keyboard backlight

Question

Bought a 7470 refurbished through Amazon. All good except there's no backlight. The keyboard has the illumination key on F10. Fn is functional on all other F keys.

The connectors:

I checked the connections, purged CMOS by removing the battery etc. The BIOS:

<To protect you, your private information was removed from public view. All private data was saved to your private Case. DELL-Admin>

From what I've read, there's no solution and I don't know whether this is a hardware/firmware/software issue. The only abnormal thing I noticed is that the service tag in the BIOS is different than the one on the back of the case. I tried to use different versions of the BIOS, back to 2016, with same result.

I'm thinking about replacing the keyboard, unless someone has some genius insight. Thanks!

SalocinT · Accepted Answer

To wrap up: I replaced the keyboard and it now works. It seems that whoever refurbished the laptop put in a weird keyboard looking like a back-lighted one but without the connection or maybe LEDs.

The description on Amazon did NOT mention it was back-lighted so that there is no false advertisement. Looking at the keyboard one might assume though. Anyways, thanks.

user_8e34f8 · Answer

I think during refurbishment, the seller likely replaced the backlit keyboard with a non-backlit one.

SalocinT · Answer

@user_8e34f8​  That's likely. Wanted to check with people here... Strange things is the keyboard has all the wires.. I guess they scrape money as they can. I'll change it and see.

ejn63 · Answer

Go into setup - is the backlight enabled there?  There's usually an option to turn it on or off at the firmware level. F2 at powerup to enter setup.

SalocinT · Answer

@ejn63​ I had put pics of the BIOS but for some reason admin has removed them...  No option for illumination. Just options of timing its turning it off when on battery or on charge.

Florian555 · Answer

If your keyboard hasn't got the illumination, there would be no blue symbol shown on your F10 button.

In BIOS under System Configuration should be an option called "Keyboard Illumination". If its not listed possibly the system doesn't recognize the attached keyboard has that option.

Have you tried to reseat all the cables in between keyboard, touchpad and palmrest?

SalocinT · Answer

@Florian555​ Yes I have. Before posting.

user_8e34f8 · Answer

@SalocinT​ Great, now it is working?

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keyboard backlight

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