A few L702X questions

Bought an XPS 17 off of the outlet as a bit of an impulse buy. The wife wanted an Inspiron 14R and while I was getting that I figured I'd just look around. Found a scratch and dent XPS 17 that when combined with the recent coupon I just couldn't say no to. Pretty happy with it overall but do have a few things that annoy me.

Is there anyway to get the keyboard backlight to stay on while plugged in? I've checked both windows power options and the mobility center. I'm looking for keyboard on 100% while plugged in. Ideas?

The left side palm rest gets very hot while playing a game. I've only loaded Just Cause 2 (my favorite time killer) and Mass Effect 2 so far. The left vent has the hottest output I've ever felt and the left palm rest area gets way beyond what I would consider just "warm." Anything I can do about this? Will a repaste job help? This lappy looks like a PITA to get to the heatsinks on. I do see some kind of "screen" on the inside of the intake vent. Thought about removing this to see if airflow is improved. Fan seems to move plenty of air, just hot as heck.

Config:

2410m (Only CPU intensive thing I do is recode DVD rips. Hi Quicksync!)
1080 AG
GT555
4GB
Single 500GB for now

Overall quite impressed. Dell did good with this one. The speakers make me smile everytime I hear them. The webcam seems quite good. 555m is no slouch so far and I haven't overclocked yet. Not blown away by the screen but I really have no complaints either. It's nice and bright. Just need to get a proper SSD in here and I think I'll have a screamer that will last awhile.

 

Although I suspect this setting doesn't know plugged in vs battery, look more carefully in mobility center: Under customized by Dell, click the icon left of Keyboard Brightness, then change the pull down item to Never off.

 

Thanks. They sure don't make that obvious.

 

No kidding! I was looking for the same thing. However, I would like the option to have the backlighting default to off when running on battery like I could on my Alienware. However, I doubt the lighting draws much power anyway.

 

The palmrest still gets toasty after a repaste/mesh removal. May want to invest in a Logitech G13 to get your hands off the keyboard when gaming

 

Has someone done a guide for this yet? Still want to take a peak.

Buying a bunch of external devices kinda defeats the purpose of a notebook for me. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

Yup there's a repaste guide kicking around on the forums.

I see your point with the G13. But it isn't that huge (being a keypad), I'm probably going to order one soon for gaming (that and I miss the little screen on my g15)