Round 3... (heh)

So... another quirk with the NP7660:

My screen brightness keys stopped working in Vista. FN + F8/F9 does nothing. Works in Bios, stopped working in Vista. The other hotkey combinations appear to work (F10 for camera, F11 for wifi, etc.) Interestingly, the "Windows Mobility Center" brightness controls do not work either.

I tried unistalling the hotkey program that came with it, but it didn't fix anything, and all the other hotkeys still work (just no little picture on the screen.)

Is there a registry file that controls these things or something?

I restarted in safemode as well... didn't change anything. Bizzare.

 

There might be a program/config running in your Windows that has taken over those hotkeys.

Also make sure that your BIOS is up to date... there might be a fix.

So contact your vendor about the issue to see if they have a solution.

 

I did. Surprisingly Sager said they won't have any drivers/bios files online for another 4-5 months. And since I told them it appears to be working in Bios, they basically labled it a software problem that is unsupported.

Fair enough, I think it's really odd that they wait so long to put stuff online though. I suspect I'll contact Clevo directly and see if they have a newer bios out.

 

Clevo does not deal with end-users... if you are wondering.

I think it might be a ACPI... which has happened on other systems before.

I remember hearing about it happening in Unbuntu as well.

I think a BIOS update, keyboard firmware, and/or drives would be the fix.

 

Might be time to start looking into that 15 day return policy bardia, this what the 4th problem you have had and now they wont even give you any help?

 

Well... so far I'm powering through them. I'm not easily disuaded. So far everything except the hotkeys is fixed or soon to be fixed *crosses fingers*.

1) Keyboard: New one is in the mail. That should fix it.
2) Poping sounds: Unistalling the custom driver seems to have fixed it.
3) Hotkeys stopped working: Still working on that one. It does seem software related.

I don't expect a chipset that isn't even officially out yet to be bug free... just as long as I can nail a problem down and don't trace it to a genuine hardware problem I'm quite content with my NP7660.

Out of curiousity though... I wasn't aware I even had a return policy. I have a 1 year warrenty through Sager, but I bought it through Powernotebooks.

The brightness button is a far more serious problem, as I can't adjust it at all without restarting... but I'll give it a few days to see what I find out.

I really appreciate the help though guys. I am a computer tech, so I'm fairly familiar with these suckers, but this is my first Clevo and certainly my first Montevina, so lots of new little "quirks" to get familliar with. Thanks to everyone who's been helpful.

 

There is a full 30-day satisfaction return policy when you buy through Sager.

But if you can hammer out that little issue, I think you should be good to go.

 

Not because I'm thinking of returning it... but just to be fully educated...

does that apply even if I bought it from powernotebooks?

 

yes it does.

 

Thanks Gophn, if things get uglier that's a nice option to have.