XPS 1645 keyboard backlight leakage

Th backlit keyboard on my XPS 1645 leaks a lot of light, which is quite annoying in dimly lit environments.

In my case it is mostly the upper row of keys, but other individual keys have the same problem. As not all keys have this problem I assume it is not a design feature.

Is anyone else experiencing this same issue? I have done a search on the forum, but couldn't find anything related.

I will take some pictures and post them up later.

 

completely normal. same issue on macbooks.

 

Agree, I have a MacBook Pro and 1645, they both emit quite a bit light around the keys.

 

y not show us actual pictures?

 

I will, once I've taken them.

So far I think it must be bad build quality as the light leakage is very non-uniform. Doesn't look like it was intended like this. Will try to take pics tonight and post them.

 

"bad build quality" blacklit does look beautiful.. lol

 

OK, here goes. The pics aren't great as I don't have my proper camera with me at the moment, but I think they get the point across.

The leakage isn't as bad from every angle, but the angle I see the keyboard at when I'm working happens to be one of the worst

I don't mind a little leakage, even though I doubt that would be needed. In this case I think the leakage is excessive.

 

It looks normal to me. You can turn the light off.

 

I know I can turn it off. I bought a machine with a backlit keyboard because I work in dimly lit environments a lot, and a lit keyboard is quite convenient then. I didn't buy it to turn it off. That's just like the throttling thing. You can turn of the entire machine, then it won't throttle

The top row of keys is (to me) very distracting. It may be normal, but in that case I'm fairly disappointed in the whole backlit keyboard concept.

 

Why dont you just dim it?

 

Because it doesn't matter much.

Maybe I just expected too much from this expensive machine.

Do your keyboards look (roughly) the same? This machine was clearly designed with looks in mind, otherwise they wouldn't have used the leather and the aluminium the way they did. The keyboard (again: to me) looks like they just threw in a bunch of keys. It doesn't look as neat as the rest of the machine, and the extra light simply annoys me.

The system itself performs just fine, certainly if the throttling issue will truly be fixed. But the more I use and look at this machine, I think the build quality is really bad.

 

I know what you mean about the leakage of the light, it’s the same on mine, and i hate the fact the keys gets smudgy really quickly.
Give me a sec I’m going to take a picture and post it, from the angle when your typing

 

Mine looks the same. The top row looks different because of the angle your pictures are taken from (and possibly because the top row keys are shorter).

 

Thanks, that'd be great!

I don't completely agree with you on the angle. Sure, it makes a difference, but no matter at what angle I look at the keyboard, the top row sticks out. Only straight from above it doesn't.

Similarly a lot of other keys never leak, regardless of the angle. And it's not just being at an outside edge of the keyboard that causes the leaking, because my [ and ] keys are just as bad. From almost any angle they leak like crazy, while s, d, f, g, etc. don't leak.

Another example would be the right alt and ctrl keys. Alt is perfect. Ctrl leaks quite a bit and even looks like it is mounted at an angle. The bit next to the alt key seems to be lower than the bit next to the context-menu key. This context-menu key is, like the alt key, perfect.

The fact that there is such a huge difference between adjoining keys makes me think this is a quality, rather than a design issue.

 

Just dim it. It makes a difference.

 

They are not lighting each key individually. If they were able to do that, it would look much more elegant and probably have no bleeding. However, it's probably just some sort of large light source illuminating the entire keyboard which is the easiest to do from an engineering standpoint.

Personally, I don't think it's all that big a deal. If I dim it some, it's hardly noticeable. If they could light each key individually, you could do some cool things like individually control which keys get lit.

 

No i think Mitch has a point, his Ctrl emits more light then compared to my one especially at the edges, mine emits non what so ever no matter what angle i looked at or even if my lights were off.

I think your top keys are emitting more then what mine does.

But then again i migt be wrong

p.s
my pics are too big for me to up it up try doing it tomorrow, got law school have to kip early.

 

Hmm, my backlight bleeding is nowhere near as high as yours. There's some on the top row, but not distracting like in your picture. I'm not sure why yours is like that to be quite honest.

I usually tend to keep mine on the medium setting anyways, and even in a very low lit environment it looks pretty good with very minimal backlight bleeding.

 

I was looking at this last night on mine. I wouldn't mind if all the keys bled light around the edges but when its only some it makes it look bad. At least they have some consistency mine bleed in the same places as yours. It just doesn't look right having part of your keyboard looking like an xmas tree.

 

ya... Definitely not normal, that looks odd. You could always complain… Dell is good at sending parts.

 

yea, that's normal. The lighting is not actually tucked inside the keys, but rather under them, so there is going to be leakage.

 

those pictures u uploaded.. looks normal to me.

 

No problem

Thanks guys, I just wanted to know if they're all this bad. If they are it's useless trying to get a replacement as it will be just as bad.

 

I would try ( replacement )… The surrounding emitting lights on my keyboard keys are all uniformed, and at any position.

 

i guess it depends, but i do not seem to have that much leakage from mine, but then again, it all depends on the angle you are lookin at the laptop from, it does not seem so abnormal to me, but hey u know its dell, all u gotta do is ask for your keyboard to be replaced and they will do it, dell customer service reps will replace anything for you for any reason, trust me.

 

Not much of a problem on the 1340

 

I'm going for a replacement as I really don't think this is a proper keyboard.
Will let you all know what happens.

 

I have received a new keyboard, and it is a lot better! It's still not what I would expect for this machine, but muc, much beter than the other one.

 

That’s great … did you have a hard time installing it?

 

I didn't have to install it myself as a tech came over to replce my screen anyway. They also had him bring the 130W brick.

But it didn't look very difficult. From what I could tell (was busy doing other work at the same time) you just take off the back cover, undo some screws to take off the palmrest and unscrew / rescrew the keyboard to / from the palmrest.

 

omg, same problem, well i guess everyone will experience it..
gets smudgy really quickly..
there really isnt a way to solve this, is there? =(
i can only think of buying a keyboard protector silicon or using an external keyboard, which im doing now =D
does sound silly, but i really hate looking at the smudgy keys!

 

how much did it cost u to replace the keyboard?
i wanna get mine replace too..not because of the backlight problem, but when the keyboard gets smudges all of over...

 

It didn't cost me a thing as they replaced the keyboard under warranty.

Can you not just clean the keyboard? Replacing it when there are smudges seems a bit extreme...

 

yea i guess..does seem a bit extreme..

but it cannot be clean =(
i try various things but those keyboard marks are still there..
damn gay materials they use...
i expected better quality for the price i've paid..

 

dude is there a way to set the time they backlight turns on?
coz it turns off after like 2 mins or so if you dont type anything..

 

I don't think so, although it'll turn on if you touch the mousepad, also.

 

I'm assuming you meant to ask if there is a way to set the time the backlight goes off. If so, you can do this if you have Dell QuickSet installed. If it is installed, run "C:\Program Files\Dell\QuickSet\BacklitKB.exe" and you can set the time there.

 

ahh yes, thats what i meant..sorry for the bad english..

and no, i dont have that program installed..
does it come with the cd when u buy the laptop?
thanks

 

Try searching for "windows mobility center" in the windows explorer search bar. Open Windows Mobility Center and on the bottom there should be a button for adjusting the keyboard brightness. Click on the keyboard icon next to the text "keyboard brightness:". You will be able to make adjustments here.

 

It is found on the drivers CD shipped with the system, but you can also download it from Dell Drivers & Downloads.

Good to know...I knew the keyboard brightness was found on the Windows Mobility Center screen, but I didn't know the icons were buttons! I was wondering why this Keyboard Backlighting application wasn't in the start menu and was hard to get to. Seems like I learn something new about my SXPS every day.

BTW, the keyboard shortcut to the Windows Mobility Center is 'Windows logo key + X'.