What hardware are you using?

Discussion of hardware related issues
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

That sucks. Hopefully you didn't waste too much money on it.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

$40 for the two keyboards. I was frankly not going to do it but Ive been using them so much at work and elsewhere I thought it would be nice.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

I ran the Dell diagnostics and it sees the backlit keyboard and says its working. Checked bios and its set to auto function when I use the keyboard.
I also tested with Win7 and a few Linux distros and got nothing. Ive been told the Nvidia based E6400 had issues in this respect so maybe its a motherboard issue. My Intel version works just fine.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Initially the backlit keyboard worked on PCLinuxOS with the E6400s but after an update, it doesnt work. All the other distros dont work either, all KDE except for MX19. I tested all the same distros on my E6420 laptop and all of them work with the backlit keyboard. Something about the older e6400 that isnt compatible.
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

Weird. I don't think I ever owned a exx00 or exx10 that had a the backlit keyboards to speek of (I mostly owned 5000 series, the 6000's were too $$ even reconditioned for me at the time, doubly since most of them I was buying, upgrading the cpu/ram and reselling). If you meet people with a E5500 that has a P8600 & 4GB ram, there's a decent (which is to say small, but actually measurable) chance I rebuilt it. I bought like 30 e5500's that had low end Core duo's (32-bit only CPU), and rebuilt them with the P8600 (64-bit & 35-watt instead of 45-watt so the processor could run at full speed more often :D ) and maxed the ram. Made good profit off them, because even though the exx20 series was out at the time, those things still had FANTASTIC performance and the chips were pretty cheap. I know people still using them that I had sold, they were incredibly tough (if somewhat ugly) laptops!!
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

To my wonderment, the backlit keyboards are now working on the E6400s. Previously the battery/brightness setting in hidden icons which has a slide bar for backlit keyboard brightness remained greyed out. It now works in all KDE versions Ivve tried so far. Not sure if it was an update or some other gremlin that decided to stop causing problems.
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

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Cool. A little odd, but cool.
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crosscourt
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

May end up super gluing the F8 key back on so I can install the other backlit keyboard. The mount in damaged on the keyboard so replacing the plastic parts wont work to get the key installed.
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tlmiller
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

That is one thing I miss about the classic keyboards. With modern "chicklet" keyboards (and EVERYONE uses them now), it's a HUGE PITA to replace the keyboard.
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Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Havent had that experience yet with a chicklet keyboard but considering how bad some of my older keyboards have been,I was hoping for better.
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