Can upgrading the WIFI card and hard drive make some of the backlit keys stop working?

I received a new laptop with a backlit keyboard and dumb me, before I even opened it to check it out for myself. I brought it to a place to have the hard drive upgraded to a hitachi 7K500 and the WIFI card upgraded to a Intel Centrino 6250 and I also had them "optimize" it with taking out the bloatware.

I received it back and only about 6-7 of the backlit keys actually lit up. ALL the lights surrounding ALL the keys lit up, but only about 6-7 keys actually lit through the letters and symbols. Again surrounding all the keys lit up but only 6-7 of the letters and or symbols lit up. The rest of them did not light up at all.

My thought process is if he did blow something swapping out the hard drive and wifi card wouldnt it of blown all the backlighting of the keyboard? Meaning all lighting surrounding the keys wouldnt work and the actually letters, numbers, and logos wouldnt light up. Not just the majority of them but all of them?

 

What system do you have? and what kind of warranty?

Where was this place you took it? and what kind of guarantee do they have on workmanship?

To answer your questions directly no they can not unless there was an installation mistake I.e. the Backlight cord was not attached properly.

 

Oh boy. I meant not to type out where I got this done because I know I am going to get ripped into bringing it there. But, it was Best Buy GeekSquad.

I sent back the laptop to the place I bought it from to get it exchanged for another. This time I am going to check it out before bringing it to a place to get the Hitachi 7k500 and the Intel Centrino 6250 installed.

GeekSquad thinks it was a defective keyboard and since I didnt check it out before bringing it to them I dont know.

My concern is that I will check it out and everything is going to be perfect then I add the hard drive and the WIFI 6250 card and it will do something to the keyboard lights. But, you don't think so?

Also, none of the software GeekSquad took out couldnt of done this, correct?

 

No, Why pay Geek Squad to do that If you give me the name of your Laptop I can advise you on how difficult it would be to install yourself. I know for sure the Hard drive is not difficult to install in most laptops. It is quite possible that it was a defective keyboard, but it could have been Geek Squads fault. Just make sure you check everything completely before you take it into BB again. Give me the make/model of the notebook though so we can see how difficult it would be to make it a DIY project (if you feel comfortable).

 

You have no idea how much I would appreciate that. I asked on this forum for a step by step on how to change out the hard drive and WIFI card myself before I brought it in to best Buy but no one answered me. I would take my sweet time and make sure it is done right if I knew how to do it. I just don't want to mess up anything myself.

The laptop is a Toshiba M645-S4055 (below is a link that has a picture of the laptop with the back access panels off that reveals the WIFI card and the Hard Drive). Picture taken by forum member "TChicken"

http://forum.notebookreview.com/net...upgrade-your-wifi-card-pictures-included.html

 

Just FYI, but the moron squad probably had to google how to do it as well. I know they said the keyboard was already defective or whatever when you asked them about it, but I think there is an even chance they caused the damage. If they noticed anything amiss when they took in your laptop, they would have for sure notified you about it to try to get as much $ out of you as they could.

 

Did you read my first post (not being sarcastic just asking)....Reason being if Geeksquad did something that messed up the backlit keyboard wouldnt it of shut off the lights completely and not just the majority of the keyboard lights?

Also, do you think its a software thing that when they removed bloatware or optimized the system it could of caused this? Reason I ask that is everything they did is saved on the new Hitachi 7K500 hard drive, so if it is a software/ driver thing when I do the swap again, it would mess up the backlit keyboard again as everything that was done is still saved on the new Hitachi 7K500 hard drive. I don't think so though, because when I swapped back in the stock hard drive it didnt fix the backlit keyboard issue.

 

How do you know this? You aren't sure what geek squad did, or how the keyboard could be damaged. Maybe they spilled soda on it for all you know. Also if they noticed something was amiss when you brought it in, they would be itching to tell you about it to get more $ out of you. That's why I'm saying it's about 50/50 whether they broke it or not.

The keyboard backlight shouldn't have any connection whatsoever to the computer's software, only to the motherboard's firmware. Also if you want to remove bloatware, just reinstall the OS using the manufacturer's disks. When you reinstall everything, just don't install the bloatware with it. I really doubt geeksquad did a whole lot.

 

When you stated motherboard's firmware, you mean a "bios" update? Because I think Geeksquad did attempt to update the bios but mine came stock with the latest bios version. I dont think they realized that until after they attempted to update the bios.

Also, again, after they put everything back to stock (stock hard drive and stock wifi card) that did not fix the backlit keyboard problem.

 

Yes, the bios is the motherboard's firmware, but I don't really know if an error with that could be responsible for what you are experiencing.

Yeah, neither of those things would directly have anything to do with the keyboard problem. Though depending on your laptop, installation may have brought them into contact with something to be able to short something out or otherwise mess something up with the keyboard, but I'm only speculating here.

 

The new replacement laptop arrived and everything is working perfectly. I am a little nervous to bring it back to GeekSquad to switch out the hard drive and the WIFI card. If someone would please be so kind to help me out so I can do it myself. I would really appreciate it.

 

It is extremely simple. Find a small phillips screwdriver, and get to work. Take off the panels that expose the two components that you need to replace, and replace them. The wifi card is held in place by one screw. You just push it down while in the slot so that the screw hole lines up with the hole in the card and put the screw in. Then plug in the antennas. For the hard drive, you basically just pull it out with some force and put it back in the same way, if your toshiba is anything like the 3 I have worked on, and from the picture it looks like it.

 

An HDD is a no brainer these days, it takes longer to find a screwdriver that is the right size than it does to install/replace HDD's/SSD's. The wifi card depends entirely on the laptop's design but about 90% of the ones out there can be accessed thru the bottom panel(s) without disassembly, again using a small screwdriver. You might want to look at the toshiba forums or google/youtube for a disassemble guide if you are nervous.