More backlit keyboard software

Same here now. Even if I exit this app and restart it, it's stuck at blue.

I may have to do a delayed startup of this app and see if that helps.

 

5th reboot still stuck at blue. Cannot change with temp app and hotkey is frozen ie: cannot open but it is running. Seems like its just an interference with hotkey, so if there is a way to eliminate the need for it that may solve it.

Edit: Yeah mine is completely stuck now too. Gonna remove it from startup and manually start after boot see if it'll work for me.

Yup worked if I manually start it after boot.

 

I'm completely stuck for some reason. Mine doesn't work at all after having it fight hotkey, I'll keep digging.

 

I just set it up using Windows Task Scheduler using 30 second startup delay and it works great. I think that's the simplest route, otherwise it may conflict with Hotkey at startup.

I'm going to bed. good night and thanks!

 

I'm testing it using startup.bat file in startup folder. Might achieve same results if we're lucky. Could be more user friendly too.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I'm not in bed yet, lol. Problem with startup.bat is that the command line window won't close.

Also, I just realized the GPU temp (right side) and GPU active (middle) works, but CPU temp (left) doesn't now.

Yep, CPU temp color doesn't change now. Hmmm.

Also you should be able to write or even extract a quick script for people to use with Task Scheduler.

 

Yeah created an ugly CMD saying it was waiting x seconds.. Is there a line I can enter in the bat file to possibly hide that?


Better yet, can we try to eliminate need for hotkey completely? That should solve it all without using workarounds.

 

Meh, hotkey has lots of nice features, I'd hate to eliminate it personally. The Task Scheduler seems to work though. Can you confirm CPU temps are showing on keyboard now though?

edit: and now I *REALLY* better get to bed. Have to be up in 5 hours...

 

Set up task schedule, rebooting now for confirmation and will check cpu temps.

 

ok! Just make sure in task scheduler you check all the settings, and most importantly under "actions" set the "Start in (optional)" field to they same folder you're running the keyboard app from otherwise it won't save the colors.

 

Task schedule working good. Set it for 10 seconds rather than 30 though. Seems like a good middle ground with SSD at least. And yes my CPU colors are working perfect!

 

Hmm, wonder why mine aren't? Still aren't even after deleting the file from task scheduler and starting it manually. CPU temps are always blue now.

 

Not sure. We do have different builds, but none of that should cause any issues. I am on Win7 64bit home premium with 7970m and 3610qm. You are using the version that was 195KB right? Not the larger one?

 

I redownloaded and deleted all the others and CPU doesn't work now. I know it did before.

What are you using to stress the CPU to check it? I just ran Prime95 and wprime and neither activated it.

 

Man that's odd. I see mine changing between the lowest two even just replying here. Strange.

 

I just downloaded the first one without center color for GPU and it still doesn't work.

 

Have you changed anything inbetween that could have altered it? I mean it sounds like all you did was create the tasker profile. Not sure but it is beyond me! I can help debug and test but that's about it

Edit: Just saw your edit above asking what I was using. Initially I just fired up Skyrim and saw it switch over, but it has also been doing it with just Chrome as well.

 

Gah. This is frustrating. It *DID* work before just fine. Now it doesn't budge. Maybe pizzadude can help me later. I gotta get some sleep g'nite.

 

Sleep on it. Maybe you'll have an a vision about it

Also Pizzadude, I'm going to link this thread over in p150em owners thread and get you some more attention. Between this app and the custom 13.6 beta driver for AMD, user support has been good today!

 

I downloaded the temperaturekeyboardwithgpumonitor version and the only thing I have is the:
center color - integrated
center color - dedicated

If I am not mistaken, there should be options for left and right zone? am I missing something here?

 

No, the left zone changes with CPU temperature, right zone changes with GPU temperature and center zone changes depending on your preference when Intel GPU is active or dedicated GPU is active. Although I still can't understand why my left won't change color now with CPU, it's like it's not even detecting it for some reason.

If you want to change the colors of your keyboard then just use fn+/ on the numberpad and change to whatever colors you want.

EDIT: AH HA! I RAN IT AS ADMINISTRATOR AND THE LEFT SIDE NOW CHANGES WITH CPU TEMPS. I start it using Task Scheduler and set the "run with highest privileges" and it stats up no problem, no request for admin / UAC accept, and it works. So for some reason CPU monitoring requires admin privileges. But using Task Scheduler it works great. I can do a quick write up on how to do that for anyone not familiar.

One last thing (I hope). I feel there should be some logic for the dGPU, only poll the dGPU temp if it is active. Otherwise it will always be on. With Task Scheduler it can be configured to turn off the program while on battery automatically, but even when plugged in if the dGPU is active, it just causes the fans to spin audibly.

Now all I have to do is figure a way to have it start automatically when I plug in the AC power. It successfully turns it off when I unplug but need to find a way to trigger it so it starts when AC power is plugged back in.

Also, ok, another request. Any way to have it default your keyboard to a single color on exit? That way if you unplug and it's got some cyan or green it doesn't stick that way.

Thanks!

 

thanks for the answer
Just saw it changing colour when I was watching a video on youtube in bed and the cpu side kept changing colour lol

 

Yeah good idea with task scheduler, it seems to work for me except it skips loading my old preferences. I can check into some power monitoring stuff. I could have it do whatever on exit. Right now it just saves your preferences, but it could go single color like you said or even a pattern of colors (I like a gradient).

 

It isn't saving your settings probably because you need to put the path where your keyboardtemperature.exe is at, under "actions" set the "Start in (optional)" field to the same folder you're running the keyboard app from otherwise it won't save the colors.

And yeah, another field for users to set the "on exit color" if they'd like. Maybe just three separate fields, or have them add commas for left, middle, right. This little thing is shaping up to be a great little app.

Having it only monitor dedicated GPU when active would be great though.

 

Glad to hear you got it going htwing!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I hope we're not the only ones using this, we have to let other users know.

 

I linked it in p150em but it's dead in there.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Just downloaded this, awesome

 

Is there a way to change the tray icon? I'd like it to "blend in" with other Windows 8 tray icons

 

One thing I noticed, and will monitor this more closely, is that with this running, my GPU occasionally will spike to 80C+, the fan will kick in crazy then it will cool off. It only happens every once in a great while. I am going to run for a while without it and see if I get the same result, although I never noticed it before I started using this great little app. But now I notice it because it turns from blue to red in an instant. Actually it went from blue to black then to red and my GPU fan kicked in high all of a sudden. Turning it off my fans aren't always running either. I think adding a feature to only show dedicated GPU temp when it's active is important and critical. I'm not a very good programmer, but I would think that if you can detect when the dedicated GPU is active, you could then just turn on the routine to check for GPU temps, and off when it's off. It seems the logic is already programmed, just have to make use of it.

 

If you have something that can modify .ico files you could maybe use that to change the icon file in the folder.

I could try as you suggest. The way I detect if the gpu is running right now is if it has any load. I ran the program all last night and never had any odd spikes in the gpu, it stayed below 50c the whole time. Maybe it depends on the GPU. Tell me if the behavior continues. I've been working on trying to get more colors and changing to a solid color on close.

 

Thank you man. Definitely notice the fan spinning. Noticed the occasional spike only after the laptop woke from sleep then sat for a while and the bam, it raced to 80C+.

 

Working perfect on my p170em/7970m with win8pro 64bit and the schedule task. No problems et all.

THX very much for this little usefull tool.

VG,

P.S. It is easy to let the user define what the starting color is and in which temperature steps the colors changing?

 

I just updated the download link to the one with the gpu activity monitor. It now only checks GPU temps if it has load, and it supports setting solid colors on exit.

If I understand you correctly you want to be able to define which temperatures correspond with certain colors? That would be doable to input custom temperature ranges and colors, however it would take quite a bit of time to be able to have all those inputs, and handle if users would accidentally have overlapping ranges. I can't promise anything as of now, but we are currently still working on trying to get new colors and making the program have a much nicer user interface with actual graphics instead of text boxes which may take awhile.

 

Still using this. Updated with your latest release.

At night I use my laptop for netflix, and usually turn my keyboard off due to stupid glare type screen. However, after about 5-10 minutes this program automatically kicked back in. I have to actually close it to keep it off.

Not sure if there is anything for this, not even a big deal. Just throwing it out there.

Really love this app, would give more rep but I can't!

 

I like how this thing is evolving! Great job. One little thing (sorry to be such a pain), but when the GPU stops being active and it stops monitoring the GPU, the colors remains where it was at. Is it possible to make it reset to the "below 50C" color when it isn't being monitored any more? THANKS!

 

I thought about returning to blue I just forgot to program it in It should be updated with that now.

I think this sort of stuff would come down to personal preference. Battery settings should be something considered when creating a more full version of the program.

 

Thanks man! Just tried it and it works awesome! Wish I had these skills.

 

i was wondering at what temps are the colors set to change?

also having the same issue as mickyy, at night i turn off the lights but they restart after a few min.

great program, amazing work on coding this thing.

 

Pizzadude, you might want to look at these for turning it on and off with battery power:
windows 7 - Is there a way to execute a program on power events? - Super User
BatterySaver - Home
Windows Power Events Monitor | Free Security & Utilities software downloads at SourceForge.net

That last one is open source and would allow it to start on AC and close on DC.

I also noticed that if I turn off keyboard lights, they turn themselves back on. I don't know what happens when you turn the keyboard "off" using the Fn+* key, wonder if there is a way to monitor that. Or I guess just have an option on your program to "sleep" and then it doesn't do anything until the user unchecks the "sleep" button.

It also seems that my dGPU is still being polled even without checking temps when not active. How I can tell, which isn't the most scientific, is if I run HWMonitor without the program running, it doesn't show me my dGPU temps. If I have it running, it shows me the dGPU temps, which means it's active. So I guess your choice if/how you want to leave the "only show dGPU colors when active" option enabled, or maybe make it a user option. Or take a poll.

@Tb5 - Read the readme file, it tells you temps:
Colors:
50c- dark blue
50-60c cyan
60-70c green
70-80c yellow
80c+ red

 

I think you guys misinterpreted me. I continue to use the laptop on AC power when watching netflix at night, I simply turn off the keyboard due to glare on my screen. There is an option when creating the start up task to cut the app off when switching to battery so that might be an easy user switch.

 

Yes there is the option to switch it off, but you have to manually start it again when you plug into AC. Not a huge deal.

 

Hey guys, So I've been using the nifty little program for a few days here and it's pretty damn cool! I just followed HTWingNut's advice and used task scheduler to set it up to run with the highest permissions about 30 seconds after log on and no conflict with hotkey! Thanks OP.

 

I just got a P157SM review unit and will confirm if it works on that or not and send feedback if you'd like.

 

That would be great! I am really interested in if it will work on the new hardware line or not.

 

More people need to give you rep, this is a great little program

 

On the P157SM the GPU lights work, dedicated/integrated GPU lights work, just the CPU lights don't change with or without administrator mode.

 

Odd, one thing I noticed since using this backlit keyboard program is that my keypresses now miss letters and spaces on a regular basis. I think it's somehow interfering with the polling of the keyboard during typing. I just disabled it and my typing is back to normal.

 

I noticed that too, and haven't found the cause of it. We have been working on a more complete program that will rival the program it ships with, so our focus has been on switching to that rather than bug fixes. I will keep the interference in mind during this switch over.

 

You guys need to set up a PayPal donate button.