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    Will backlit keyboard work in a model with non-backlit keyboard?

    Discussion in 'HP' started by TrantaLocked, Jan 28, 2020.

  1. TrantaLocked

    TrantaLocked Notebook Deity

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    edit: The new backlit keyboard works with my HP 15-bs234wm! With this being HP, you can only turn the backlight on/off; no dimming or RGB features. Still a great upgrade though! The swap is difficult because of the plastic rivets you need to break or melt if you aren't planning on replacing the entire top case. I've noticed a bit of looseness as a result of breaking the plastic rivets, so I plan on going back in and using double-sided tape. Taking the motherboard out is pretty easy on this model so I'm not gonna be too annoyed taking it apart again to get under the keyboard.

    I found a backlit keyboard for my HP 15-bs234wm on ebay. The motherboard does have an empty 4-pin port for the backlight ZIF cable, but I'm concerned that HP possibly disabled the ability to switch on/off the backlight on models that shipped with a regular non-backlit keyboard. The port for the 4-pin cable being there probably means there are versions of this laptop with the backlit keyboard (none that I could find though), but that doesn't mean HP doesn't tweak the BIOS to turn on or off functionality. There isn't an F key labeled for backlight switch, but the F5 key is blank so I assume that's what HP uses for that function in the respective models.
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2020