. Power on, boot into Windows, wait for Windows dektop, imediately click start button & click shut down. Unplug pc cord
- You will re-perform "draining residual power". Press your top front power button & hold it down for 1 minute
- Remove jumper, set it aside. Plug in pc cord. Power on, shut down via Windows. Unplug pc cord
- You will re-perform "draining residual power". Press your top front power button & hold it down for 1 minute
- Reinstall jumper to original poles. Plug in pc cord
- PLUG IN USB_1MB connector to mio, (or usb_3 mb header)
*Power on as normal, hope the factory reset majik'd mio & induced it to chat
*You should now see your case lights light up, probably hear your fans roar to life. Wait for Windows desktop, see if Windows found new hardware & installs drivers. If so, and it should, in a bit we will discuss installing Cmnd Cntr on your new hard drive. This is all about the exterior case lights being on after startup. The exterior lights are your way of KNOWING that mio majik'd & is finally chatting w/your new mb. With lights? Gold. Without lights? Try again.
***This is important***
*** I knew the factory reset worked when ALL the fans went to full blast. Scary. What I did was power down, reach in & temporarily disconnect the top 120mm fan & disconnect the pci-e fan connector from mio (I let the 2 hard drive fans on, but I could have disconnected those too). This situation of fans on full blast is normal & common. It means mio is prepped & waiting for CmndCntr to be installed to regain control over them intelligently. If you hear high fans come on, you can power down & disconnect the fans until you are ready to install CC if they bother ("scare") you. After you install CC & restart & power down, you can reconnect your top fan & pci-e fan where both will revert to normal control, 'normal' speeds. Ok? *** If your fans go to full throttle during a factory reset, do not panic. Do not be alarmed; be still. Be amazed, be in awe, be in wonder... look into the eyes of your fire-breathing Dragon. Admire its power. Listen to it closely ... remember the sound of when it reached critical mass and went Super-Nova & scared the daylights out of you: this is the birth cry of your mio turning majik ...***
* If you do not see lights after the factory reset, while you are still in Windows, check device manager, if nothing there, shutdown, unplug your machine. Both of my mio's majik'd after 1 reset job. If your lights are still out, my best advice is to: power down, unplug pc cord, press the top front power button down for a minute to "drain residual power", plug pc cord in, power up and see what happens.
If still nothing, power down, unplug pc cord. REPERFORM A COMPLETE FACTORY RESET AS DESCRIBED EARLIER, starting by unplugging usb_1 MB and draining residual power and moving jumper pin etc.
*Note: There is a drain power reset, & a factory jumper reset; twice I had success by fusing them into one "all-powerful reset" measure w/my own added twists, whose steps were listed above. In your dealings w/your mio, you may stick to the traditional jumper reset & disclude fusing in the drain residual power reset at anytime. If your mio gets stubborn, you may consider leaving usb_1 MB (USB_3) connected during the reset processes. You may disconnect it. You may try any combination of things hoping one of these resets incurs a positive change in mio.
If after 2 traditional resets or after 2 all powerful factory reset measures doesn't majik your mio for you, chances are it can't be induced. You could try a 3rd factory reset, or a 4th, but, after 3 or 4, if it doesn't majik it AINT majik, it's bunk. Apparently we need to make room for the possibility of mio's who resist the new mb & shift into the bunk column. There is as yet no other known cure or stratagem or pre-swap prepping tool offered to undo the Hellen Keller Effect. Until a better cure or solution is published which down the line relegates this article into obscurity (the future where: "what we know now as opposed to what we didn't know then"), classify your mio as bunk & move on to another testing unit. Again, a single factory reset should have majik'd it; if several in a row din't, then your mio's probably a winner w/the old mb but wrong for your swap purposes, where word's gotten 'round can apparently be the case. Console it like Catherine Deneuve before she put David Bowie in his coffin, box it away w/your old mb, tell it this is only goodbye for now but not farewell ... and move on with another lover ...
*The answer for how to prep or make every mio work before during & after a new mb swap will probably come in the simple form of: make sure CmndCntr was installed on it before you did a swap, or, make sure CmndCntr was uninstalled from it before the swap ... so that it is introduced to its new partner's digital environment w/an optimal pre-existing state of electrical & digital being of its own or both ... yadda yadda ... I'm in the realm of theory & speculation here of course. My research is over, no theory of mine is worth testing anymore, not with 5 working mio's here. I've swapped in & out enough of these mio's & done my good deed for the community by publishing my results which includes a 100% 5:5 success ratio & a known cure for HK Disease ...
The rumbling in the Area51 community is that some mio's are bunking out (hibernating) after a mb swap & no one's sure why. But for all I know, every time someone claimed a failure by losing their lights, they did not have the intuition to wave the Majik Wand & get them right back. (But I may soon eat those words) ... it was love @ 1st sight w/my Area 51 so I bought another one just in case no one believed me, & nothing but nothing was going to stand in the way of one of my Twin Towers not having their lights come on anymore; I've put in my 40 hour work week like I was Nick Nolte in search of Lorenzo's Oil.
But back to Mr Bowie. Most Area 51 owners usually only have 1 mio; the one lurking in their case floor. And most of you do not possess (yet) a "spare" mio, a mio #2, a back-up quarterback as it were. Therefore, I can't tell you if the mio in your case will majik w/a new mb or not; hopefully it does & why shouldn't it actually? ... but I can tell you, when doing a new mb swap, if reality will dictate that your mio is bunk, no matter how many factory resets you give it, now is when the idea of a back-up mio or two is actually a good idea; you would be wise to have the fore-sight enough to have aquired a spare unit or 2 before your swap project starts. You already have a mio in your case; if you buy 1 or 2 more to have there w/you "just in case", you can be almost 100% sure you will have a majik mio on day one. If the mio in your case won't majik for you at crunch time, & you didn't buy a spare one, you are now in the market for one I see. And it'll take a few days to get there, so ... you choose.
My project is done; you do what you think is best for you ... have a spare don't have a spare, it's your call in the end.
Mio's sell all day long on eBAY for around 30 a pop. When you budget your new mb swap, I'd suggest you factor in another $30-$60 into coming out of your war chest to buy up spare mios to have on hand on swap day. And that is presently just the nature of the beast, sorry. My best advice: You should have faith the mio in your case you have right now will work, you should have faith a Factory Reset will automatically majik it if it's stubborn at 1st, while being equally sceptical it simply might not majik at all. This is the current imperfect state of knowledge we in the A-ware community have right now about all this. So if you want a shot at Cmnd Cntr on the very same day you do your new mb swap, hedge your bets & buy a spare unit or 2 b4 your swap project goes down to shift your odds closer to success on swap day. Odds are your mio's, however many on hand, will all majik, leaving you w/good troubleshooting spares. Remember, these things were already finicky enough paired w/the old mb! As an Area51 owner, having spare mio's as routine maintenance & trouble-shooting parts went hand in hand w/their former upkeep as it was ...
* If your mio fails to chat w/your new mb even after 3 or 4 factory reset attempts, BE PREPARED for the nagging eventuallity of removing the failed unit properly, installing the next-in-line test unit properly, and of course, seeing what, if anything, happens after you do.
*** I've included a Master I/O board "removal guide" @ the bottom of this post. It may help prep you through removal of your bunk unit & reinstallation of your new test subject ***
You have a solid chance the mio in your case right now is ready willing & able to partner up w/the new mb of your choice right out of the gate or after waving the Majik Wand; that's a good enough chance not to be reluctant & go ahead & do your mb swap. It is probably true that the only thing you have to fear about losing CC in the aftermath of a swap, is: fear itself. You've read this far, and you are also aware by now that your motherboard swap might include a mio swap too, so ... handle your business & deal w/it.
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It will not hurt to be reminded of this again: there seems to be no way of simply looking at your mio & gaining any insight into its majikness or lack-there-of. The only way to know for certain is to mate it to a new mb & see what it does. There's an X-factor at work; a sort of 'pre-existing condition', a type of threshold that your mio will or won't pass that unlocks its powers or renders it useless for your new application. If the x-factor is not removed, it will disable your mio's ability to chat w/a new mb, & no one has pegged their finger on what that final X-factor might consist of. If a factory reset job does not remove the x-factor, then it is time to say: "you are broke & I can't fix you", & from there you should box up your old mio along w/your i7 & old mb & consider all 3 as compatible working parts relegated to a box in your closet. If you ever sell your desktop by putting all original components back in, you may reinstall your old mb along w/that old mio & be assured they are all compatible, work, and can go on to the next owner as such. At which time, you keep your new mb & sell your spare majik mio on eBAY as a known-good majik unit & watch it fetch a premium.
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Further testing has revealed that there is every reason to believe that mio is a simple usb communications device, nothing more & nothing less. I myself have every reason to believe now that there is no such thing as a mio who can't or won't work w/a different mb. I do not think there is a "proprietary Alienware block" on it, or a proprietary "gap" that a different mb can not easily fill w/this device. It is my opinion that when a mio integrates w/a new mb, it either enters this new digital environment in the ideal electronic state that when told to "wake up" by the new mb, it simply does so & the installer is presented w/nothing out of the ordinary, or, if when told to "wake up" by the new mb it does "not" (ie no exterior lights come on), a simple factory reset is the simple cure for this. These are all my opinions though, & not statements of unassailable fact ...
Which is to say that someone out there may experience technical difficulties w/the mio in their case. Whether or not this is due to a lack of tech savvy on their part, a truly "stubborn" mio falling outside the norm, or both, who can say. I do have an even stronger opinion now that there should be fewer people who in their dealings between their mio & new mb simply won't be able to have success w/their mio on hand & would then need to go through the "hassle" of removing it & putting their faith in their spare back-up unit. This should come as good news I think. You would do well I think to have little to no hesitation about swapping in a new mb w/fears you may lose your lights & Cmnd Cntr features. I think it is a certainty that mio is a simple usb device who communicates instantly w/a new mb, or, will do so immediately after the factory reset. Period. Which is to say, I don't think there was anything special about the old mb that allowed it to talk to a mio or a mio to talk back to it & only to it. Yes?
I will reiterate, that if there were prior "failures" in those installations that led to a common fear that spread amongst the "swapper" community in the past that CC might be lost in the shuffle due to proprietary reasons, it was probably due to the lack of awareness on the part of those individual installers that the factory reset was their 5 minute cure-all the whole time. This is where my testing & evidence have led me. My college course in statistics advises me that 5 is not a hefty sample, but it is the only sample population I had to work with, so, hopefully what happened here is easily reproducible there @ your install battle ground as it was in mine ...
3 of my mio's worked w/out issue. This is evidence it is a simple usb device, nothing less nothing more. 2 of my mio's were induced to "wake up" after the reset & behaved as simple usb devices thereafter. Other testing, who's details are tedious but whose interpratation by me of the data results you should trust in good faith, have reconfirmed it is a simple usb device who either performs as intended or performs as intended after the reset. I never did come across a bunk mio, so, I can not speak on whether they exist or not, nor what bunks them out to start with ...
AMD Asus Sabertooth 990Fx Vishera
My disclaimer: testings were performed on & only on an Asus board. A # of people in the swapper community are claiming success w/Asus. If you intend to try a mb swap w/any other brand (Giga, MSI, AsRock etc), please do your own research for confirmed reports of successful swaps w/those brands, & understand my data is skewed toward this brand of board & I nor my data can speak for some other brand. The claims I make in here may or may not apply to a different board manufacturer. Confidence is high in Asus boards however.
You are still advised to be weary your mio may be bunk w/a new board & you will be required to try a different one, due to the fact we Iive in a Murphy's Law world where anything is possible & Cass-Olé does not have all the answers even though he may sound like he does ...
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*I have 5 mio's here, 1 is FMDKG MSI 4195 V1.01, 4 are 604GC MSI 4195 V2.0. One 604 came in my original desktop, 3 604's I bought from the same vendor online. 2 out of 3 of his 604's were 'un'majik at startup & a single factory reset majik'd both of them. Edit: 12.14.14 I purchased a used Lunar-51 & it came w/an FMDKG mio. As some of you heard, I installed an AMD Sabertooth 990Fx board in it around Halloween w/out issue using one of my majik 604gc's. Today, I have yet again gone through the difficult process of removing the 604 & installing this FMDKG to see 'what TF happens' between it & new mb. It wasn't majik. It acted bunk. I all-powerful-factory resetted it this time & had to do it twice (awnery lil devil huh) ... now it's majik. I now have six mio's here, all capable of working w/an Asus board: three majik'd on me after the jumper reset (I believe in combination w/the power dissipation reset (all-powerful) ... you should feel one step closer to confident the mio you have now in your case floor can majik on ya.
*If anyone cares, I ordered 2 spare 604gc mio's a few days ago; they got here Saturday. One was gold, one had to be reset. When I re-installed CC, during the flash process it said one of the 604's had a CC firmware version of, get this: 1.02.04, and the other had a CC version of: 1.01.32 LOL! How ancient is that! The vendor claims his mio's are from factory surplus units that have never entered service, lol, I'd say so ... seeing as how the current firmware version is "2.02". Other of my 604's flashed in the latest 2.02 were majik also, so majik happened on old CC firmware & new ... good news for us ...
*FYI: the latest version of CmndCntr is v2.08.11, while the latest mio firmware version is 2.02 ... v2.08.11 flashes mio w/2.02 ...
Snow White | Blanche Neige: Asus Deluxe SkyLake z170 GroomLake Edition
* I worked w/all 5 mio's here, I gathered no evidence on which part# mio, or which revision # mio, or which prior 'flash' of Cmnd Cntr mio makes for a good testing or purchasing candidate or not, who will majik after a reset or not, but I did gather evidence that mio's flashed with even the last two (v2.08.09 + v2.08.11) newest versions of CC are capable of working w/a new mb, and no: CC11 & CC9 did not cripple every last board in my house.
It crippled not a one. Which should come as some relief & good news to everyone who reads this, for, there was a serious theory going that CmndCntr software issued in 2012 (v2.08.09 v2.08.11 etc) had a selfish Alienware firmware that might be the x-factor that muted/bunked mio's from chatting to new mb's. I have proof it isn't so.
My evidence shows that if there is a pre-existing condition inside a mio that makes it mute at startup, a factory reset makes the x-factor disappear & it gets chatty again. We don't need to know the x-factor if we can simply disable whatever it is (= If you've taken a course in any branch of science you will recall the concept of activation energy & the bell-curve threshold that must be overcome. If you've studied micro-electonics & understand production tolerances between matter, you may quickly realize that something as small as a billionth of a volt is not being shared between mio & new mb which un-majik's one of their ic's, or a billionth too much. Do not worry yourself over why your mio is bunk, or why you can't induce something to work which you yourself can not physically induce & will not induce itself, or fret over part# vs rev # vs flash # either because that's probably a mental maze you won't find your way out of. This is a digital world; the factory reset will either turn a zero into a 1 where it needs to be or a 1 into a zero where it needs to be, or, alas, @ the atomic level a production tolerance prevents the majik from ever happening and that is that. Good a guess as any. But for whatever it's worth, my evidence shows that 2 out of 4 604GC's were gold on 1st startup w/a new mb & the other two were easily induced into working w/the Majik Wand. 604gc is the latest 2.0 revision, theoretically w/the newest parts/longest life span, works on all Area 51 + ALX, EuP compliant, currently $30 on eBAY, works in light of a firmware flash w/the latest CmndCntr (or the oldest), so I endorse this candidate for POTUS ...
Fine. Moving right along. Now that we know that your mio IS majik, let's concentrate on what to do after it's turned all your lights on finally; get it to perform some a that majik for you ...
Let's talk about Windows, let's talk about Cmnd Cntr, let's talk about your new non-Dell-Alienware motherboard, let's talk about a flash-forward in mio's firmware & the dreaded flash-backwards in firmware. I found out that there are forces at work, good & bad, that will help you recover CC or hinder it.
My 1st successful mio, mio #1, had a known prior CC version only up to level v2.08.09 (allow me to call it CC9, the next-to-latest version). I did not want to flash it up to v2.08.11 (CC11, the latest version) just yet. I installed from my v2.08.09 file, it unzipped into a dell folder, self-extracted, & began an install process. After a reboot I tested Cmnd Cntr; it worked. But v2.08.09 - CC9 doesn't include AlienFusion: 2.08.11 does. I removed that mio from my case & proceeded to install & test out mio #2. Here is where it got interesting for me, very interesting.
the Mona Lisa: FairyTail Part One the Beast (link mirror for part one)
After carefully installing mio #2 into my case floor, & powering up the desktop, w/in 30 seconds I got lights, then Windows recognized it, drivers installed, perfect. Now then. Mio #2 had a CC11 flash already. I'd been warned on good authority that it is normally ok (safe) to flash forward from say, CC9 up to CC11, but it is risky to flash down from say, CC11 down to CC9. Doing so carries with it the warning that a backwards flash might brick the mio for good. Might. Might not. It takes nerves of steel to flash a mio backwards ...
A forward flash is "normally" safe. A backwards flash is risky to the point of hazardous. They say, even if you're willing to take the risk of doing a backwards flash, you should uninstall Cmnd Cntr 1st before you do, as a mio firmware "prepping tool". Uninstalling CC 1st lays down a sort of clean slate as it were. And from there, you take your chances during the backwards firmware flash process which occurs at some point in the middle of Cmnd Cntr installation proper. If your mio survives the Russian Roulette flash process you & it were lucky indeed.
* I'm sprinkling the term the "backwards flash" in this post for the purpose of thought experiments only. I never recommend to anyone to perform a backwards firmware flash & if you do one on your mio, it is on you if you brick it, not on me. Huh?
What I said a minute ago I was saying for a reason. In my instance, I had a mio that I knew for a fact had CC11 on it prior to this swap. I knew for a fact I did not want to risk flashing it back down to CC9. However. Lol. LOL! When I opened up my v2.08.11 (CC11) uh, it 'started' to install, but then it quickly gave me an error which said: "This program is not designed to run on this platform" ... 'this' platform, meaning, duh, the Asus. Alienware apparently, when they released v2.08.11, wrote code that ensures it will ONLY install on the old Alienware mb's ... the net effect is to trip you up big time on this proprietary hurdle ...
Now then. I got over this hurdle eventually, but, I can give you this little warning in case you missed the implications of what I just said: the latest version of command center will NOT (or should not) install on your new mb. (If you try your luck w/a new MSI board, your chances are far better than anyone else's I'd say! lol That is, if you can 'trick' v2.08.11 into installing on a new MSI board ... probably not ... ?).
Unless you follow what I did to get over this hurdle, you have about zero chance of running the latest command center on a non-Alienware board because that is what they decided to selfishly stipulate about 2.08.11 (& probably the very next iteration if there ever is one released in the future). Notice how v2.08.09 easily unzipped itself into its own little Dell folder on my Asus' drive ... v2.08.09 easily installs on a non-Alienware board; v2.08.11 simply will not. Oops! Naturally v2.08.11 is the nicer of the two, so, how many of you are starting to pick up on the building dilemna here?
On the one hand, you can't get v2.08.11 to install on a non-Aware, on the other hand, you're mio's probably running that version right now, so on the other hand, you may put your mio at risk if in your haste you decide to flash it back down to v2.08.09 which you will be tempted, forced basically to consider or even try to do ... and, uh, how many of you remembered to uninstall Cmnd Cntr from your mio through Win7, b4 you removed your old mb from your case to prep mio for a back flash?
Remember, it is advised to uninstall CC b4 you flash backwards, as a "prepping" tool b4 the flash ... to lessen, if "lessen" is even possible, lessen the risk of the backwards flash process. Therefore, while your old desktop is still together & Windows & CC still accessible, b4 you even remove your old mb, you may want to consider uninstalling Cmnd Cntr 1st, as a way to "prep" your mio, in the event you were currently running 2.08.11 & now get all hot n' bothered for CC & jump down to 2.08.09 despite the risk ... because you know CC9 will install on your new mb w/out a proprietary block on it ...
This is the crazy part ... remember, a majik mio in the hand is worth two in the bush, so, to have a majik mio in your hand, yet, the poor thing might not survive a back flash from CC11 down to CC9 ... omg, the sphincter factor alone is too much ...
My dilemna at this point in my install might become yours too, because software & firmware issues are quickly mounting against you. You can be prepared where I had to go it alone w/no advice but what my gut told me. CC11 would not install on my Asus, CC9 would, but, mio #2 might not survive it, so .... agh! I settled on Plan C ... the ""work around by-pass method". Sleight of hand to trick Cmnd Cntr 11 into thinking it saw an Alienware rabbit come out of the hat ...
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How to Installl CmndCntr 2.8.11 & 3.0 on a non-Area-51 mthrbrd
See the post above in which I collaborated in on a different forum using a brand new method to install the highest versions of CmndCntr on your Asus/Giga/MSI board. It is a 2minute process. Remember, before you remove your old stock mthrbrd, follow the Guide in the link above to capture & save your bios.reg file for use in successfully installing those higher versions of CC.
CmndCntr 2.8.9 does not need the work-around; 2.8.11 / 3.0 do
Windows 8
... I do not use win8. For a win8 system, or win8 intended system down the road, I heard CmndCntr v2.08.11 was the one to go with, but might have glitches (officially Area 51 isn't Win8 certified). I hate to spread false info, the truth is I don't use win8 and have done no research yet. Start looking into forum threads & do your research on whether jumping down to "easier" v2.08.09 is compatible on a win8 system or not ... pitfall to consider there. The more people who make the switch to Win8, & post in here to claim success or ask for help w/snafu's, the more refined the data gets, the closer we all get to sharing useful information together.
If you do a mb swap & want to run win8, isn't it likely that you will go through a small mb swap war to get 2.08.11 on your non-Alien mb? Something for you to consider of course. My CC11 came about easily, but I don't know what you'll have to do to get it installed. Whatever you have to I suppose. Another VIP member here, Morblore, chimed in a while back in a thread about downgrading from v2.08.11 to v2.5.46.0 (aka - A07). I read a post of his a while back: http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19475127.aspx that said 2.08.11 was 'glitchy' on Win8, and some good info was exchanged back and forth about possible fixes. Perhaps more recent forum threads have dealt with these things, so you'd best look into it. It will be a long time til I run Win8, so, I have no horse in that race over Win8 and CmndCntr "issues" & down-grading CC versions, & backwards-flashing, the whole 9 yards, sooooooo ... you Win 8r's are in for your own research & out on your own limb & Cass-Olé is out for lunch and not taking phone calls on that issue.
* Whether you take the long hard road to proprietary v/2.08.11, or take the quicker path to non-prop. v2.08.09, after you install & after you launch CC for its & for your 1st use, before you start to "fiddle" w/it even, when you are on the 'Active Thermals' page, look to the far lower right, find the tiny 'updates' icon, and click it. Their default setting is: look for updates 'once per month'. I have changed its protocol to: 'Turn off updates"' & check: 'Once per year'. After you install your CC & launch it, then would be a good time to deal w/their default update check settings or leave them alone ... so make the call.
There is a lot of thinking to do up in this joint over hardware & software integration with a new mb. Alienware has built-in pitfalls to the software & mio's are finicky little creatures as it is. These are their pitfalls, not mine, huh? I'm not the one making things overly complex, they are, so, I'm doing long-term game-planning & damage control assessment after my $500 purchase, soooooooo ... it is what it is ...
If you are lucky, after your swap you will have more horse power under your hood & Cmnd Cntr going, even if its all being held together by the thinnest of margins. ... none of this is for the feint of heart. Nope. That's why this post is getting gy-normous. Pit-falls stumbling-blocks & hurdle contemplation grows faster than the benefits column does, so you must meet these challenges. I'm typing on & looking at my new rig right now, so yeah, it is worth all this trouble when you sprint the 100 yards jump the dozen hurdles & finally cross the finish line.
need a psu swap? see my seller page here
It bears repeating that v2.08.11 would not install on my Asus because it's not an Alienware approved "platform". This probably means CC11 won't install on a Giabyte, MSI, ASRock etc either. The "work around" is to either have another Area 51 running a stock board, like I have, & simply switch hard drives out long enough to install CC11 on it & be back in business in like 10 minutes, or, like I just said, you would do a complete Windows install on new mb, then a total teardown, put your old board back in the case long enough to boot into Windows (if it will!) & install CC11 then take it right back out, & put your new board back in. Immediately clone the drive, image it, burn system dvd's, whatever, & regularly make back up images of Windows, for if you do not, you'll be sorry if the day comes & you uninstall CC or lose your hard drive to a virus, et cetera et cetera. If you have a known good system image to fall back on which is easy to reinstall w/out lifting a finger than you're probably safe. W/out system images, in the face of ever uninstalling CC you might be shooting yourself in the foot later on down the road. 2.08.09 is easy but risky as a down-graded firmware flash-backwards. Learn it. Live it. Know it.
... seasonic / corsair +1000w no problem ...
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FYI: The 32bit Alienware diagnostics bootable cd may still be useful for one last purpose: if you need it for doing post mb swap mio diagnostic tests. Use it for the mio tests only of course. I'll certainly not use it for test purposes on my new mb. But we'd normally use that cd through our old systems to test mio, so why not. & Chris_M says the bootable cd 'might' reset mio during the diag test process if you need to try a software based reset on mio, should it start actin' a fool after CC is installed. We all know CmndCntr had its glitches w/the old boards (check the forum!) so, the software based reset that the cd can do is a trouble shooting step anyway, w/diagnostic ability, so, keep your cd; mio still might need it someday.
Note: You will lose Alien Autopsy; it is an Alienware only feature. Say goodbye to Respawn. Maybe other A-Ware "stuff". Nature o' beast.
Note: I do not own Tactx products yet, so I have no way of saying Tactx colors are changeable after a mb swap, and/or tactx integrates & works flawlessly w/Cmnd Cntr after a mb swap, sorry.
Note: I'm running an Asus Sabertooth Z87, so I have no answers for the viability of Cmnd Cntr for the Giga-MSI-AsRock crowd, sorry. I'd seen 3 people who swapped out their mb & got CC to work, & all were using an Asus. I make for a 4th confirmed Asus swap w/a viable working copy of Cmnd Cntr on it, and others may have posted about mb swaps in the forum too, you are free to search in here, anywhere. I don't know if Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock etc boards are compatible w/mio & CC, but I don't see why they wouldn't be. I do not know if choice of brand or choice of boards inside a brand is a factor in getting a mio to talk & Cmnd Cntr to work, sorry.
Note: Area 51 vs Aurora. None of my testing was done on an Aurora. However, I have talked to a system builder w/20 straight CC installs using Asus mATX boards in the Aurora using the Aurora's version of mio. He claims a 100% success rate. Word on the street is Asus mATX boards are gold for a new mb swap on Aurora ... obviously, the factory reset if Aurora's mio goes mute on initial startup ...
Note: OS choice: I did not try this on Windows 8. I did it on Win7 Pro; not Home, not Ultimate, but Pro. I do not know if Home &/or Ultimate "work" or not, sorry.
Note: Choice of Master I/O board: My majik mio board #'s are 604GC v2.0, & FMDKG v1.01. I can't tell you which part# to consider buying if you find you do in fact need a different test-mule mio, if the one in your case fails to work of course, but all my 604GC's work. Someone owning the standard base Area 51 model can use all 6 part#'s of mio's in a pinch, however; it is essential that an ALX owner only goes with any of the 3 ALX approved mio's by part# (due to the motorized front panel)
Master i/o choice:
3 part #'s for A-51: M5VF8 v1.0 / FMDKG v1.01 / FDNW2 v2.0
3 part #'s for ALX: FWKNT v1.01 / CR1KN V1.01 / 604GC v2.0
Cmnd Cntr "Versions": I've loosely used the terms CC11 -CC9 to refer to the 2 latest versions ...
v2.8.11.0 Released 11.2.12 / v2.8.9.0 Released 7.9.12
v2.6.17.0 Released 6.7.12 / v2.5.46.0
An Inconvenient "Truth": Unless & until you come across better information or advice than I've provided here, remember to make a spare mio allowance to your new mb swap budget. Hopefully, yours is already majik waiting to happen & you will not have to tap into a dime to get Cmnd Cntr working. But be prepared to shell out some dough-ray-mio if & when the time calls for it. Desperate times will call for desperate measures. Make sure your budget can come through for you. I myself collect (hoard, ok?) spare parts. The day may come when having a spare mio onhand is a good idea anyway for trouble-shooting purposes, which is something to consider; iow, you aren't exactly "stuck" w/the spare if your mio majik'd on swap day...
*** Re-using Your Liquid Cpu Cooler: As you can see in my pictures below, you can re-use your liquid cpu cooler after a board swap; simply buy a new "retention ring kit" for it. The stock Alienware liquid cooler assembly is of course intended for use w/our original motherboard: an Intel socket 1366 (Gen1 i7) type. These cpu coolers were specially made for Alienware by a company called Asetek (who at the same time was busy making Corsair their original H50 liquid cooler). Underneath it all, these are Asetek coolers. To re-use your liquid cooler on the newer Intel socket type boards (a la socket 1150, 1155, 1156, 1366 LGA2011) simply buy Asetek's $15 "universal" retention ring kit for your new application. I contacted Asetek.com, I bought their recommended kit, installed my original cooler onto my new Intel socket 1150 Asus & it works fine. They have an eBAY store where they sell these kits (currently) here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=271232103986
They've had this kit available for quite a while. Their instruction sheet that ships w/the product is currently readily applicable to 1155/1156 2011; it has not however been updated yet for socket 1150/Haswell installations (there is no mention of proper 1150 mounting as of yet). The kit itself works on 1150; however, the installation for 1150 has the requirement that the motherboard unified backing plate they give you must be "slanted", say, 15 degrees for its backing plate holes to eventually match up to 1150 mb holes. Since 1150/Haswell is only a few months old, I suspect Asetek will either amend their instruction sheets soon, add an 1150 adendum to their sheet, or, perhaps in the future they might do a total revision to their backing plates. In the meantime, mounting your old liquid cooler to socket 1150/Haswell does work, so long as you skew/slant/rotate their back plate "15 degrees" til all of their holes match up to 1150's holes (simply rotate their plate til the perfect combination resolves itself). The rest is straight forward. You dump your old silver ring & use their black ring. Perfect fit. (Their circular plastic ring "clamp" does not work on this cooler cold-plate. It comes in the kit but can't be used). What we know is that the Gen1 i7, like my i7 960 for instance, was rated @ 130watts TDP. The stock cooler obviously was rated to handle 130watts tdp, perhaps more ... therefore, on my 4770k (rated @ only 84watts tdp) the cooler/radiator assembly is more than enough to handle thermal loads on newer, mostly lower tdp i7's (Sandy/Ivy et al. Lovely!). SandyBridge E tops out @ 130tdp also, but research your intended cpu's tdp through Intel etc before deciding on re-using the old liquid cooler or not ...
* If you do your swap w/out the liquid cooler, but plan to reinstall it @ some point later on, you will need to negotiate the complete removal of your new mb to install your old cooler, and its complete reinstallation. Consider postponing your swap til your Asetek kit arrives ... lol
*** Mio/Cpu Fan Connector: there's a 4pin / 3-wire white cpu fan connector that leads down to mio's black micro-24pin connector. I hooked it up to my mthrbrd 'cpu fan' header:
- in the bios & in Asus Fan Expert I set the cpu fan monitor to "standard"
- that did the trick for me, so give it a try & see how it pans out for you & yours.
- unsure if CC or Asus control the cpu fan speed w/that setup, so as long as one of them does
The stock cooler, of course, has its own picadillos; powered @ all times from mio, if mio fails, the pump loses power. Here you will find a well rounded article by Tesla on potential work-arounds for your proprietary A-ware cpu cooler pump & of course mio.
I hand-make these cooling adaptors: this was for Winter's Corsair H80i V2 swap
now CmndCntr will once again report 80i CPU Pump is 'Running'
You may use his article to discover choice nuggets regarding your cooler: Anti-MIO Kooler Project
*FYI: When you launch CC, @ Active Thermals, it informs how "temp & fan speed gadgets can be torn from this screen & left on your desktop", essentially by clicking the tiny arrow(s) in upper right corner. In this way, I have active cooler pump & system/rad fan tell-tales @ all times on my desktop. I like to know that cooler pump is running!
Let us remember something important here: with or w/out Cmnd Cnter, or even Windows fully installed I suppose, if your mio does not light up its lights w/in 30 seconds of startup, it is not communicating with your new mb. If you have a retention ring kit that works & re-use your stock liquid cooler on your new mb, & you run with or settle on a "bunk" mio, for whatever amount of time, the system fan atop the radiator I would say is not being intelligently monitored, & although I can confirm that a bunk mio still sends juice to the cooler pump & top (radiator) system fan, it is @ a constant lower voltage making for a constant lower fan speed; that slower fan speed wont bail you out if your cpu starts to get hot while using your stock cooler. Your pump will get the juice it needs, however; if you do get your mio to work, & your lights come on, & you successfully add Cmnd Cntr, your system fan will be monitored like normal, so, if you re-use the stock cooler w/a new retention kit, get a working mio in your system and install CC a.s.a.p. for obvious thermal safety reasons I'd say.
A "few" luxuries still carry over, even w/a bunk mio. The theatre lights still light up when either case door is open, & the rear i/o led's light up too. The top vents do open & shut. The fans all run, at a constant speed of course, but the rest of the goodies do not seem to function, so long as the mio & new mb fail to communicate. A working mio solves all that of course. I say that for a reason. The stock power supply is what feeds the mio its power, so you're kinda stuck with that power supply to meet mio's needs. And if you cherish your interior theatre lights, hard drive fans, pci-fan, rear i/o led's, vents, then even if your mio is temporarily "down" and doesn't "work" w/your new mb right away, it can at least run your led's fans and top vents, so it still can serve a purpose in the short term, until you get your hands on a working mio to remedy it all. Leave it in your case floor, a mio good or bad is like a permanent fixture in that Area 51 case; whether it does a little or alot, it still has chores it can do in there for you ... :)
I hope that you're getting a crash course in the overwhelmingly complex situation that is: swapping in a new motherboard in your Area 51 case. There are many pit falls to be aware of & I hope I brought some to your attention so you have a feel for what you're looking at here. I am neither totally happy about the swap nor totally displeased. It's almost as if the maker was trying to trip me up from having a different brand mb in there. None of this was easy, and I had no one to help me out, so, hopefully I added something into this mb swap conversation that is usefull to someone who reads this.
I'm running an Asus 1150 based board with Win7 Pro, and through trial & error I got Cmnd Cntr 2.08.11 installed. CC acts a little tipsy @ times ... what Tesla called 90% functional ...uh, a lit' bit like Han Solo coming out of Hibernation Sickness ... something gets lost in the translation, software that is (I saw it said my pci fan speed was 20,000 rpm for a moment, and I was like: day-um CC, is you drunk?). Anyway, if you are on a non-Asus non-1150 non-Win7 Pro mb swap project, and you run into problems afterwards, I am sorry, but this is all the experience I can work with here in my home, which is what I got here in front of me. There is little info to go by these days about what to expect about life during & after a motherboard swap ... I told you about all I know, about all I could fore-see as far as trap doors, pitfalls, & things that might trip you up ... if the Asetek retention ring kit fits the cooler & the 1150 I will say so after it gets here ...
Also, Asus (maybe other brands) has a thing called My Logo; you can basically install any picture you want onto your U-E-F-I BIOS splash screen, so no doubt I will eventually put that freaking Alien guy's head on my 'Bios' splash screen as if nothing was amiss ... yeah, once I do that & get the cooler installed again, that Asus will feel right at home in the A-51.
Some final thoughts: your motherboard choice will want to share qualities & features found in the old mb; things like where the 24-pin psu harness placement is, the 8-pin psu-cpu harness, & having 8 sata port headers about where the old sata cables can mate up to is a must have. There is that 9th sata port on the left of old mb for front eSATA, so, use it or lose it.
Gigabyte X99 + 980Ti swap
(*note: deploy both the ylw & blu-ylw cables into your card if using stock psu)
Area 51 ALX Replacement graphics cards see page 2 for connecting charts
It's a Sata3 (6Gb/s) capable motherboard yet, those are Sata2 (3 Gb/s) cables inside the case. Will sata2-rated cables dampen the performance of a Sata3 hdd? Maybe a fraction. It might be time to look into new longer Sata3 cables, to update the case accessories as well. My internal 3.0 usb port header is currently useless with this case. My new mb only has 2 USB 2.0 headers, where old mb had 3 headers (this means I temporarily lost the 3rd front usb port). My new mb has no 1394 firewire header, so 1394 is currently unavailable for use @ the front I/O. Small details, but, details none-the-less to consider while you are shopping for a new mb.
Lastly, don't expect that you can simply plug your old mthrbrd front panel header connector (for HDD Led, Power On Led, Power Switch) to your new mthrbrd's front panel header so easily, & expect your stock header will have "all the wires" to be routed/inserted the same, chances are they aren't. Inspect your old mthrbrd for the small print which tells you which wires are for hdd led +/-, pwr on led +/-, & pwr switch ... write it all down & sketch your stock header & wire colors if need be. If you have to move your hdd led, pwr led, pwr sw leads around in the 5x5 header connector, use a needle to gently lift up the pin locking tab, back your pin(s) out & reinsert them into their appropriate slots. Alienware uses a 5x5 connector, but other brands might call for a full 10x10 connector. You can solve that by buying another 5x5 online (you can also buy or re-use a simple usb cable to "steal" its 5x5 connector - or you can purchase a new full 10x10 connector ... got it?).
- the Blank Slate -
... anywho ... my project & post are all but over & done with, my swap was a success, & I'm ready to quit worrying about how to get mio's & CC to work since I've been there done that.
I benchmarked the 4770k @ stock speed on 9.19 using PassMark software.
UEFI-Bios option to "Sync all cores" nets a baseline cpu score @ stock speed of 3.5GHz: 11,036
http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/display.php?id=13244759074
Cores option set to "Auto" nets a baseline cpu score/stock speed: 10,556
http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/display.php?id=13234347343
Also, I benchmarked the old i7960 @ stock & it pegged 6,505, so, it was time to put more horsepower under Area 51's hood that Haswell delivers.
I wish you the best of luck in your mb & potential mio swap endeavors, it is serious business, hard work, hard effort, drives you nuts from the complexities & considerations ... you have to weigh the costs of upgrading vs the benefits of upgrading and do what's right for you. I've done everything I can to add as much fact as was possible at the time of this post, I don't know it all, what I don't know astounds me @ times, but I knew enough to get myself into & out of this mess, so, I hope what you read helps out somehow. I haven't much else to add to this conversation anytime soon, so until then, good luck people, & ty for taking your time to read my success story, which hopefully will be your story too when the time comes for your own personal Operation: Clean Sweep ... (Swap) :)
- rewiring your front panel (front i/o) connector for new mthrbrd -
At a later time in a different case, above I've rewired my front panel connector for Pwr Sw +/-, HDD Led +/-, Pwr LED +/-. The old mthrbrd uses a 5x5 usb-type connector, while the Asus above uses a solid 10x10 (or simply, a pair of 5x5 usb-type connectors can substitute). You can re-use the 5x5 you have in your case right now & find / buy another one ... or you can track down a 10x10 like I did:
- on an Asus board, a 10x10 is the same as a pair of 5x5 USB-types which plug-in side-by-side-
Next. Your old mthrbrd will have micro-text on the front panel header which you can use to tell which wire (color) is for which function (pwr sw, hdd led, pwr on led). As well your nre mthrbrd will have text there too: your job is to find out what your wires are a function for, and then insert them into your 5x5 pair (or 10x10) correctly, in the correct slots relative to new mthrbrd front panel header. If you have questions about all this rewiring job you'll need to perform, just ask.
In the post below, we discuss the old mthrbrd front panel using photos; read over it for help & clues:
- Area 51 ALX restoration
- http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19635768/20776054#20776054
photo of old mthrbrd front panel; find the micro-text which tells you what wire-pin-color is for which function: pwr sw / hdd led / pwr on led etc, then transfer the wires to your new connectors if need and arrange them accordingly, using new mthrbrd text as your guide to what its pins need, ok?
new Asus front panel harness for Area-51 R2 using a solid 10x10 & 5x5 usb-type
Typical MthrBrd Front Panel Connectors
industry standard 2pin connex, labeled pwr on switch / hdd led / pwr on led ... source these online
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--- Aretha Franklin "Oh Me Oh My" ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIRxB7QXP3g
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Remove Replace Master Input Output Board on Area-51
Alienware has a complimentary Area 51 (partial) "teardown" instruction video on utube, which you may consult in order to better visualize some of the mio removal process and/or an idea of how to remove "everything" in order to remove your old motherboard .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgt9IX1ORuM
Mio is a mini-daughterboard w/several mini-connectors housing "delicate" wiring pin terminals that can, can back-out of the connectors if you tug too hard on them while disconnecting them. They are "keyed" connectrs, meaning they must be reinserted in only the one correct orientation. It is essential to be gentle while removing them & essential they are reinserted in the right direction. Due care & diligence is required whenever servicing your mio. It is a tight spot down in there, not-easily accessible for big hands, hard to see at times, and so many wires it's a tangled mess. However, this is your desktop & therefore your problem to address the "demi-hazard" of servicing, or swapping out your mio. Do not rush getting it out, do not rush getting it back in. TYT ... patience is a virtue ...
Remove mio:
Have pen & paper handy to make a faithful scetch of mio's layout & connectors. If you have a spare mio, break it out now, and begin to make a mio map of landmark connectors, colors etc. Otherwise, you will make a mio map scetch here in a bit
Remove your case door. With your screw driver remove your swing-out plastic video card shroud
Now is the time to 'protect' your lower side panel by laying draping or taping down a small t-shirt, small towel, masking tape a newspaper, do whatever you have to do & use whatever you have to use to protect your lower side panel; you will be working in this area for a while, & accidents are not allowed to happen to your exterior panels, nor do you want to wipe up your fingerprints left by your grubby mits later . . you may use latex gloves if you are a clean freak like I am
Intelligently position a bright lamp safely near by and/or have a small bright flashlight to see down in there. Wear glasses or use a small magnifying glass if & when needed
Gently unscrew and prise out your video card(s). Remove your side (AA Batteries) shroud in a two-way action; trace its wire harness back to mio (its connector is wht, "1st" & generally "up front" ... gently unplug it from its connection (cnx), note its label name & scetch the cnx's general local (left-middle etc) ... in same action gently remove shroud & gently back out the wiring from your case & set it aside. Unscrew the big blk pci-express fan housing; trace 2 wires coming from fan & led light, gently unplug the fan cnx and led light cnx, scetch-map their positions. You now have full access to mio
You've been blessed in that Dell labeled almost all mio wiring harnesses
Begin by gently backing out cnx's, one by one ... not willy-nilly ... smartly, carefully ... also, be aware to keep your fingers as far away from the electronics as possible, like the caps (those black barrel doo-dads). Easier said than done. Do not touch the board components whenever possible. Allow your fingers to linger & float above the board, & keep your thoughts trained only on getting to the wire harness connectors, which tend to be 1/4 inch above the board. Keep your hands/fingers floating at that 1/4 inch level to avoid touching the static-sensitive board components. You may "ground" yourself to your case by using a free hand to grasp bare metal while working close to the board. To walk across a carpet in winter then grab a door handle is to experience a static shock, so do not transfer this same type of static spark to your mio, or else ... you may consider a static bracelet if you prefer, like the woman on utube is wearing, easily had from radio shack ... :) otherwise, ground yourself to case as much as possible if your fingers are close to board components, yes? A truly gung-ho person might consider using a head lamp led light too, so one hand can grab a harness while other hand grounds you to case :) You having fun yet doing a mio swap? I did it 5 times over a few days time, I don't take too much pity on you here...
Stick a hand down in there, pull close to the connector, pull on the entire harness as a "group". (There is strength in numbers). Do not tug on single wires to remove a cnx; grab all wires in a "clump", w/equal force, & gently tug or wiggle them out. Yes? Inspect that connector afterward for "backed out" pins (the force of removing the conector by its wire harness might have caused a pin(s) to back out of the flimsy plastic cnx housing)
*** Up-front-middle, @ the red & blk color connector houses, "crimp" the "tab" on the tiny connectors to remove them. If the actual red or blk plastic connector comes away from the board, don't panic and plug it right back in, huh? * Be careful removing the 3 temp sensors in the far back right corner, only a little force is required to wiggle each out ***
As each cnx comes out, read its "label" if it has one, note what it's "name" is, note what color its cnx is (blu-wht-blk-red etc), scetch its general location on your mio map relative to other easily landmarked cnx's as well (blu-tooth, "from power supply", next to red cnx, etc etc). If it is of help, note how there are also unused "empty connectors" on mio, scetch their general location and color too, relative to connectors who have or had a connector attached, if the mood stirkes you. In this way you can truly map mio out, note where & what color every connector is, what it had in it, what needs to be reattached and what should stay "empty" when it's put back togther. You will need your mio map to help in the reinstallation process later, since it is essential to your desktops welfare that every cnx is firmly seated in the correct place and in the correct orientation BEFORE you place power back on mio
When mio finally has all its connectors backed out, safely remove mio's single hold-down screw on the "left-middle" of mio's body, and do NOT lose hold of your screw-driver @ anytime in the process. There is more than just the screw holding it down. It has 4 retention slots-tabs where by you must distach mio loose from the case floor. More on this in a second.
Gently brush aside whatever wiring tangle you can, make a little "sense" of that tangle; clear a way for mio to safely be removed from that case floor.
Grab it by its outsides like your picking up a turtle, then try to break it free from its floor tabs either by using hand-held force to scoot it forward then up. Wiggle it back and forth til the force of your backwards or forwards motion cuts it loose, do it "gently but firmly" til it cuts loose
Grab your mio turtle & pull it up & "twist" it out in one motion. Do not rush, do not drop it, do not allow yourself to get mad @ the wire tangle in your way. Use two hands if it helps, one on mio, one brushing wires away. Clear a path for it but do not destruct your wires in the process
Ok. Now that mio is safely out, place it on card board or a book etc. Shine a little light on it. Begin to compare mio to your mio map. Refine your scetch if it is unfaithfull in odd ways to the reality you see b4 you. Start a new, better, more detailed scetch if you think it might help make sense of the board connector layout
Now, train your eyes back inside your case floor. Uh ... is there anything you'd like to address about that wire tangle mess? Dust bunnies in there? Now's the time to take care of it
If you think a little black electrical tape or wire ties might help get a better hold on that helter-skelter wire tangle, do it. A trick of the trade is to take a wire harness by its connector, "spin it" or twist it round and round and round until it begins to form a more perfect "single fat twisted wire rope" look to it, understand? Not a wiring braid, but a twisted wiring "braid" rope, so it starts look act and feel like a wire "rope". From there you use black tape to tape that thang together, if you prefer it ( but never put tape over your labels. You need to see what that wire harnes is later on & ever after, right? Right. )
I've used tape, ties, & the rope twist method to get a small foot hold on the tangles. I've been known to put few twists on an untaped harness before I'm about to reconnect it. Twisting it 6 or 7 times minimum before you connect it can help cut down on the messy look & feel of the case floor wire mess. I may post a pic later *shrug*
If you think you're ready, then install your new mio. Installation tends to be the opposite of removal.
Having done this 5 times myself, I found it is easiest to put it in sideways & "rest it" there. Your attention is now on the blk/gry temp sensor wires, 1 2 3. Now is a good time to insert them. Hold mio w/left hand, insert temp sensor cnx's w/right hand, then slowly insert mio into case floor, get it down in the floor safely, slowly. Now you must secure it to its case floor tabs, which you do opposite of how you cut it loose from floor. When it snaps in place, insert its single hold-down screw. Once secure, consult your scetch. If you waited on the temp sensors do them 1st, 3 temp sensors, far back right. Read their lables, get them in the right way (orientation) & in the right order: 1,2,3
Start connecting things back up one by one, while trying to make "sense" of how the wires are starting to route down in there. If you prefer, you may double check beforehand to make sure no pins have backed out. If one did back out or looks like it did back out or "might want to back out, deal with it, push it back in the plastic connector carefully. Your goal is to have every single wire pin firmly seated, firmly mated to mio. To ensure this the whole connector and all its pins must be reinserted firmly, seated correctly, and seated in the right direction. They are "keyed" connectors, only going in one way, so, get it in the right way! To put one in backwards is to risk damaging the connector & security of the cnx, so, double check before making a cnx. You've been warned. Shine that flashlight in there so you can see whaqt your doing with all those tiny connectors and pins and connections. Having fun yet?
Well. If you've slowly but surely made all the connections, & did a decent job at routing cables, and you are ready to sign off on your connections job, 100% sure it all went down like clockwork, then reinstall your black pci fan house, route the cables, connect them too. (That pci-e 4 pin fan cnx is tough I say! So don't rush it, shine light down in there too)
The remaining two plastic shrouds (for AA batts and the video card), reinstalling those now or waiting til later is what I call optional. Here is why.
If you get your whole pc together, then power it on, and you have a problem, you may need to take the shrouds off to get bck down in there to see what's what. However, if you leave the shrouds off for now, you can still power the pc on when the time is right, and take a look-see down in there to make sure everything looks acts and seems ok. Yes?
If you want to install the aa batt shroud now or later, either way, then route its cable behind the fan house and down into the case floor area, and in one motion "grab" the harness and work the plastic shroud to the case until it is attached. Screw it down, then secure its harness connector.
Install video card(s) carefully, & reconnect 6-8 pin power-gnd harnesses when applicable. Then, install video card shroud, and case door.
If all seems right, it's time to power the pc on ... attach mouse/video cable/plug in power supply etc ... press power ... & hopefully, before you see your Windows desktop, if it's a majik mio it will spark the exterior lights on, Windows will install drivers etc & you are good to go ...
* If the lights stay off, if Windows doesnt start installing device drivers for mio, then, power down & dbl-check mio's cnx's.
* If it looks ok, power up again, see if things change.
* If not, perform the factory reset once or twice or more ...
* Remove and replace mio's til you hit paydirt.
* Sooner then later, you will find your majik mio, your new motherboard will adopt a new daughterboard eventually. I have 5 majik mio's here. 3 worked out of the gate, 2 needed their rear ends slapped before leaving the gate, but in the end, 5 out of 5, those are great odds!
There's a mio somewhere out there in this world waiting to do majik & naturalize itself to its new foster-MB & they will have a fun-loving relationship inside their huge Area 51 mansion you've bought them, & all will go back to being right in your world.
I hope these tips tricks steps & procedures will help you make a success of your mb & master i/o swap. I tried my best to lend you a helping hand ... if somebody @ Alienware would just spill their guts on how to integrate ALL of these daughterboards w/new motherboards then there'd be no need for us to have to take them out of the case to begin with ... whistle blower please? Tech Support! Tech Support! - Tom Crusie? Vanilla Sky? Yep ...I may have to go rewatch the movie, There Will Be Blood ... because:
" ... I'm finished ! ..."
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Pre-PSU Swap Pics
Asusware-51 wearing my ALX's custom side window'd door panel
Lights Cameras Action
Asus/nVidia GTX560 Dress-Rehearsal (Blk n Slvr card uh look good ...)
no, it ain't powered up ... just a test fit ... color sheme co-ordinating this card ...
Waiting for longer X-Fire cables. Note the cards can breathe better
Say goodbye to that scant 2mm gap between cards ... airflow under there now ...
A-ware cooler w/Asetek 1150 retention ring kit ... woopie!
Command Center v2.08.11 ... the proof is in the puddin' ...
Top External USB 3.0 Ports: a walk through
Most new aftermarket mthrbrds will have a USB 3.0 header, & you may want to take advantage of this feature & modernize your case in the attempt
I bought a few pairs of USB 3.0 cables (with mounting tabs) 27.5 inch / 70cm
if you route your new usb3 cables back to stock (like the way the 2.0's route) then anything less than 27.5" / 70cm cable may not reach your port. you've been warned. cables less than 70cm can route inside the case, got it? if you decide to route inside the case, a shorter cable is preferred.
& I got a pair of U637R top i/o assemblies (usb 2.0 pcb boards to work with)
Tools may include: soldering iron & the basics like a drill bit, sharp tools & a skrewdriver etc.
There is a service manual pdf available for Area-51 & a teardown video on AlienTube
You must disassemble the better part of your case in order to access your alien's top i/o - remove the old USB 2.0 assembly - & install new USB 3.0 assembly. Both doors, front panel (& wiring), top activent assembly (& wiring), hard drive bay trim (& led), grfx/batt shroud (& wire) & pci fan (& wiring) are removed. You may want to remove video card(s). Protect your lower panels with a towel etc.
Step 1 in your plan will be to decide which port to keep alive & which two ports to desolder: in otherwords, you must decide where to mount the new USB3.0 ports at
The original USB 2.0 pcb board houses three ports (labeled here as 1 2 3); 1 & 2 are tied together on the pcb (& share a cable cord) while 3 is off to the side & has its own cord. 1 & 2 share a capacitor (1)while 3 has its own cap (2). Therefore, port 3 is perfectly isolated on the pcb, from port 1 & 2.
There are umpteen different ways to integrate USB 3.0, based on the parts you buy; some of you may go about this different than I did. Let's look at the layout of the pcb & I'll explain how & why I built mine the way I did. The point is to desolder two of the 2.0 ports & unfortunately I lost port 3: port 3 was the most desirable port to keep alive, but I could not keep it in the end:
- instead I kept port 1 alive ... & ... desoldered ports 2 & 3
- this setup allows one live usb2.0 & two new usb 3.0's
why port 3 is preferential
and why I couldn't keep it? the lightning bolt: the hole was in the way of the body of my new usb3 port. what you're seeing in this photo is what your pcb will look like if you were to remove port 1 & 2.
If you can manage a way to keep port 3 alive, you will not desolder cap #2, obviously. You'll want to keep it so that port 3 works, yes? On the one hand, port 3 needs ZERO changes to stay alive - but - to keep it alive you must deal with port #1 & more specifically the mounting hole. Figure it out somehow, or try Plan B
Plan B: keep port 1 alive
I was forced to keep port 1 alive, due to the fact the mounting hole (& underlying stud-boss) in the vicinity of port 1 would not allow me to mount my new USB 3.0 port - not without cutting it up & removing material (lots of black plastic); at $8 each, I did not want to tear one of these up & possibly cut the inner wire or what have you, trying to make it fit in the location of port 1 mounting hole. If you have the courage, by all means, if you want to try to keep port 3 alive, then buy two sets of cables, carve up a usb3.0 port & try to mount it in the same location as port 1's mounting hole. Understand?
it's possible there are alternative usb3 materials to buy/try to circumvent the port 1 mounting hole
Back to Plan B
What I did was I left port 1 attached, desoldered port 2/3 desoldered capacitors 1/2 & mounted new usb 3.0 ports in that space
When we looked at the layout of the untouched pcb, we saw a pair of barrel-shaped capacitors; note that in my finished product, I desoldered both of them & simply soldered one back into the rear of the pcb, using the same holes it was originally in.
Ground Shield pin #9 has been relocated (soldered) to the back of pcb also; this was due to the white connector(pin9) ever-so-slightly in the way. Different materials may avoid that - or - carve your usb3 'plastic' housing to make room for pin9 --> basically figure it out for yourself ok?
Now let's look at the pcb one more time after desoldering 'stuff':
- two usb 2.0 ports are gone
- two caps are removed
- port 3's wiring connector is gone
I made NEW holes in the pcb for the USB 3.0 mounting tabs to go in:
- blue arrows are the old 2.0 mounting holes
- green arrows are my new holes
- new holes were needed due to this particular set of cables; your mileage may vary
My finished product, I soldered the tabs onto the flip-side of the pcb to hold 3.0 housings secure. In a perfect world, I would have soldered them back into the old 2.0 pcb solder holes. Oh well. New holes it is. That is the background of this project & about as much as I feel the need to discuss
top i/o unfastened from case & 'cracked open' to see the inside; I'm about to remove the usb2.0
tip: find a way to reach into your case & give your I/o wiring/cords some much needed 'slack' & be very gentle with your eSata plug: unplug it now while you can, do your work & plug it back in later / last
here, I've inserted the usb3.0 pcb board into the metal i/o case; the usb3 cable has been routed back to stock - but the usb2 port which is still alive, I will route that cable inside the case; that is due to a traffic jam of cabling down at the bottom left of the hard drive bay's access hole:
tip:when reattaching your hard drive bay trim, be careful not to pinch any of your wires on the left where all of the firewire-audio-usb-eSata + power-on + led wiring gathers into a traffic jam down there
tip: plug eSata cord back in last, right before you reattach the i/o lower metal shield (see below):
top i/o buttoned up
new ports baby: note how I re-used the brown felt strip?
below: an afterthought & cleanup work
I snipped the un-used red white green black wires that were the old middle port #2. To do so:
- I'm keeping the ground shield wire + tan blu ylw org wires alive at both ends
- snip red wht grn blk wires as close as possible at the PCB
- pull the heatshrink up, snip those wires again, push heatshrink back
At the USB connector end:
- with a needle, lift the plastic pin latch up & back the pin terminals out
- back the red wht grn blk wires from out of the row
- again, pull heat shrink up, snip wires, push heatshrink back
The effect this has:
- one USB 2.0 header can power two usb devices, through one connector
- this is a 'top row' device & a 'bottom row' device
- my usb connector now has room for one more USB device
this is an H100i CPU Cooler's Corsair Link USB cable
it is one device, whose connector also has room for a 2nd device in the empty top row
the idea: back the H100i red wht grn blk wires out & insert them into your USB connector
the 'snip wires' mod you just saw me do to my USB2 cable / connector leaves room for a future USB device like H100i:
- typical motherboards now get only two usb 2.0 headers
- one is reserved for the MIO
one is for my top external usb2.0 port & the 'mod' leaves room for one more device like H100i
the Knight Fury ... & Loli ... both got some love this weekend
I hope this visual guide helped
good luck with your Alien
there are umpteen ways to do this & endless materials to choose from; if you aren't comfortable with a soldering iron, I suppose there is still a way to get top usb3 ports in your A51:
- pretend a scenario where you rip usb2 port #2 & 3 off the pcb board with pliers
- that goes for the pair of capacitors too, just rip em off there, rip or snip all the wiring too
- the pcb is sturdy, just rip it all off - but LEAVE PORT 1 ALONE
- port one will be dead, but, it can still stay attached & look the part after installation
- so, pretend none of your usb2 ports will work ...lol
- but, you will have a new pair of 3.0
- suppose you buy heavy duty double-sided tape to mount the 3.0 ports to the pcb?
- and what about more double-sided tape on the metal i/o
- you'd need tape so the usb ports do not move when you insert a gadget
will it work? how should I know ... I used solder ...
if it works, you tell me
live the dream, baby
icemanking
1 Message
0
March 21st, 2014 17:00
dear cass olé.
I am also the priod owner of a area 51 alx. now recently i update my machine to a new build.
almost the same as yours. Mob z87 sabertooth 4770k cpu and h100i cooling. now i started reading true youre text but i dont find a anwser. can you help my get my area 51 back to life? im from belgium so my english is not 100 procent. you can send me by email if you want iceman_evo8@hotmail.com
Thnx
TheRealMaRS
17 Posts
0
October 9th, 2014 09:00
Why is this thread not stickied? Why aren't the mods of this forum working with Cass Ole in preparing an official tutorial for Alienware desktop owners so they can properly and effectively swap out and upgrade their motherboards?
This is one of the best posts I have ever seen for an Alienware desktop and it should be front page information at all times.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
•
56.9K Posts
0
October 9th, 2014 09:00
TheRealMaRS,
Why aren't the mods of this forum working with Cass Ole in preparing an official tutorial for Alienware desktop owners so they can properly and effectively swap out and upgrade their motherboards?
* I agree, it is a great post. We can certainly add it to the FAQ. But Dell is not going to write an official tutorial. Because by doing so would imply that we had actually done this upgrade, which we have not. We are not going to allocate resources to buy a 3rd party motherboard and create a FAQ for a system that is no longer sold. That is the responsibility of users. All we can do is offer the Service Manual.
TheRealMaRS
17 Posts
0
October 9th, 2014 11:00
Well is it possible to allocate resources for the Aurora R4 systems and of course the future Area-51 systems as well as create an FAQ that would include this?
Hear me out on this and really think about it before posting your response.
From a marketing stand point, especially within the "enthusiast community" Alienware suffers from that attention to detail and special customer relationship that is common place amongst other elite pre-built PC companies. I honestly believe this could be one of those situations where Alienware could really help themselves in being more open to these kinds of upgrades. The heart and soul of every PC is it's motherboard and CPU and if you can't upgrade to the newest versions it creates obvious problems. It's just my opinion Chris and to be honest I would very greatfull if I saw this upgrade be spotlighted on the Alienware forums. Thanks!
Rhenium
103 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2017 00:00
Hello Cass,
Does Area 51 R1 have the same or similar MIO board to Area 51 R2?
How about the drivers?
Cass-Ole
6 Professor
•
1.8K Posts
0
July 23rd, 2017 03:00
2017 51-R1 Motherboard Swaps
also find a swap collection here: ALIENWARE ALX Case Mod Project
_________________________________
The ALX Files: Goddess Like Gaming with MSI x99a 6850k
above is the link to my 2017 Halloween Build
motherboard & power supply swap with mostly hand-made cable set.
I later added Corsair SP120 Purple top fans & accent sleeving
________________________
WarMachine's MSI x99 Gaming Carbon 5930k + GTX 1080
below, Sidney's Asus Z68 & working AlienFx, PSU swap soon
below, Aussie Pete's Asus Maximus8 7700k; I hand-made Corsair ax1500i swap cables + consult on thunder down under
below, Paso's new 1600watt EVGA build:
Install Guide: Alienware Area 51 (R1) SkyLake Processor / Motherboard / EVGA 1600 P2 Power Supply Swap
below, Winter's EVGA 1200w Rampage V10 build:
Install Guide: Area-51 ALX: the Alien Transplant (new link to his PDF)
above, Daytones AMD Ryzen >< below, various swaps seen on eBay / 2017
_______________________________
@Rhenium > difference between R1 MIO | R2 FIO
R1 MIO board is markedly different from the R2 FIO board; they can not share CmndCntr versions(software/drivers/firmware). R1 MIO board serves many functions:
R2 Fio board handles case LEDs, USB, relays on/off etc, but most duties have been shifted over to the mthrbrd/CPU to handle. MIO is the precursor to the FIO; not the same, but similar
R1 cases can be found on eBAY and Craigslist for ~$300 - $500, as well as new restoration parts
R2 owner questions may find a wider audience here: Area 51 r2 - swap to a new motherboard, is it possible?