Alienware M17x AlienFusion Service Hang on Startup problem

When I recieved my new Alienware M17x 2 weeks ago I went thu and performed a complete functional check. I then updated Windows Vista 64 bit Ulimate to service pack 2. I noticed in the  Windows Problem Reports and Solutions that everytime the computer was started, windows was logging a problem with AlienFusionService.exe hanging. Alien Command Center AlienFX, Alien Fusion, Alien Touch, and Alien Sense applications worked fine.

As this windows problem report for AlienFusion Service hang bothered me I emailed alienware and never recieved a response, so I called Microsoft tech support. Their windows vista support team is outstanding. Even though Alienfusion is a third party application, the Microsoft tech spent the better part of two evenings with me troubleshooting this problem. We finally determined that the Alien fusion application was trying to automatically start when windows was started. The application is either having a latency issue (taking too long to start) or it was conflicting with windows power managment.

In any case the microsoft tech suggested that I open up windows services and change the system setting from "automatic" to "manual" This provided a temporary fix as windows quit logging the problem and Alien Fusion still functions ok. The manual setting just means that windows will not load the application on startup, it will only load on demand from the user or other windows applications.

To make this change, click on the windows start and  type in services in the Start Search and hit enter. The first appication in the services window is AlienFusion Service. Double click on the AlienFusion Service and click on the drop down that has automatic, and select manual. Then click on service stop, then click apply and close. Windows will not try to automatically start Alien Fusion, and will quit reporting a problem.

I hope this helps.