Clevo P-157sm Keyboard backlight turns off after hotkey loads

Yo, I have just recently run into a strange issue with the keyboard back light on my laptop: Clevo P157sm. The keyboard illuminates blue until the hot key utility loads, like when the process just auto starts. Then everything turns black including the track pad. Strangely the power button changes to the appropriate color that I had it set as.

Even though the problem is triggered by the hot key software, I have come to the conclusion that it has something to do with hardware (just hear me out i'm not a lunatic). I got a spare hard drive, put it in my laptop, and installed a fresh copy Windows 7 and the hot key driver. After a quick restart the exact same problem occurred. I have no idea what to do.

I have completely disassembled the laptop, down to the motherboard and looked over all of the zif connectors and ribbon cables for damage and I cant find any that look broken.

Any help as to where I could start trying to figure out how to fix this would be greatly appreciated! I apologize if my post has super funky formatting or anything, I have always been a lurker and this is my first post.

Update: I"m apparently not the only one! I might actually not be going insane! http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/6272-clevo-p157sm-keyboard-backlit-application-problem.html

 

When its on during start up its not running on the software, then once it loads, as you've mentioned it turns off. Have you tried uninstalling and resinstalling the hotkey utility. Also try the latest one which you can get from Sager here http://www.sagernotebook.com/drivers.php?cat=589

 

Thank you for the reply! It now works a bit more! There are new problems now though, the color and the brightness cant be changed from dark blue at full brightness, although it can be turned off and on. I still think that problem is deeper than drivers. To test this, I re installed windows 7 and the old hokey driver. The driver didn't work on the new install of Windows either, so that means the issue doesn't seem like something to do with the OS. I had installed the Prema Mod bios earlier in the day before the problem arose, so I think that might somehow be the culprit. I looked though the bios, but couldn't seem to find anything relating to the keyboard. For now though this is a lot more progress than what I had earlier. yay!

 

Hmm. That's a weird issue indeed. Why not message Prema and tell him about the issue (point him to this thread) and see if he gives you an alternate BIOS? It's possible that your board was somehow a different production model or something and that his general BIOS causes issues with it.

 

Or you can scream @Prema where are you?

 

I just found out that i'm too much of a noob (need at least 15 posts) so I don't have the ability to message Prema right now. I have noticed a few more things that seem a bit odd about the problem. With the old hot key utility, i could change the power button color with the old keyboard color changer program thingy. Also this new one has fan control options that don't do anything, it feels like it is meant for a different laptop or something. I think the reason that my keyboard and track pad stay blue now is because the new hot key thing may not actually be compatible with it and doesn't control it. It does however control other things like the performance mode, wifi ect. Also it looks like 999% cooler. Would it be a good idea to put the old bios back on and see if that fixes it?

 

Update:
I have discovered that the new hot key thing can control the color, but only in the modes other than custom. For example I can set it to cycle or wave etc, and it will do what it's supposed to do. Either there is a new problem or i'm just mentally incapable of figuring out how to use it. Selecting custom just keeps whatever the last option I chose going, such as random. Choosing breathe makes the power button breathe, nothing else.

 

I checked the link that Hutsady@XoticPC gave me for the new hot key driver and noticed that it was for the P-157sm-A and not P-157sm, which is what I have. I installed the hot key for the correct version of my computer and it worked up until I used the fn+ / shortcut thing to try to turn it off. This makes no sense to me because the drivers didn't work on a completely new operating system. Isn't it great how solutions for computer problems make no sense whatsoever.

 

Question: have you made sure your EC and BIOS are up to date?

 

I put the premamod bios on just a few days ago, so i'm fairly certain its up to date. I got it straight from his website, so I don't think it would go out of date so quickly.

 

I had meant your EC from before. Your Prema BIOS will be up to date. The only problem is if you need an "alternative" BIOS from him if that is the issue somehow. Always double-check! If it worked in the past and does not work now after using Prema's BIOS, something went wrong between stock BIOS and Prema's BIOS. May not be the fault of Prema's BIOS directly, but possibly some combination of the EC and his BIOS and your motherboard revision etc.

 

I just went on prema's website and downloaded the stock bios and the back light worked again, until i turned it off with the fn * key combo thing. Now it doesn't turn on again just like before. I am really starting to think that it has something to do with the EC now. I have no idea how to update that. It also might be that the stock bios on his website has the same issue or something. At least i'm getting closer

 

That one I can't help with, but I'm glad we're getting to the root of the issue. The latest stock BIOS and latest prema BIOS all should work with the latest EC... so you'd need to find that EC.
http://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/P1xxSM/ this is the only place I could find that might help. Aside from that, try contacting prema?

 

Dang, how much goes into a keyboard light? I think I should probably see what Prema has to say about it before I try a bunch of different BIOSs and ECs and risk bricking my laptop. I'm definitely going to research EC's and matching them to BIOSs in the meantime though. I'm fairly certain now though that somehow my BIOS isn't matched or something with my EC and they aren't playing nice with each other because I saw in the descriptions of a couple of the things in the link you gave me that there are a lot of things to do with Fn key shortcuts. I'm really happy that there is a solution in sight !

 

Yup! I wish you luck! =D. I once had my colours freeze and they wouldn't listen and I had to power the system off for about 5 minutes to "reset" my EC. But if you flashed yours it should be in a proper working state anyway. I hope you really do get it fixed. What likely happened is you had an old BIOS and EC combination before, and you were flashing new BIOS/EC combos and using new hotkey software which does not work properly with the old EC.

 

try this one. its the only one that works for me and i tried dozens of different versions

http://downloads.eurocom.com/support/drivers/zip/225/225_Hotkey_W864.zip