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    F7 key ejects my optical drive

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by chadless, Feb 27, 2011.

  1. chadless

    chadless Newbie

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    I cannot figure out how to disable this. I use F7 when I play games and it is very annoying to have my optical drive eject when ever i hit f7.

    Any ideas would be appreciated.
     
  2. GallardosEggrollshop

    GallardosEggrollshop Notebook Evangelist

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    I have no idea why that would occur but here's what I would do in your situation. First do a power drain. If that doesn't fix the issue I would take the keyboard out and reseat it. If that also doesn't work I would make sure I was running the latest BIOS and if not install it. If all else fails you can contact Dell about the issue and see what they can do to alleviate it granted that you still have a warranty but regardless they may be able to give you some further insight on the problem.
     
  3. kosti

    kosti Notebook Virtuoso

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    Mine does that too. Can't confirm it but perhaps the F7 key is meant to eject the drive in case something goes wrong with the touch panel? Unless you are using your drive to play games, you can just disable the optical drive in device manager. That will free up the F7 key. Or just use a key other than F7 :)

    EDIT: Ok found it. It's not a BIOS feature. It's actually the OSD app that does this but I'm not sure why. If you go to your OSD folder (C:\Program Files(x86)\OSD), you'll see a "close_osd" executable. Double-click it and try F7. It should not initiate a drive eject. Only issue now is that the OSD app is not running, so you need to double-click "OSD_Main" to re-enable it.
     
  4. fenix2k

    fenix2k Notebook Enthusiast

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    This is happening to me too!

    Just a question - what version of BIOS are you running?

    As i have just upgraded to A09 and am 99% sure this wasnt happening in A08.

    Might be worth seeing if there is an updated OSD app too.
     
  5. highfly

    highfly Notebook Consultant

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    I don't think the BIOS version is the problem as I'm still on A08 and it does the same for me. I would really like this not to happen it would be much better if we could change it to fn+f7
     
  6. kosti

    kosti Notebook Virtuoso

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    In case you guys missed my previous post edit:

    "Ok found it. It's not a BIOS feature. It's actually the OSD app that does this but I'm not sure why. If you go to your OSD folder (C:\Program Files(x86)\OSD), you'll see a "close_osd" executable. Double-click it and try F7. It should not initiate a drive eject. Only issue now is that the OSD app is not running, so you need to double-click "OSD_Main" to re-enable it."
     
  7. fenix2k

    fenix2k Notebook Enthusiast

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    I did get your post, and i have now added shortcuts to the osd program.

    My point was that i always had the OSD on, and i thought it wasnt happening until i upgraded my BIOs to A08 (but given highfly is having it too on A08 i might not have noticed it).

    Re and updated OSD app, i reinstalled the one from the Dell site and it hasnt changed anything - so i guess we'll just have to wait for a fix.
     
  8. Mr Pras

    Mr Pras Hardware and systems

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    haha, me too :) never noticed and doubt it will affect me, but sure it wasn't happening before (when i got the machine at least)..
     
  9. Matt Woller

    Matt Woller Notebook Evangelist

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    Me too!

    I was wondering why that happened. :)
     
  10. Indiran

    Indiran Notebook Evangelist

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    Oh, juz tried it out and noticed that mine does it too. Weird lol. But u can use virtual drive, create an iso image of the disk. I do that to most of my games. !. Simple, 2. no hastle of carrying discs.
     
  11. pepemosca

    pepemosca Notebook Evangelist

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    Same here :(
     
  12. t_man

    t_man Notebook Geek

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    I have the same thing what I do to fix it is to hit the F7 key 4 or 5 times
    fast and it will turn the key off; Maybe it will work for you.
     
  13. bluhound

    bluhound Newbie

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    I tried that. No luck. It DVD drive tried to eject 5 times.. :(
     
  14. kosti

    kosti Notebook Virtuoso

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    Lol. Why don't you guys just create shortcuts to the executables I mentioned in my previous post.
     
  15. bluhound

    bluhound Newbie

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    I saw your post but I want it to run as it is when on A08 BIOS without any shortcuts, mods or anything.
     
  16. slyboots

    slyboots Notebook Enthusiast

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    Wow, I have the exact same problem.. I thought it was just my laptop going to hell..

    Clearly this is some sort of bios/OSD issue that Dell should be fixing without having to resort to weird workarounds..

    But a temp fix is welcome! Cheers
     
  17. pepemosca

    pepemosca Notebook Evangelist

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  18. Seph 7

    Seph 7 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks! Been waiting for this :)

    EDIT: Tested and has fixed the issue. Requires an uninstall of MyOSD before installing latest version.
     
  19. Flame113

    Flame113 Notebook Geek

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    When I try to increase/decrease sensitivity on Razer Orochi, it will increase/decrease brightness as well. Is there anyone has the same problem?