©ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Grath · ‎01-28-2014

I'm hoping somebody will be able to shed some light on my problem with my G74Sx-BBK8.

So a while ago, I tore the whole laptop down to the motherboard, reapplied thermal paste and cleaned the fans and coolers. I put the whole thing back together, plugged everything in where it should be, and double checked all connections. I get everything screwed together and put the battery back in and fire it up. Wholla, no keyboard backlighting. So I tear it back down, check the keyboard cable connections, everything checks out. I put it back together, still no lights. So I put the problem off for a while until I get my new power jack in the mail, tonight I got that soldered in since the one that the warranty people replaced went bad again. Anyway, so I get that soldered in, I make sure to pay special attention to all the keyboard connections and STILL I get everything put back together and the LED backlighting still doesn't work. It doesn't flash on post, in Windows fn+f3/f4 acts as though they are working, I replaced the BIOS with a known working 203 from another G74 that worked. I'm thinking either something with the motherboard or the keyboard itself is wrong, but I just can't figure it out. NOTHING I DID WORKED!!

So yea, every variable has been eliminated (other than a new motherboard or keyboard). If anyone can give me some pointers or really knows whats wrong, let me know, that would be great.

kiayande74 · ‎01-29-2014

I also have a G74Sx-BBK8 and the backlight is not working. I uninstalled the ATK package and reinstalled, but still no resolve. May go back to bios 202 and see if that will make a difference. Help is surely needed. Thanks for your time!

cl-Albert · ‎01-29-2014

kiayande74 wrote:
I also have a G74Sx-BBK8 and the backlight is not working. I uninstalled the ATK package and reinstalled, but still no resolve. May go back to bios 202 and see if that will make a difference. Help is surely needed. Thanks for your time!

There can be different reasons for the keyboard light not to work, so wanted to try and get more information about the situation.

Does the keyboard light flash momentarily after power-up to indicate the hardware/firmware is working okay, and if not, do you know if the system was ever sent back for a motherboard replacement?

cl-Albert · ‎01-31-2014

kiayande74 wrote:
No lights on after power-up. I have checked both cables on the inside and found no problems.
This guy claims he has the solution! Not sure if I should trust him.
http://leespottiswood.co.uk/blog/2013/07/04/asus-g74sx-no-backlit-keyboard/

Sorry, don't know too much about this procedure myself that you provided above and honestly haven't dealt with the G74Sx model a whole lot, but Easy Flash on the newer notebook models doesn't let you flash the same bios version, so wondering if there will be any problems with this on the G74Sx if you try to follow that procedure.

Anyway, just wanted to mention if your motherboard has been replaced before and the techs forgot to enable the keyboard light, consider trying the fixmykb.rar file mentioned at this thread http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?42973-Questions-for-ASUS-G73JH-Owners-solved&country=&statu... under post #7 by billyray520.

Don't know if it will help in other situations, but if you aren't the original notebook owner and want to send me a PM with your serial number, I can try to check your notebook repair history to see if there were any motherboard replacements to get an idea if it's worth trying the fixmykb.rar file.

You probably already know, but if you want to send it to your local ASUS service center, they should be able to solve this for you too.

jaffatbat · ‎07-12-2015

For anyone interested I have had problems with my keyboard lights and FN keys on a number of occasions on my Asus G53SW, usually after a windows update. Generally I could fix this by reinstalling the ATK package as describe by most users and it would work. But recently both my back lit keyboard failed to light and most of the FN keys failed as well. Nothing seemed to fix it until I stumbled on the following method to reinstall the ATK package which I downloaded fresh from the Asus website. So here are the steps that seemed to fix everything. Here it is Go to- Control panel, open Recovery, on the left panel click on troubleshoot, then right click on programs on the right panel, then click on program compatibility. A window will come up click on next to detect issues. The program on the list that comes up won't be listed so at the top click on "not listed" then next. A browse window will come up and enter the following or copy and paste it from the location or from here C:\Program Files(x86) Asus\ATK Package\ATK Hotkey\HControl.exe then click next and it should solve both keyboard light and FN key problems. I think this works as it utilizes the windows operating system in a different way. Best of luck

cl-Albert · ‎01-29-2014

Grath wrote:
I'm hoping somebody will be able to shed some light on my problem with my G74Sx-BBK8.

So a while ago, I tore the whole laptop down to the motherboard, reapplied thermal paste and cleaned the fans and coolers. I put the whole thing back together, plugged everything in where it should be, and double checked all connections. I get everything screwed together and put the battery back in and fire it up. Wholla, no keyboard backlighting. So I tear it back down, check the keyboard cable connections, everything checks out. I put it back together, still no lights. So I put the problem off for a while until I get my new power jack in the mail, tonight I got that soldered in since the one that the warranty people replaced went bad again. Anyway, so I get that soldered in, I make sure to pay special attention to all the keyboard connections and STILL I get everything put back together and the LED backlighting still doesn't work. It doesn't flash on post, in Windows fn+f3/f4 acts as though they are working, I replaced the BIOS with a known working 203 from another G74 that worked. I'm thinking either something with the motherboard or the keyboard itself is wrong, but I just can't figure it out. NOTHING I DID WORKED!!

So yea, every variable has been eliminated (other than a new motherboard or keyboard). If anyone can give me some pointers or really knows whats wrong, let me know, that would be great.

You may already know all this, but just hoping it might give you better ideas at least.
Anyway, sounds like you have already checked the connections, but if you didn't already know, in addition to the larger cable for the keyboard there is a second smaller cable nearby from the keyboard for the light (different from the touchpad cables), so I would focus on this to make sure it's plugged in well (and not upside down), and doesn't have any damage etc.

Good luck!

kiayande74 · ‎01-29-2014

No lights on after power-up. I have checked both cables on the inside and found no problems.
This guy claims he has the solution! Not sure if I should trust him.
http://leespottiswood.co.uk/blog/2013/07/04/asus-g74sx-no-backlit-keyboard/

G74Sx keyboarding backlighting help