Just a friendly bump because I just got off of the phone with an alienware agent and am quite furious with their support right now. An agent caused this problem, and they are not willing to fix it since I am out of warranty. They felt it was ok walk me through a flawed installation process that broke command center, but now they do not want to fix it....

I have lost all faith in this company!

Any help from the forums would be greatly appreciated!

Shut-down machine properly so it will turn off. Unplug from wall or UPS. Hold down power button for 20 seconds to dissipate any electricity in machine and MIO-Board. Wait another 20 secs before powering up. See if that very simple procedure resets MIO-Board.

Run Dell Diagnostic on the MIO-Board. If Dell Diagnostics doesn't detect a MIO-Board at startup, the MIO-Board tests will not be available or listed. All the other tests that ARE listed, will likely test good. If this is happening, it must be corrected first. You really have to observe these MIO-Board tests, because the results are very important to the progression of steps to the final diagnosis or repair. If the MIO-Board tests fail in Dell Diagnostics, there is really no chance it will operate in Windows with Command Center software.

If the Dell Diagnostics MIO-Board tests pass, this tells us quite a bit:

1. The MIO-Board is getting power

2. The MIO-Board is connected to the motherboard's USB-1 port header (and communication is working).

3. The MIO-Board is operational and not locked up or in a loop.

4. The various devices (lights, fans, etc.) that the tests successfully exercised are connected properly.

Dell Diagnostic (specifically the MIO-Board tests). This will check it and also has been known to reset it in some fashion. If it is detected and tests good, but still won't work, try re-installing the software ...

Completely Uninstall Command Center and reboot.

Power down, unplug the power cord from the back of you PC, then press and hold the power button down for 10 seconds to drain residual power from MIO board to further reset it and to insure a trouble-free CC install. Then, power back up and go into Windows.

Disable your Anti-Virus software.

Microsoft Net 4.0 Client Framework is required for install. You can get it from Windows Update.

Install the latest Command Center (for desktops) and reboot. v2.6.17.0

Note: The first time this version is installed, it will upgrade the MIO-Board's firmware to v2.x

Test operation.

Thanks for the help Tesla,

BUT..... I tried this solution many times with many minor tweaks as well, and it never worked. I gave up on the idea of fixing this problem for about a month just to see if it might miraculously fix itself, but it never did. So I am back at it!

I would like to note that I tested the board and all the lights light up to the right color during the test.

IDK if this helps but when I first turn on the computer it lights up blue everywhere, afterward it goes to the starting windows screen where the blue lights shut off and the only lights on the computer are the orange glowing head and an orange light on the front bottom of the computer. I think this has something to do with the board since I have read a lot of your posts about this sort of thing.

I was wondering if anyone else had anymore fixes for this problem, or if there is anything at all I can do. I am really a bit frustrated about how much I paid for a computer that is not responding, as well as a company that is no help at all. :( 

Thanks for the quick response!

I just ran the diagnostic test on the last selection which is something like Master I/O device, I also ran the cable test, and the LED test. All of these tests passed, and btw the LED's all lit to the right color during the test. I am glad that this is a somewhat good sign. With this knowledge what is my next step.

If it helps I have Bios A04.

BTW When I boot up I get a not in the bottom right of my screen that says something about Alienware FX will not run blah blah blah...It says it must be enabled, but when I go to enable it, it is already checked.

As long as the MIO-Board still checks good in Dell Diags (test good and you can exercise lights and fans) you have a pretty good chance of getting it working in Windows. Does that still work?

The colors just mean it's randomly running the ON and SLEEP configs. You will have to get CommandCenter running before you can reset them.

If it works in Dell Diags, but not in Windows ... this points to a Windows problem.

Did you clean install Windows like this:

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19376654/19866250.aspx#19866250

If you veered too far off course, you might have to perform another clean install. Usually, you just have to follow  the directions I gave above to get it un-installed properly and re-installed properly.

Here is another uninstall procedure:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&cs=19&docid=125919&doclang=en&l=en&s=dhs

... but it was really written for the older 2.5.x releases. Go ahead and try it.

It has come to my attention that:

 ... if you have an Aurora ALX model (with interior lighting ... driven by batteries behind the black ODD cover) as part of the "Power Dissipation Fix", you should also remove those batteries. Seems they might have been supplying power to the MIO-Board in some way and preventing a hard-reset.

This came from a questionable source but I thought I would pass it along anyway.

When the MIO-Board checks good from Dell-AW Diags, but doesn't work in Windows ... only something like this really makes sence. This might also apply to various Area-51 models.