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Asus G75VW Keyboard Backlight Problem

Zaxter
Level 7
I recently purchased a refurbished Asus G75VW and I have been very pleased with its performance so far. However, I have found that the keyboard backlight does not work as intended. It is advertised as having three levels of brightness, but I cannot even get it to turn on by pressing function + f4. I have Windows 7 64 bit installed and all of the other function hotkeys such as the volume, wifi, brightness and monitor all work fine, it is only the keyboard backlight functions that appear to not be working. I have already tried reinstalling the ATK package, but to no avail. Are there any other drivers that the keyboard backlight relies on to work? Have any other G75 owners encountered this same problem? I am hoping that this is a software issue and that I will not have to get the keyboard backlight repaired, which should be covered under warranty.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
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11 REPLIES 11

cosmicmango
Level 10
I had this same issue with the keyboard light - I updated the bios and it came back on.
G752VY-DH72

cosmicmango wrote:
I had this same issue with the keyboard light - I updated the bios and it came back on.


Hello, now i have same problem, tell me what bios you updated/dl.

I have this same problem myself ... I updated to BIOS 223 but it didn't help. I followed instructions from their tech support and uninstalled ATK and the keyboard driver, then reinstalled each using latest version from their website, and it still isn't working.

When I first got the machine the keyboard backlight worked, right out of the box, and worked for days until I completed installing all of the Microsoft updates and then ... pfft. At that point, the BIOS was version 207.

Please tell me which version of you used to get the backlight to work. ASUS technical support sent me a stock email about fixing this problem and, when it didn't resolve immediately, they've now asked me to send the unit back. I use this machine for work and didn't mind paying a little more for a machine with this kind of power because I was hoping it would just work and wouldn't give me this kind of agita.

Fred:

Thanks for all your help yesterday on my new G75VW's keyboard-backlighting problem. The punchline is that as of this morning it's working again but I don't understand quite why.

I did the uninstall ATK/reboot/uninstall keyboard driver/reboot/install latest ATK/reboot/install latest keyboard driver/reboot thing a couple times, then upgraded the BIOS from 207 to 223 and tried it all again, then contacted you and did the uninstall/reboot thing again a couple more times and it didn't work. You tried to replicate it at your end but couldn't get it going and we were talking about an RMA for a return.

I was doing all this at work and I had to stop messing with the machine because of, you know, that whole thing where they expect me to write code for them in exchange for money ... anyways, I took the unit home at the end of the day and left the power supply on my desk.

At home I powered up using just the battery and the keyboard backlighting started working fine. Completely surreal. I'm back at work with it plugged in again and it's still working.

This is a "voodoo" solution -- I can't think of *any* reason why this condition changed anything, but for me it did. I can only hope it stays this way.

Thanks again for your help. - Dave

My G75VW keyboard lights on boot then shuts off & is unresponsive to keyboard light function keys. Unit has latest bios updates was upgraded from win 7 to win 8 then 8.1. Any help appreciated

cl-Albert
US Customer Loyalty Agent
Adirondaker wrote:
My G75VW keyboard lights on boot then shuts off & is unresponsive to keyboard light function keys. Unit has latest bios updates was upgraded from win 7 to win 8 then 8.1. Any help appreciated


Your hardware should be okay at least if the keyboard lights flash at boot, so we just need to work on the software.

Make sure the ATKACPI driver Version V1.0.0023 (under the 'utilities' section?) has been installed from the ASUS G75VW Win8 download site http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=G75VW&p=3&s=388

It should show up under Windows Programs and Features as the ATK Package once installed.

Also, check the other 'Fn' keys like Fn+F11/F12 for volume or Fn+F9 (touchpad software/driver needs to be installed too though) to toggle the touchpad on and off, but some things are more dependent on the ATK driver than others.

Don't expect it should be too big of a deal, but if you're paranoid about software like me, you may want to back-up and prepare for the worst before updating, or create a Windows System Restore point at least.

Good luck!

cl-scott
Level 12
Does it come on at all when you power on the unit from an off state?

Pitcher1
Level 9
hi, what is your OS version and uppdate driver from ASUS website and open backligh to check FPC are connect to board.

dmothershaw
Level 7
I just bought a refurbished Asus G75VX.
It looks like a great machine but I thought it had keyboard backlight.
I can't turn it on.
I took off Windows 8 because I hated it and installed Windows 7 which is much better.
However the backlight keyboard simply doesn't turn on.
Any ideas anyone?