Keyboard Light Fix (Gary Key)

Mod note: reuploaded here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/asus-g73jh-keyboard-light-failure.832793/#post-11010658
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Because Gary cannot create a new thread yet.

From Gary Key:

Download Links:
MD5 Hash (Hashtab): FCDC0A16DB9193F7303CE042388EBF3D
[ mod note: Reuploaded here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/asus-g73jh-keyboard-light-failure.832793/#post-11010658 ]
[dead links removed by mod]

I am still not able to post a new thread or link to our FTP so I will provide a shortcut to the files needed to fix the missing lights on the G73Jh keyboard after a failed flash. This solution is provided as is and will only be supported by yours truly. If you are not comfortable flashing the BIOS on the G73Jh and have the missing light issue then I highly suggest you contact our Service group to arrange a RMA. Although every precaution has been taken to ensure the safety of this flash, there is always the possibility of a failed flash due to power outage, hardware modifications to the unit, or simply bad luck.

That said there are three compressed folders within the downloaded file. The fine people at HP produced an excellent USB Disk Tool that allows you to create a bootable USB Flash Drive and this program is located in the HPUSBDisk.rar folder. In order to create a bootable drive you will also need the required DOS files and the nice personnel at Microsoft provided these files in the Win98boot.rar folder. Extract both folders to your hard drive and open the HP USB Disk tool and follow the instructions to create a clean bootable flash drive. Additional instructions on how to do this are easily available via Google. After creating the bootable flash drive (FAT32 is the safest option) then you will want to extract the contents of the Fixmykb.rar file to this drive.

For those of you who already have a bootable USB Flash Drive then you will want to extract the contents of the Fixmykb.rar file to this drive. Now you are ready to have the lights come on.

1. Boot into Windows and turn off the lights completely using the light switch button in the upper left corner on the keyboard deck. Insert your bootable USB flash drive with the Fixmykb.rar contents extracted on to it.
2. Reboot and quickly start tapping the Delete key to enter the BIOS. You will want to navigate to the Boot section of the BIOS and then change the Hard Drive boot settings on Option 1 to your Flash drive. Exit the BIOS while saving the settings and the unit should boot of the USB drive now.
3. Once you have booted off the USB drive, simply type fixmykb and you should see a flash completion screen immediately. Remove the flash drive and power down the system.
4. Wait ten seconds and then power up the system and enter Windows. Once in Windows, turn on the lights with the switch button and you should have a backlit keyboard now, use FN+F4 to brighten the keyboard or FN+F3 to dim it.
5. Now just in case this did not work then reboot the system and wait until you are in Windows, press FN+F4 a couple of times and the keyboard should be backlit now. We did experience on two systems (several BIOS flashes to various builds along with the vBIOS flashes) that the unit needed the ATK drivers loaded again so if the lights are not working by now, please reload the ATK drivers. I highly recommend using the latest version on our site. After uninstalling the old set, rebooting, and then installing the latest ATK driver set the lights should start working again after using the FN+F4 procedure.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact me. If this fix proves successful for you then it would be nice to hear it but more importantly if it did not work then we need you to PM me. I used this routine 500 times and it always returned the lights to working order on an approved ASUS BIOS. If you are using a modified BIOS, do not try this procedure without reverting back to an ASUS BIOS as it could render your system inoperable.

Sincerely,
Gary

 

Maybe we should get a sticky (if asus doesn't put it up on their webpage)?

 

Sticky sounds like a good idea. I have also updated the keyboard light thread with Gary's post on the first page.

 

Guess my kb issue is hardware, since this did not work for me.

 

Didn't you loose your kb after your repaste?

 

Great news! Can't wait to see if this works, and it'll save a lot of people from RMA'ing their G73's.

 

Chastity, are you still missing keystrokes after flashing this? I don't know enough about this to know if this "bios" that is being flashed is the whole keyboard controller bios or just some custom bios that runs the keyboard lights. I thought maybe if it is a bios that manages the keyboard maybe it fixes missing keystrokes.

 

It is just for the keyboard lights. Have you tried reverting back to the MS drivers for the keyboard as I know that cured the problem for three users I assisted. I am still working on the missing keystroke comments but maybe I do not type fast enough. I average 88wpm with zero errors, if I try really hard I can hit 116wpm but usually average one to two errors.

I will be at HQ next week so I can increase the sample size of units to test but we are having a hard time replicating this problem. It might come down to switching units for a brief period of time with a user reporting the problem to nail it down.

 

Thank you, Gary. I'm not a very fast typist which is probably odd since I write software for a living. I do about 60WPM. I suspected it was just a KB backlight controller. I would have RMAed for a replacement unit long ago, but I didn't want to give up my non-GSOD GPU.

The reason I don't run MS mouse driver is because I can't disable the touch pad with keys after that. I'm a big ol' Texas boy as they say down here and I have big hands. I can't type without getting all over the touchpad and the cursor is all over the screen if you don't have a regular driver with palm check. So I just turn it off in BIOS and wait for a fix. Sometimes I turn it back on thinking maybe I can live with it... after a few dozen typos in an hour or so I turn it back off again.

When you get to the point where you want to test with some units that have the problem, you can have mine. I'll trade out with Asus for a while. I'll just keep my primary hard drive and you can have it. Even if the loaner you send me has GSOD, it's no big deal. I'll just not play games for a while. It won't kill me.

 

So where is the admin that not putting this (and all from Gary) sticky at the top of this forum, which become the Official Non-Asus G73JH Forum Support

BTW, thanks gary, your are our hero.

 

So just for fun Gary. What was the causing the issue? Im assuming something to do with winflash not doing something correctly?

 

It was winflash causing some corruption at flashing the bios that somehow bricked the lights controller.
Gary i tried removing the KBFilter driver (also updated the ATK package) and using the Microsoft keyboard driver and it doesnt do the trick for me. Im still missing keystrokes. And its not the hardware either since this is my 2nd keyboard already.

 

I also have the problem without the KB Filter Driver and standard windows PS/2 drivers.

 

Ok, that helps knowing both of you still have the problem as it is different than the others I have assisted. I will find out where Synaptics is on a new driver next week.

 

I was kind of under the impression that all or at least most of the G73JH rigs missed keystrokes. Gary is indicating that it is somewhat elusive. Now I'm wondering if it's elusive because it's so intermittent or it's elusive because so few laptops have the problem. Mine, Chastity's, and HellCry's all do it, but I thought there were a lot more.

 

There are reports of the same issue - missing keystrokes on older models as well on Asus VIP forums so its an old problem and it cant be so elusive. Perhaps many people just dont notice it becouse they type slower or they believe its just them not pressig the keys every now and then?

 

If I have the problem, it's very minimal. Then again, I don't type at 110 wpm.

 

Im starting to think the culprit is the ATK being so old and outdated.
Full post HERE.
Think its more plausible than it being Synaptics?

 

The ATK theory makes some sense to me. I did some poking around in that software. There are two executables that run all the time (ATKOSD.exe and ATKOSD2.exe). These are probably responsible for the on screen display of functions being disabled or enabled. I changed their priority and didn't help the keystrokes. I killed them and didn't help the keystrokes. There is a service that runs ATKFNEXSrv whose executable is GFNEXSrv.exe. Stopping the service didn't help either.

I believe that the ATK service is intercepting keystrokes before passing them to the OS and inspecting them to see if they are strokes that it needs to handle. Furthermore, there are some functions that the executable service can't do on it's own so it is calling additional executables to handle those. For instance, when you want the touchpad disabled, it calls SynptDis.exe to make that happen.

If it is capturing every keystroke for inspection instead of Fn + some key, it could definitely be the culprit. If I were writing a package to do this, I would use the windows API to intercept the keystrokes. They may be doing it in more of a driver fashion where Windows thinks ATK is the keyboard driver so the Asus software gets the keys first. I can't know that without source or being smarter .

The question would be why does does ATK only have problems when the touchpad is enabled in BIOS? Also, why wouldn't this affect every single laptop?

I gotta have my backlight so it's still BIOS disable for me.

 

Im thinking of just throwing in the towel and trying to get either a entire new replacement notebook or a full refund. Trying to find solutions to these problems just takes far too much of my time i could spend on something much more enjoyable.

 

I have debated doing the same thing. If I knew that a very low percentage of the laptops miss keystrokes, I would probably RMA. If they all do it and some people just don't notice it, RMA would be futile and I would most likely wind up with a different mother board and GPU. I could wind up with a machine with a perfect keyboard but GSOD. That would make me a sad panda.

 

Well i have nothing to loose since i have both the GSODs and Keyboard Missing Keystrokes (and after changing the GPU three times and the Keyboard once). Its a law here that if you have 3 unsuccessful RMAs you are entitled to a full refund if you choose so. I have had 3 RMAs, but one was from USA so i dont think it will count so i will probably have to do another one before i can get a refund.

 

get a replacement.. and if its works , stop ranting

 

I already replaced the GPU 3 times and the keyboard once and it still has both problems so ive already went through a lot of hoops here and i thik i have every right to express my outrage.
I also suggested to Gary to arrange a fully tested fully working replacement notebook (like the 300+ ones he claims to have there) to be sent in for exchange and he can get mine to work on it since it has both the issues even after 3 GPU replacements and a keyboard replacement. Hes been saying he has trouble replicating the issues, so lets see if he wants this notebook to help the others or not.

 

This may seem trivial. Did you check to see if the backlight cable was installed upside down? That was my problem after I flashed this fix and nothing happened. Now my keyboard works as intended. I may have plugged it in wrong when I was originally diagnosing the keyboard issue a few months back.

 

I have already checked the orientation of the cable many times.

 

THEN DO IT!!! GO BUY A CLEVO ALREADY!!!
- IT'S MORONIC TO BE SO UNHAPPY AND CONSTANTLY TELLING EVERYONE SOMETHING IS BETTER, YET BEING A HYPOCRITE YOURSELF
- HYPOCRISY, EITHER DO IT OR STOP BASHING THE G73

 

Im on it but it takes time - 3 RMAs. I wont bother your highness any longer.
Enjoy working your a$$ off for Asus. Im done.

 

The download link for the keyboard fix in the original post returns a page saying that the file no longer exists or has been removed... Can someone rehost the file?

 

yeah. broken link/download.

 

http://pcaudio.org/stuff/G73JhFixKBLights.rar Chasity link ( love her!)

 

Just wanted to say

THANKS SO SO MUCH

It's ALIVE
It's ALIVE


Finally I got my KB Light again

This solution works 100%

 

Now, if we can only say that about the original OP link

 

This fixes the issue in this one case : '7C' replaced by 'FF' in the EEPROM

Asus computers with a backlit keyboard come with the flag '7C' writen in the cnfg page of the EEPROM.
It's a small stiky memory on the motherboard. Apart from the BIOS.

The flag address is cnfg DD (and not 27 as writen in many forums)

Reading for weeks forums looking for a fix I learned that this flag is erased to 'FF' value :
- when flashing a new BIOS (mostly from windows and rarely from the startup utility)
- when reinstalling windows from the recovery partition (what I did)
- may be in fewer cases when reinstalling windows from the recovery DVDs

It seems, again reading forums from all over the world, that not all Asus RMA centers know that !
Some replaced, the keyboard, the mother board (!), send the computer back without fixing it, but in most cases, fixed it without any explanation.

For months now, ASUS does not release a patch. A very simple app from windows could write this back to EEPROM. But here's the Asus problem : one flag in this eeprom (27) tells windows installer what version (like pro or ultimate edition) of windows to install... So may be some guys overthere just dont want the BT.exe utility to be spread around.

In most cases, if you flashed the latest BIOS available, the latest ATK drivers and have your backlite keyboard not working, this fix will give the light back to you !

At last, some few users had the keyboard power rubbon unplugged. Before doing the hardware work to pull it out and risk dammaging this fragile plastic stuff, try this fix.

WORKS ON G73 and U80V (just begining the list). Brings also the light back to U80V illuminated trackpad.

 

What is all this for? The problem is resolved now, correct? That is the purpose of this thread explained in the first post.

Cheers,

 

i could kiss you sirs. nice job.

 

Its a different laptop, but not a far shot... But I am having the same exact problem with the G72GX, will this fix work with it as well? Not having the lights under the keys is really bugging me.

 

I'm having problem too.. My laptop is the G73JW-A1... Will this also work as well?

 

LOLED at pcaudio.org [INSERT JOKE HERE]

[ Insert sample text to begin: ]
EDIT: Guess what it was software related after-all, shouldn't have removed the keyboard the cable was fine

 

here all ok!!!! Nice job!!!

 

What's the funny joke?

 

it's not that hard to replace [insert email here] with an actual email, it's a half an hour job at most to edit that whole page, hell I'd say even 10 minutes, the way it is/was when I saw it ,it's just so unprofessional.

 

oh, I leave the default webpage all garbage. I haven't done anything with it. Just using it as online storage and for sharing stuff. I had to use their online site helper to get the space originally setup. Once that was done, I can ftp in and do what I like.

 

you could at least do a simple blank page or something :|

 

Thanks for this fix guys,

last night I flashed my G73 to 211, i did a few restarts and tested a game or 2, and shut down for the night and the lights were still working during all that

come morning the lights didn't work, after several tries of this it works (turns out i forgot to type the FIXMYKB during booting the flash drive)

thanks for the fix, saves me sending it to asus during college

 

well its about time. thank you kindly.

 

amazing
wish i found this earlier
duh!
would have saved countless rma

 

why was ziddy banned lol?

 

ziddy expressed his opinions to a mod in his usual manner.

 

so basically a mod banned him cause of personal issues with him ?
So much for professionalism.