Alienware System Gone Dark

AlienFX Side Panel

Since May 2007 I have had an Alienware 7500-R4 system. Here is the configuration. At the time Alienware shipped systems with 4GB or more, but only supported Vista x86, which meant in my case that I only had access to 2.7GB of the 4GB that I purchased.

Lights Did Work

The AlienFX software worked for about 2 years after I upgraded to Vista x64, apparently because a flash memory on the ELC board – Electronic Lighting Control?  – saved the settings. But when I upgraded the system to 8GB recently, the system came up dark, and the lights have never re-appeared. My case is now permanently dark. Continue reading “Alienware System Gone Dark”

Build a Mini-Desktop

Thermaltake SD100

Modern components make it easy and inexpensive to build a mini-desktop system. This case looks more like a somewhat large DVD player than a computer but it is a very high quality – completely steel – case made for home theater systems. I’ve put together a configuration for a modern desktop using this case. The total price is less than $600 including a monitor, wireless keyboard/ mouse and about $450 without a monitor, kb/mouse.

Continue reading “Build a Mini-Desktop”

AlienFX Software – Fails on Vista x64

Summary

An Alienware Desktop from May 2007 has been upgraded to run Vista x64. At this time I cannot find a working version of the AlienFx software to power the AlienFx Lighting Interface and the desktop is dark. Since the upgrade to Vista x64, the lighting has worked since the settings were saved inside the AlienFX interface, but after a memory upgrade to 8GB, the AlienFX lights are now dark. I need to have the system lighting working on this system. The system was purchased with a 4 year warranty and so is under warranty until May 2011.

While Alienware did not support Vista x64 at the time the system was purchased, they have supported 64-bit operating systems since shortly after the system was delivered.

Continue reading “AlienFX Software – Fails on Vista x64”

Spokeo? Helpful or Extortion?

I heard about Spokeo and I’m passing the word. I’ve removed myself and here’s why.

To remove yourself, for free, go to their Privacy Page, and follow the simple instructions.

Spokeo claims their information is available from public sources. However, do we really know that? Do we know that they have not made relationships with database companies that folks would have to pay dearly to join to get my information, for example. They don’t say that, at least not in the large print that I could read. Continue reading “Spokeo? Helpful or Extortion?”

Software Sites Recommend Me.

Now that I’ve put up some new shareware programs on Source Forge, software sites have started to “recommend me”. They must be employing folks in a far off country to do some simple tests and an automatic virus scan and then put the page on the site. The problem is that I’m not sure they link back to the Source Forge site so that updates are evident to users.

PhotoResizerQt

Continue reading “Software Sites Recommend Me.”

QTcpSocket – Unable to Connect

I’m doing a lot of programming with the Qt toolkit using Qt Creator.

In doing network programming, I can’t get a QTcpSocket to connect to a website.

Here is an example program. The connect will not call back the routines indicating that the connect either succeeded or failed. The program is based on this Qt Sample.

Can someone help with the problems.

TcpConnectTest

Fill in a website and click connect. Watch the output for debug messages. The completion slots are not called.

I’m using Qt Creator 2.0.1 with Qt 4.7.1.

TcpConnectTest zip file of the sources.

Thanks,

Windy