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M15x R1, FX suddenly stopped
I have had my m15x for 10+ years. bought it brand new. NEVER had issues with it. Original hard drive started getting sluggish so replaced it with a SSD. Upgraded the ram to whatever the max it could take and that was nice. The new SSD got full and started having loading boot errors so bought a new larger one and did a fresh install everything was fine, including FX. THEN ALL MY LIGHTS WENT OUT when I was updating my email accounts or something completely unrelated to installing or updating anything .
I have searched for hours and tried EVERY removal with the %appdata, %programdata, regedit... uninstall and load it all again... nothing. Complete format of the drive and start over. Loaded windows 7 fresh with the 2 discs I got when I purchased it, and still no lights. Tried upgrading to windows 10 no lights. Format and fresh install of windows 10 did all updates... It does not detect the board with either system with a 100% clean format then install. The AWCC folder with the FX detector says it can not detect the board. The computer works fine I just have no lights. Stinks when you can not see the caps lock or any volume buttons in the corner. Any ideas? I am still running the initial BIOS A01 and never updated it, but never had to. I read it could mess the machine up sometimes... can't believe after how well I have cared for this, it just decides to stop working.
Any help would be awesome. Thanks
@BasherWalls acknowledged re-flash contribution is in Notebook Review Intel ME completely offline.
BasherWalls' Dell Post: 13 R2, STILL broken after the 1.4.4 BIOS update?
[This user does not work for Dell and volunteers their free time. Please remember to say thank you by clicking on my thumb up icon.]DELL-Cares
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Posted March 1st, 2021 10:00
We tried reaching you on a private message asking for the Service Tag number to ascertain the warranty but did not receive a response. Please feel free to reply to the private message whenever you are available.
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mattyb3
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Posted February 28th, 2021 16:00
Hello. If you used the original Resource disk that came with the machine to reinstall Command Center then you have bricked the AlienFX chip on the motherboard.
This is a well known issue with certain M15x laptops that were sent out. They put a wrong (or corrupted) version of Command Center on the disk. Unfortunately you will need to replace your motherboard.
There were people who knew how to reflash the chip with a programmer and software but this knowledge seems to be lost to the ages.
BTW, my M15x has the same issue. I replace the board with one I found on Aliexpress but that board failed within a month so I'm also back to no AlienFX.
In my opinion, Dell should continue to support people with this issue since it was their software that caused it. I won't hold my breath