Laptop keyboard backlit not working since Windows 10 pro upgrade

I would contact HP support. The function is working (the key lights up). So there may need to be  keyboard driver (no such thing for Lenovo) or a hardware error.

Have you tried fully shutting down?  Shut down, wait 1 minute, start up and test.

I am running Windows 10 on my ThinkPad and lights are working.

Can a person contact HP support if not under warranty?
If yes then how?

Yes, but there will be a charge for the keyboard. 1 (800) 474-6836

BTW - I have searched for HP keyboard drivers and have found nothing.

I do not think there is a driver for the keyboard. More likely it needs replacing.

Why are you saying it needs replacing?
Please explain.

That is likely the case. There are no drivers for Lenovo keyboards and it appears none for HP keyboards. BIOS looks after basic keystrokes.

You can try updating BIOS and Chipset, but I would also call the support number and ask.

I would simply do a test of installing W7 Pro back to the laptop and see if the keyboard backlit works again or not. this may verify if it is a hardware issue or OS specific issue.

We're going down the wrong path guys.
The backlight worked just fine until i installed Windows 10.
There's no reason to think that the hardware may have broken from a software install.

Thanks

I fully understand that. anyway a W7 installation will verify if the backlit still works as before. this will determine which approach to go the next step.

Did you read in my first post that the one key that is lit is the key that toggles the backlighting on / off.

Also I updated to Windows 10 with the free upgrade and that has expired now so if I were to go back to Windows 7 I would not be able to upgrade back to 10 for free ...

Your Laptop is not compatible for Windows 10.

Reinstall the previous Windows 7 and it should work perfectly
envy3270.png

"... Also I updated to Windows 10 with the free upgrade and that has expired now so if I were to go back to Windows 7 I would not be able to upgrade back to 10 for free ... " ==> YES, you can.   Once '10 has been activated on the machine, you can reinstall '10 -- even a clean load from installation media if you want -- and it will automatically activate.

If it's been less than 30 days since you did the upgrade, the easiest way to go back is Settings - Update & Security - Recover and then select the option to revert to your previous OS.     This is quite fast -- typically ~ 10 minutes -- and you'll then know for CERTAIN that whether it's a '10 issue or not.

Assuming '7 works okay; then I'd do the update again -- but NOT through Windows update.   Create a bootable installation media (DVD or USB Flash drive) using the Media Creation Tool; and then do the upgrade from that.   Do NOT boot from the media; just insert it while you're running Windows 7, and run Setup from the install media.     This is a more reliable way to do the upgrade than the Windows update method; and may not have the same issue.


Note:  Before you do that, be sure to look in Device Manager and see if it lists the keyboard.   If it does, right-click on it and select "Update Driver" ... and select the first option (let it search the internet for it).    That may be all you need.

I have just gone through your query @dgrafx once again.
If the only issue is with the backlit for your keyboard,
I would first recommend you to try with the Function keys.
Some cases, on laptop keyboards, you need to press and hold the Fn key to make the other function key to work.
F12 or F5 keys are some shortcuts.
If not verify this article from HP here for better understanding.
HP Bakclit Article

yes, I read your first post and understand it looks like the switch no longer works on W10.

for me, to confirm if it is an OS specific issue, the laptop has to go to back to W7 for a test.

FYI - regarding your concern

http://www.howtogeek.com/253901/get-windows-10-for-free-after-july-29th-with-a-little-prep-now/

BTW, did you check the forum of HP Support? if it is not a hardware issue, I believe some users already reported the same issue there.

Keyboard lighting and also special function keys are usually not directly handled by drivers, but rather by addon utilities. So on the HP site look for utilities or applications for your laptop, and whether there is a Windows 10 version for it, then install those. If there is no Windows 10 version, try the Windows 8.1 versions...

On the other side, as this is just a not so useful feature which draws more battery power anyway, If there are no Windows 10 compatible tools available for that function, I'd just leave it as it is.

There are no drivers for the keyboard listed on HP's support site for Windows 7, 8, or 10.

One thing I'd look at is the PCI vendor ID for the keyboard.     Go to Device Manager; expand "Keyboards" (click the caret to the left of it); right-click on the keyboard and click on Properties.     click on the Details tab; then select "Hardware IDs" in the Property drop-down list.

Note the vendor ID and device ID shown for the keyboard.     This may very well be different than HP -- and you can often find specific drivers by looking these up in the PCI device database.    http://pcidatabase.com/

Post the vendor and device ID strings here if you want some help with that.

There are no drivers for the keyboard listed on HP's support site  <-- Yes and as noted earlier. So if the computer works for Windows 7 and does not work for Windows 10, then forget upgrading . Stick with Windows 7 until you can replace the computer.

For Windows 8 there is a utility available called HP proximity sensor, and that seems to be the tool you need for the keyboard light. So I suggest trying that tool.

rindi - I have that tool already from Win7. It appears to be functional - i.e. the settings seem functional - it just doesn't work.
btw - it's an extremely useful feature as I watch movies with this machine on an external screen and in a dark (mostly) room and so I need the keyboard lights.
And no I don't need the light when I doing non video watching stuff.
And I'm plugged in 99% of the time so battery life has little meaning to me.
Thanks

garycase
I found nothing on the site you listed when searching for hardware ids

HID Keyboard Device
HID\VID_04F2&PID_0976&REV_0109&MI_00
HID\VID_04F2&PID_0976&MI_00
HID\VID_04F2&UP:0001_U:0006
HID_DEVICE_SYSTEM_KEYBOARD
HID_DEVICE_UP:0001_U:0006
HID_DEVICE

Standard PS/2 Keyboard
ACPI\VEN_PNP&DEV_0303
ACPI\PNP0303
*PNP0303

Thanks guys - I appreciate it!
I will address other comments and possibly new ones later as I'm kinda busy right now.

You probably still have the wrong version of the tool. Get the Windows 8 version.

Where do I get it? I have searched.
Thanks

When you go to the HP driver download site and enter your product id, you can then select your windows version. Select Windows 8, and then you'll see it under utilities (not drivers).

Here is my model again: ENVY 17-3270NR
I don't see anywhere that you refer to - it would be great if you could point it out.
Thanks ...

OK so that's the same link I was at but I don't see any Utilities section

And what does the exe file do?

It installs the utility that should be able to control the keyboard lighting.

I think garycase is on the right approach to solve the issue.

Hello Guys
I installed the rindi utility
The proximity now works ...
However the only key that lights is the F5 / Keyboard Lights key

I changed the bios setting that garycase mentioned
I like the new setting so that I no longer need to hit FN to use an F key
It did not fix the lighting though

Any other ideas?
I really appreciate all the ideas you guys came up with!

Does pressing the F5 key not turn on lighting for the other keys?    This is supposed to be the key to control the lighting.    Not sure just how it works -- i.e. if it toggles through various brightness settings; or if you simply have to hold for a few seconds to adjust the brightness.    Just be sure it's not doing anything before assuming it's not working.

After doing all the above and you say "There's no reason to think that the hardware may have broken"

Put a spare disk in the machine and put Windows 7 back on. Does the keyboard now work?

How it should work:
All keys will be dark except for the F5 key.
Hitting the F5 key turns on all the keys lights.
Or proximity to the top of the screen (that's where the sensors are) will turn on all the keys lights.
After x amount of time with no sensor tripping the lights will go out again.

How it does work now:
All keys will be dark except for the F5 key.
Nothing happens when the F5 key is hit.
But now proximity timeout dims the F5 key - which it didn't use to do.
It dimmed all key except the F5
And when dark triggering proximity will illuminate the F5 key only

Thanks

Try hitting the F5 key several times; and perhaps also try the same with Fn-F5 ... just to see if some status bit might be "stuck" and repeatedly toggling might resolve that.

But it does sound like there's some interaction with the OS that's missing, and likely causing this issue.    There are numerous posts about issues with the "radiance keyboard" with both Windows 8 and Windows 10 ... although it apparently worked very nicely with Windows 7.    I'm surprised HP doesn't have an updated driver on their site for this keyboard, but unfortunately they do not.

I'm not sure installing Windows 7 on a different disk would help => you likely need to use the HP recovery partition, so any HP drivers for the keyboard will be included in the install.    If you want to revert to '7 to confirm the keyboard actually works with it; I'd IMAGE the disk as it is now (so it's easy to get back to this state); and then use HP's recovery partition to revert to the factory install -- and then see if the keyboard works as it was designed to.     Although that's almost irrelevant if you plan to retain Windows 10 -- you might simply need to live without the lighted keys.

I am not inclined to revert to Win7.
The lights stopped working when I installed Win10 - I had other fish to fry before I had time to research and to ask this question here. It would not have broken because of a software install.

And yes, I plan on keeping Win10 even if the lights never work again.
This machine is getting old I realize - it's just that I love it - we've been through a lot - AND of course 16 Gig ram, 250 Gig SSD C drive, 1 Terabyte secondary drive, 17" HD screen etc - And we've been across the US together ...

I thank you all very much.
It's sometimes hard to award points as it is here but garycase and rindi provided some real world solutions that gives them this question.
Thanks

Something else you could do is to download all the Windows 8 drivers from the HP site, then install those. It is possible that there are still some leftovers of Windows 7 drivers on your system. Normally though Windows updates will also get new drivers, but that doesn't always work.

Or you could download the Windows 10 iso and install from scratch to a clean PC. This gets rid of old leftovers you had from Windows 7 which may be causing issues.

OK thanks

"... Something else you could do is to download all the Windows 8 drivers from the HP site, then install those ..."  ==>  Except, of course, there AREN'T any drivers show for Windows 8 (or 7).    If you select "Windows" as the OS, and either "Windows 7" or "Windows 8" as the version, you get this note:  "No software or drivers are available for this product with the selected operating system."

rindi => Did you find some other link within the HP site?

From the main HP support driver download link for that laptop you first get to choose Operating System (Windows), then version (Windows 8). After that you get a whole bunch of drivers for that OS. Of course that doesn't mean you have to install all of those. See my screenshots.

Your first screenshot is exactly what I get =>  See the note at the bottom of that page.  ["No software or drivers are available for this product with the selected operating system."]

How did you get from that page to the list shown in the 2nd screen shot ??
Please post a link to the 2nd page.

I noticed you did that with Firefox, so just for grins I tried it with that as well, but I always get the "No software or drivers ..." message.

Tried it with Internet Explorer, Edge, and Firefox with the same results every time.

As you can see in my screenshot, I have already selected Windows and Windows 8. After that you click on the blue "Change" button just below, and that brings you to the second screenshot. You can see the link in the titlebar of the browser in the screenshot (and it is also in my comment 41751229 that was accepted as assisted answer.

I believe the info on the first screenshot that says "No software or drivers are available for this product with the selected operating system." is based on the OS you are currently running on your PC and not on what you selected above. I'm using a Linux OS and for that you won't find any drivers to download from the HP site. And you are probably running Windows 10 for which there also are no drivers. The message probably just was poorly worded.

Ahh ... definitely counter-intuitive.   But it works fine.  Thanks.

I had wondered how you found the proximity driver ... but clearly see it now :-)

I've also just tested the site while using Windows 7, and there once you have selected the PC model, it jumps directly to the downloads and you don't get to select the OS. So you also don't get the message that there are no drivers for that OS. The page clearly checks what OS you are running and then displays the results for that OS.

Very interesting.     The "Change" button should read "Update"  or  "Show Results" ... and the message that reads "No software or drivers are available for this product with the selected operating system .." shouldn't say "... with the selected operating system" => it should say "for the operating system you're using."

Oh well ... live & learn

I appreciate the effort & interest guys ...