Friday, February 19, 2010

Command Center updated to v2.5.44.0

Today Dell released an update for the Alienware Command Center. This update is the first which combines all three models (M15x, M17x and M17xR2).

***IMPORTANT: BEFORE INSTALLING, SEE UPDATED TESTING NOTES BELOW***

According to the release notes the following changes have been made:
Command Center
- New Look and Feel.
- New feature added Brightness Control in AlienFX.
- New Auto-Update notification location
- Added animation to the Auto-Update notification
- Auto-Update checking now happens in a background process

AlienFX
FIX: GUI changes to align some elements in the screen
FIX: Alienhead is not blinking in fully charge state

AlienTouch
FIX: The restore default values made persistent.

Firmware version 2.0.0
- Prevent lock-up when communicating with failed SMBus devices.
- The ELC system clock is set to 1.5Mhz to reduce RF emissions that affect the WWAN card.
- Catch and ignore invalid power state combinations. i.e DC Charging.

Aliensense Version 2.004.073 12/19/09
Auto Disable – Certain programs (Notepad, Paint and Calculator)
when opened, did not disable AlienSense operation in Auto User Switching and Continuous Security modes.
It was determined that only 32 bit applications were disabling AlienSense. Now with this fix, both 32
and 64 bit applications can disable AlienSense.

I will be testing this under Vista today and will report back once testing is complete. I have updated the Driver Lists for both Vista and W7 as it is compatible with both. The direct download can be found HERE.

More to follow...

**UPDATE - TESTING COMPLETE - FINAL THOUGHTS**
There is something wrong with this version. After conducting further testing it appears to be a bad BIOS update/flash for the AlienFX Board (IMO). After install, this version causes intermittent color flashes of various zones. Something is not correct. To resolve this issue you will need to reinstall the previous version which can be found here. Process:

Uninstall by running installer - select REMOVE
Reboot into Safe Mode
Run CCleaner's registry module and remove all problems found
Reboot normally
Install previous version of Command Center


I have forwarded this info to Dell and revised the driver lists with the previous version. Stay away for now.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

so it could be better with older CC? i'm fully pleased with my current (2.0.10, A03) - so it seems these minor updates don't make sense for me and this "Alienhead is not blinking in fully charge state" i like =)

M said...

I was not able to play with the revised version long enough - the blinking was just simply annoying. So, yes, I agree with you Hazard 2.0.10 FTW (at least for now).

John said...

I am experiencing the same issues and I can't seem to change the color of certain zones. Zones 6 and 10 will not change color independently but will change to mimic zone 9 if I do so.

M said...

WUS - That is odd. While I did not see that exact behavior, I did experience the intermittent color flash. Touchstrip bar, speakers and keyboard zones all had it.

Did you revert back to the previous version of CC? If not, you should do so. Best to get away from v2.5.44.0 for now...

-BB

John said...

I have tried reinstalling the A03 version after using CC but it's not completely successful. While the old interface does reinstall, the lights are still malfunctioning and now the two alien heads do not light up. They flash at times, but not often. I hope the new version Dell and Chris M reports to have coming will fix my issues. I really don't want to call for support.

Anonymous said...

You can't win. All my lights work fine with the old version, but I can't access the "Fusion" portion of the CC and the facial recogniton wizard does't start up so I can't enroll. Even if I could, the old CC version doesn't have the "autolight" feature which comes on during facial recogniton in poor lighting. The new version on the other hand has a good facial recognition and I can access all features (FX,Fusion,Touch and Sense), but both the power and back cover alien heads are out. Both CC have flaws. The new CC center works on my M15x and M11x, why not the M17x? Doesn't make sense that Alienware's "flagship" and most expensive model would be the last one to see a CC update. When can we expect one??

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