The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    FYI: M17x R4 Keyboard Dim Issue - Solved - Info only post

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by CheezWiz, Oct 19, 2012.

  1. CheezWiz

    CheezWiz Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    11
    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Just an FYI for the future. I came and searched for this issue and all the threads did not apply to my resolution.

    I have two identical M17x R4's purchased from Amazon.

    Tonight I noticed that my keyboard just did not look right. I sat it beside my wife's system and sure enough it looked bad.
    I checked the dim settings, reset the bios, all the usual things. Even removed and re-seated the cables, nothing helped...

    Being a EE grad, I resorted to the last and least often useful thing on the list. I took a Q-tip and some alcohol and cleaned the end of the LED ribbon cable and MB connector. Dried it thoroughly and put it back together. Bam! Bright as new!

    I guess I had fat fingered the end of that connector when I was installing a better wireless card. The minuscule amount of body oil I must have gotten on the cable was enough to dim the lighting a significant amount. At these low voltage and currents, I guess it makes sense...

    So there is one more for the archive.

    L8R,
     
    CheezWiz, Oct 19, 2012
    #1