Sony Vaio VPCZ1 - Any way to force the backlit keyboard on?

I have had my VPCZ1 for a few days now and so far I love it, but I really want to be able to turn the backlit keyboard light on all the time - the sensor doesn't kick on early enough for my taste.

Does anyone know of a way to force it on and keeep it on?

 

Stick a piece of tape over the sensor?

 

...I believe someone posted a shot of the control panel where you can control the backlit keyboard. I don't know where.

 

vaio control center, there is a menu option for the keyboard

 

Yes, there's an option to control the back-lights of the keyboard, but I thought it still depends on the sensor to work. No?

 

Yeah, it still needs the sensor to activate it. The settings in the VAIO control panel just turn on or off the sensor and you can set how long you want the light on until it goes out after you stop typing.

I was hoping there was a software solution that someone knew of that would allow it to be turned on and off with a key combination.

I considered the tape-over-the-sensor solution too, but I was hoping for something a little more elegant on my $2700 laptop.

 

There was a registry hack somebody asked me to do that apparently does this. Didn't work.

Putting tape over the sensor and setting the backlight to never turn off is the best we can do for now.

If you want to get fancy, you can open the chassis and put the tape over the sensor itself, leaving the look of the keyboard normal.

I'm not sure what impact this would have on battery life. It has to cost something.

 

Probably costs the same as that green LED on the power button that shines all the time

 

Apple don't have this feature on any laptops (backlight can't be turned on unless it's dark) though you can adjust its brightness with FN+F5/F6 combinations.

Why did I say this? Oh, my point is that I did perfectly well without being able to turn it on by force.

 

Well, it's not quite what I was hoping for when I ordered the laptop. I had a Dell Studio XPS 13 for a few weeks and I loved the backlight in that one and you had fulll control over it.

Oh well, hopefully someone else, with a little more skill than me, has the same problem with it that I do and can come up with a software hack or control panel or something.

 

Apple do have the feature to set the backlight not turn on unless it's dark on their MacBook Pro notebooks. One just have to put a check mark on "Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions" under System Preferences. To manually adjust brightness, it is to press either the F5 or F6 key without the Fn key.

 

Please, reread my post. You can't turn backlight on unless it's dark. And that is what OP wants.

 

I cannot make the keyboard illuminate , i have read all the above but still nothing, can someone tell me a step by step way to make it illuminate, please??

 

Once upon a time I played with NHC (Notebook Hardware Control) application on ASUS laptop. It allowed programming for ACPI control. I dumped DSDT (BIOS stuff) and analyzed it to figure out how to control fan settings through ACPI. A bunch of acronyms, I know. Anyway, the point is: similar thing is probably possible here but for keyboard backlight. It just requires tools and patience. I might try if I have free time on my hands but no promises whatsoever.

 

1) Do you have a Z with a backlit keyboard? (Japanese CTO's have the option to not get backlit)

2) In Vaio Control Center, under Keyboard and Mouse > Backlit KB, did you check the box that says "Turn backlight on when surroundings dark(en)"?

3) If those two are satisfied, read this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/521432-z12-keyboard-backlighting-threshold.html

Beaups tells of a way to adjust the sensitivity of the backlight sensor, makes it a lot more useful IMO. I'd rather the light be on when i DONT want it versus it being off when i do

 

i have got a VPCZ1 sony laptop, i don't know how to turn on the lights on key board i have cover the sensor ( the white circle on the top of key f9) but it didn't work. i am living in England i have heard that it is not made for England region. which is a bit stupid if it's true .
If any one can help please do, i have paid lots of money for this. and now if it does't work i won't be very happy .

Thank you very much in advance.

 

First make sure your model has a backlight keyboard, not all models do. Secondly, open Vaio Control Center and make sure under Keyboard and Mouse >> Backlit KB that the option "Turn backlight on when surroundings dark(en?)" is selected.