Question About Latitude E6410 Backlit Keyboards

Hello everyone. I have a Latitude E6410 and I love it a lot, but I decided that I wanted a backlit keyboard, and decided to buy one on eBay. I made sure to look for "US Only" and also made sure the seller claimed it was OEM. However, I'm not so sure.

The keys are noticeably harder to push than my standard keyboard. In fact, my fingers get rather strained after a few minutes of typing on it. It seems like there is (I'm guessing) twice the resistance on the keys as my previous one.

Knowing that there are several part numbers for this keyboard, I decided to try again and I bought one from a different seller that listed it as an E6400 part, which I understand is compatible. I tried that keyboard, and it too had really stiff keys, but in addition to that, the functions on some individual keys (which are normally blue) are white, the same exact white as the letters are. (I hope it makes sense what I'm trying to say).

My question is this, is this normally how the E6410 backlit keyboards are (the stiffer keys), or is it possible both keyboards are not genuine as the sellers claim?

This is the first one I purchased:
NEW Dell Latitude E6410 / E6510 Backlit Keyboard WX4JF - eBay (item 330548699066 end time Aug-28-11 13:02:03 PDT)

And this is the second one:
New OEM Keyboard Dell Latitude E6400 Backlit HT514 US - eBay (item 170544481705 end time Aug-19-11 22:41:58 PDT)

 

They're probably both genuine keyboards, just made by different suppliers. It's normal for all the markings on the backlit keyboard to be white. The backlit keys are actually clear plastic with black paint.

 

The OEM ones are made in China anyway. But there are several versions with slight differences as OEM.

 

Thanks guys. I just find it odd that the keys are so stiff, when I used a backlit keyboard on an E6400 a long time ago, the keys were very easy to press. Has this been your experience as well?

 

I'd say the backlit keyboard on mine is a bit on the stiffer side. It's got blue Fn markings.

The blue Fn markings are probably a later revision - if you look carefully I believe they painted/pad printed the area under the paint blue (it's somewhat noticeable under the right lighting). The way they make backlit keys is that they take a translucent plastic key, paint it with black paint, and then burn off some of the paint with a laser to make the letters.

EDIT: I have RRGD8, EMDB2.

 

The keys on the backlit keyboard are indeed a little stiffer than the regular keyboard, but it's not so stiff to cause strain. However, the backlit keyboard is much quieter, which I like.

A note about part numbers. HT514 is EMDB for E6400 (UK717 is EMD), WX4JF is EMDB for E6410. All keyboards will work with either system, but HT514 has all-white keys, which is very confusing.

 

A little update. The paint is already starting to wear off on the keys. I hope this too isn't normal.

 

The paint is wearing off? That can't be...the lettering is translucent on the backlit keyboard...

 

I don't know what to say. It literally looks like a layer of paint is just fading away. On one of the two, the "I" key barely works anymore. In addition, I noticed that the control switch cover (the strip with the volume up and down keys) doesn't even fit all the way while the backlit keyboards are installed. I've only had these since I started this topic.

I'm going to mark this solved, because I decided I'm going to contact Dell sales and buy one at full price.

 

How they print backlit keyboards is different than non-backlit keyboards. With backlit keyboards you paint a translucent key with black paint and then burn off some of the paint with a laser to form the letter. You can wear off the black paint.

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?ti...direct=no#Reliability+and+Ease+of+Maintenance

Scroll a bit down and go to the Macbook Pro keyboard.