Laptop Keyboard Backlight Colors

I'm looking at buying a new laptop and mostly I'm looking at the gaming mod els because they have proper keyboards with full size arrow keys among othe rs. One model I looked at had full height arrow keys, but the arrow keys a long with the entire numeric keypad are 2/3 width... lol

This is in a 17 inch display unit, so no need to cramp the keyboard. They just leave over an inch on the sides.

Anyone see 17 inch laptops without the squished keys?

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odels because they have proper keyboards with full size arrow keys among ot hers. One model I looked at had full height arrow keys, but the arrow keys along with the entire numeric keypad are 2/3 width... lol

y just leave over an inch on the sides.

Oh yeah, one I found, the HP Omen Laptop - 17t with a red keyboard backligh t that would bug me. Support doesn't even understand what I'm asking about . Anyone know if the backlight colors can be changed? The gaming machines I've seen use RGB LEDs and can provide any color backlight you want.

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Search for 17 inch laptops with a mechanical keyboard. For example: "MSI GT75VR: A powerful laptop with a mechanical keyboard and a

17.3-inch screen"

While not as low profile as the all too common paper thin rubber dome type laptop keyboards, mechanical keyboards are fairly tall. Look for those with Cherry MX series switches:

On YouTube, Linux Tech Tips has quite a bit on gaming keyboards and gaming laptops. Try:

Why Mechanical Keyboards Are Superior

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Maybe. Omen laptops come with the "Omen Command Center". Here's how it works: The problem is that neither the documentations or videos show an example colors other than red. The docs talk about "static color and "color loop" but show no examples. From this description, I could assume that it can do colors, but without an example, I'm rather worried about what HP might be trying to hide.

Ah... here's two 15" Omen videos which actually display colors other than red. There is hope:

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A number of laptop models don't come with the backlight keys stock, but still have the backlight header on the mobo so you can even swap in an aftermarket backlit keyboard on some models that don't even come with 'em

Reply to
bitrex

On Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 11:05:10 PM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote :

ight

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I've

Thanks for the info. They make a version of the OMEN that has other than r ed color, but the price starts to get away from me. I'm not looking to spe nd a couple of kilobucks.

I found one that might do the job from MSI at an affordable price. GL73 9R CX-029

Not sure if the keyboard colors can be changed. Also don't know how much m emory it will hold or if it will take a SATA drive (comes with 256GB NVMe d rive. It is also a bear, actually larger than my present Dell Precision M6

800 which barely fits in my laptop bag.

Oh, I won't be buying an Omen. Chat actually hung up on my because it was so hard for them to get answers. MSI doesn't seem to have chat so I emaile d them. While the keys are full height, they cut the width on the numeric keypad. The function keys have been cut in height for some time now, so th e four keys across the top of the numeric keypad are small in both directio ns, lol! They also cut the size (or placement) of the spacebar by putting a second backslash key next to it.

All this because I want a keyboard with actual keys.

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bitrex

Yeah, I just got a few Bluetooth full-size sculpted key keyboards, and consider them the universal solution for laptops, tablets, or desktops. It's a bit of a nuisance, though, they all look alike but are linked to different machines...

For small-screen laptops, bluetooth keypads (Microsoft, for one) beat the top-row number keys all hollow.

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whit3rd

I would consider a detached keyboard, but my laptop is truly a portable device and I already find dragging out a mouse inconvenient. A keyboard would be over the top.

BTW, my mouse has dual operation and I find the bluetooth mode to be a bit laggy. I guess that's just not an issue with a keyboard so much. Do you also use a bluetooth mouse? Any issues with "feel"?

I haven't heard back from MSI. I'm starting to think it will be when they feel like it. I don't see much indication they actually interact with the public. They don't sell direct and have no chat.

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About $1,000. Play with the options to what they cost:

Look at the photos on the Newegg page. The 4th photo show RGB and red-only keyboards. The Newegg page doesn't offer an RGB keyboard option and does not indicate if the prices are for red-only or RGB.

The options offered by Newegg at 8 and 16GB RAM. This page covers most of the GL73 mutations: Looks like 8GB and 16GB are the only options.

Nope. The above GL732 chart only shows MVMe for HDD interface.

You want the biggest screen available in a laptop and now you complain that it's too big and heavy? Perhaps this would be a good time to limit your expectations.

Incidentally, I just ordered a Dell Precision M6800 laptop for a customer doing CNC programming. Except for the CPU, it's maxed out (two 500GB SATA drives, 32GB RAM, Win 7, etc). About $550.

You can get better answers from Google or the vendors support Forums. Those also give you the benefit of knowing what users are having problems with. If I want real data, the very last people I would ask are the factory sales people, who are mostly accustomed to dealing with dealers.

There was a web pile I found a few weeks ago that showed various keyboards on a properly scaled grid. It's good for comparing keyboards. I'll see if I can find it again.

That's also what all the gamers want. I suggest hanging around the gamers forums and web sites to see what they are buying. Please note that their standard of excellence is the "feel" of the keys and their response time. In gaming, a fraction of a millisecond faster on firing the machine gun is the difference between winning or losing.

Cherry MX series mechanical keys: Red: low-noise switches deliver a more linear keypress for rapid-fire actuation. Brown: low-noise switches that have a tactile bump for feedback with every keypress.

rapid command entry.

If you got into computing during the early 1980's perhaps a dash of IBM buckling spring keyboard nostalgia:

That's also why you'll find more TN LCD displays on gaming laptops than IPS. TN has a faster response time, even though some look awful.

Another place to hang out are with those rugged individuals that do CAD on a laptop. Some are 17" displays and unlike the gamers, they don't care much about "feel", RGB, kbd latency, or display latency.

8 Best Laptops for AutoCad, 3D Modeling, and other CAD Works. Hmmm... none of these seem to have mechanical keys, but I'm not sure. You get to dig through the specs and try to find out. I'm lazy tonite (too hot).
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I've enjoyed tablet operation for some things, and occasionally use a Bluetooth trackpad; can relocate from the desk to an easy chair that way. The 'feel' is terrible, though, you really HAVE to have eye contact with the screen at all times. And, the 'tap' function has been selecting things because of random hand contact, so I end up looking at a lot of advertising that I didn't intend to click on.

Another good laptop control option would be a trackball, but that's kinda... exotic.

A big laptop screen, though, can sit across the table during breakfast, because with a wireless mouse/pad/trackball you can use it without reaching over the food to get at the buttons.

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whit3rd

Exactly.

What they offer is not the same as what it will hold. I'd be surprised if a model today didn't accept 32 GB, but I don't want to be surprised.

Again, what is being offered, not necessarily what can be installed.

Compare to most other 17" laptops, it's huge. Like I said, I currently hav e a Dell Precision which is one of the largest 17" laptops around. This th ing is even bigger, not because it needs to be, just because they give it a goofy shape. I expect it won't fit in any 17" laptop bag I can find.

When you say "ordered" you mean from ebay or someplace used, right? That's where I got this one and it came with Windows 10, a reinstall which means there are not drivers for everything. One issue I can think of off the top of my head is the keyboard backlight blanks out after just a very few seco nds making it hard to use in the dark. Whatever adjustment it's supposed t o have is not supported. Such an old machine may even have mechanical prob lems. Mine has loose hinges that seem to be getting slowly worse. But a s hift key broke which is the last straw for me. I just don't want to work o n it and the durn thing blows too much heat a lot of the time. Odd that in dependent of what the CPU and GPU seem to be doing, the thing blows some se rious heat or is cool enough to have in my lap...

Try googling about the color of the keyboard backlight. There's just too m uch crap to wade through. I did find one page where the guy was asking exa ctly the same question, but a slightly different model. Seems the Steel ke yboards used are prized by gamers, but come in both red and RGB versions.

It would be interesting. My real problem is finding actual info on laptops . The manufacturers don't actually provide the sort of detail I want. The y mostly want to get you to read their marketing hype. Then there is fight ing the organzation of their web pages to see what they have in a way that makes it easy to compare rather than having to look at each and every lapto p. Multiply by the number of manufacturers and the job is not worth it. I 'll just go back to lugging a desktop unit around. lol

My standards are much lower. I just want a keyboard that has actual, prope r sized keys. Seems even the gamer keyboards are being compromised with 2/

3 width numeric keypads. Seems insane to me. I guess these appeal to user s with 2/3 width fingers.

The vendors actually argue with me that these are full sized! It's like th ey refuse to look at the tiny keys and will only read the script that says the *keyboards* are full size.

I vaguely recall the IBM keyboards which were desired by typist. Back then I could use most anything other than a membrane keyboard. My favorite was the MS 'natural", a curved, split and twisted keyboard that let your wrist s sit straight, very nice, but very large end to end. Hard to pack.

Thanks, I'll be sure to avoid those.

That's me really. I do FPGA work and my eyes are not good, so a 17" displa y is the absolute minimum. I don't care about the gamer speeds, but I do w ant the durn keys to fit my fingers.

Those are some expensive machines! Up to $3,500!!!

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Manufacturers prefer to specify the maximum memory that they are able to test. It could possibly handle much more, but unless tested by the manufacturer, they don't want to claim larger memory just in case something goes wrong when someone tries. This mess is typical:

Maybe something different might be more appropriate. One of my customers gives quite a few presentations. He carries a portable LED projector, a USFF (ultra small form factor) Dell Optiplex computah, cordless mouse, cordless keyboard, and a small 13"(?) LCD monitor used only for initial setup. Most of the time, the conference supplies an overhead projector, so the LED projector is only used for small meetings in odd locations (or when the overhead projector craps out). This is probably bigger and heavier than your proposed gaming laptop, but might be more useful. Certainly, the PC will be easier and cheaper to upgrade.

eBay. Sorry, I forgot to include that detail.

The customer did not want Windoze 10 and is currently using Windoze 7 on all his machines. He wants to run some really old CAD software that works well on Win 7, but has problems with Win 10. I also recall some problems with his pen plotter drivers on Win 10.

Some things are best done under cover of darkness. I don't think FPGA programming is one of them. I've run into that problem before on laptops. The keyboard LED backlighting usually runs on 5VDC. I just cut the trace that runs the backlighting, and applied full time 5VDC. It was a bit too bright, so I installed a series dropping resistor. I wanted to install a dimmer, but the customer said that fixed level was fine.

I try to fix those before the plastic breaks. If you're lucky, it's only loose screws into brass inserts in the plastic. Add some blue thread lock, tighten, and it should be good for a few more years. If the hinges are too stiff, adjust them (if there is an adjustment nut), or slop on some oil. If you're not luck, and the screws go directly into the plastic, reinforce the thin plastic with epoxy, scrap metal, or if there's room, brass threaded inserts. Whatever the situation, you'll probably need to disassemble the LCD bezel and the top of the laptop case.

That doesn't sound right. There are some programs that allow monitoring the chip temperatures. Try Speedfan: At least it will tell you which chip is getting hot and whether your fan is turning on/off at the right temperatures. More: I'll let you know what the one I ordered does after it arrives.

Sigh. Many years ago, I working on a radio project, where I was the designated "cleanup" guy. Doing the spec sheet for marketeering appeared in my mailbox with a hint that it was needed the previous day. So, I did my best. Absolute maximum not to exceed ratings, absolute minimum ratings, recommended ranges, stable antenna load region, some useful graphs, applicable US and international standards, copious footnotes, and so on. I even made sure it would fit on one double sided letter size page. It took me two full days to throw this together and have a friend check it. I was happy, so off it went.

About 2 months later, I saw the final spec sheet for the radio. Instead of my detailed specifications, there was a full page photo of the radio. A few random numbers, some of which were wrong, were on the back, along with a large number of legal disclaimers. All the footnotes and standards were gone.

What happened was that marketing sent the spec sheet to the company legal advisor, who deleted anything that might not be defensible should a customer sue or demand their money back for failing to meet the "published" specifications. If you're wondering why equipment data sheets are in such a sorry state these days, now you know why.

That might be the only solution that meets all your requirements. At least you can assemble a workable machine for available components.

It is insane. My personal solution was to find a keyboard that I liked, and was cheap and commonly available. Dell SK-8135. It's not a true mechanical keyboard as it has a dome type membrane instead of individual key switches. It's also not backlit or RGB. I have about 10 of these, so I have enough spares in case I break something. When I eventually rub off the white key legends after about 3 years of hard use, it goes to the recycler and I buy a replacement keyboard. Probably not suitable for your application, but good enough for what I'm doing.

That's what that keyboard size comparison site was intended to fix. "Full size" currently has the same value as "genuine". I'll go looking for the site later today.

I play piano, which gives me some added finger strength and range of motion. No sign of any carpel tunnel or other problems. I like to try every weird and strange "ergonomic" keyboard I find. Most are useless to me because I won't spend the time unlearning my current favorite keyboard and learn something new. The MS keyboard was one of the first ergonomic keyboards. A few of my customers loved them and probably still use them (or their decedents) today. I thought they sucked and recycled them as fast as possible.

Another detail that might be of interest is that the M6x00 series of laptops came with either TN or IPS. Look at the "screen" column at: Some M6600 and M6700 were supplied with IPS LCD panels. They looked great when new, but would develop weird tints as the RGB backlighting LED's aged. The other years, including the M6800, only TN panels were supplied.

That's why I suggested the LED projector (especially since you work in the dark). The one's I resold were NOT 1920x1080. I think they were

1600x900, which was good enough for presentations. Maybe something like this:

Compromise. Get an external full size wireless keyboard.

If you order a custom 17" gaming laptop from a builder such as Sager, that's about what you can expect to pay for a high end model: Full color illuminated full size keyboard with numeric pad and anti-ghost keys Fully programmable macro capability - customize individual key as hot key / multiple keystrokes in one key W/A/S/D gaming key (Watch out for haunted keyboards full of ghosts).

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n find.

I couldn't use a projector in 90% of the locations I use the laptop. Paner a, my house, my friend's house... I actually can't think of any place where I could make it work without rearranging furniture or wall hangings or bot h. I guess I could take out some doors to provide a nice place for the scr een.

That's one reason why I don't use a large TV at home. The screen would app ear smaller than my laptop.

I don't own printers or plotter or anything else that won't work with every version of Windows since... well, since whenever I suppose. Maybe not 95 since that didn't support USB I think.

t

rk.

What plastic??? This is an M6800 with an all metal case... to the best of my knowledge. I wish I had someone like you nearby. I took a computer to a place once to fix some issue that I was certain was software, but didn't need a full reinstall. All they knew how to do was a clean wipe and reinst all. Eventually I got it working again, but the process is painful, diggin g around on the Internet with a 12 inch netbook that chokes if you open thr ee tabs in FF.

I needed several machines for work and bought them around the same time. T hey all run very warm. One was warm enough I wanted to open it up to clean it and asked permission in case the considered it to be voiding the "warra nty" (eBay, 60 day refund). They said go ahead and offered me $70 bucks of f for my trouble if I didn't return it. Eventually I took them up on their offer, but they ignored me until the 60 days ran out. So I disputed it on the credit card and got it all back. Why do people need to be such s**ts? They probably only paid $50 for the machine in a lot.

I was joking. It doesn't meet any of my requirements other than cost and p erformance. Far too large and heavy, just the monitor alone would be a PIT A. I considered using one of the little box PCs with a monitor for my work test fixture. But just lugging the monitor is such a PITA a laptop is so much easier. I really should use 17 inch units for that though. At least one is 15 inch.

That would be ideal if I wasn't always on the move. I don't stay in any on e place more than 3 or 4 days.

Mine either don't work or can't be used with USB. I tried using one with a Raspberry Pi and the little USB adapter didn't work there. Oddly enough t hey used a very large plastic sheet as circuit board and one of the traces corroded and broke. I never tried to fix it since they were old anyway. O ne should still work though. It would take some getting used to after usin g a laptop. Wow, what a difference! A laptop has to be the worst keyboard /screen ever from an ergonomic perspective.

My M6800 has a great screen. I use it to watch programs all the time. The one that was truely crappy was the Lenovo. There was no viewing position that allowed the entire screen to be seen without optical problems at eithe r the top or bottom of the screen or both.

Lol, the "dark" is ambient lighting which varies as the sun sets and rises. I don't always turn on a lamp as it gets dark. No particular reason to s tay in the dark other than when watching shows. Still, I don't want a glow ing red eyed beast under my keyboard.

But where do I put the computer that is close enough to see? A regular key board would be in the way.

Yeah, I had to look that up before. I guess gamers pound on their keyboard s for firing and such.

There are other issues to deal with. I'm kayaking tomorrow and need to her d the turtles. Thanks for your comments.

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Every respectable conference room or engineering office seem to have a large white board available. Clean off the scribbling and use it for a projector screen. I found it useful to photograph what was on the white board before erasing everything because there always seems to be someone who later insists that I erased something important.

Large TV screens are only useful for large audiences or large rooms. Small audiences (usually one person) and small rooms do best with small screens. There are online miscalculators relating optimum viewing distances and screen sizes: etc. Note that those calculators sponsored by companies selling large screen TVs tend to favor larger and more profitable screen sizes.

For a while, I would watch TV in bed, with the picture projected onto the ceiling. I had some difficulty dealing with the inevitable distortion caused by the angled ceiling and non-ideal projector location, so I gave it up after a few weeks.

Argh. The customer mangled the order, cancelled the order, and re-ordered a better M6800 computah from a different eBay vendor. I might end up buying the extra computah if he'll give me a big discount.

Sorry. Most of the laptop hinges I fix have plastic cases. I forgot that the M6800 is all metal. If your hinges are loose, it's probably just some loose hinge screws. Loctite (blue) and tighten.

I'm trying to retire (and failing).

Oh swell. Just what I didn't want to hear.

Most laptops are now designed to operate normally with the lid closed. When I give a presentation, that's how I run the laptop. There are a few Windoze settings that need to be tweaked, such Power Settings for what to do when I close the lid. Try + and select 2nd screen only: That should turn of the laptop screen and display everything on the projector. However, be sure to check if it actually turns off the laptop backlighting. I vaguely recall some old laptop that didn't.

Yep. Many of the games rely on the players reaction time in order to win. To hit a keyboard key faster means the player will kill someone or something quicker. Faster really means harder if there's any keyboard delay. Of course, it's always the same keys that get mashed.

Y'er welcome. Have fun.

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are you saying he has a screw loose?

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tabbypurr

Only when he's unhinged.

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Where do you think I work? I work in my bedroom for a short commute. Then there are the days I have to work in the living room. On a weekly basis I travel to distant shores where I work at a friend's house or Panera's or s omeplace similar. I haven't used my computer in a conference room in... we ll, ever.

What??? You just told me to use a projector1!! The TV doesn't require a b lank wall at least. It just needs a place to hang which can be temporary i f you use a motorized mount to swing it up toward the ceiling. I've though t of that, but I haven't found any motorized mounts I thought were worth th e effort. That could also get the screen closer to me so it actually appea rs larger than a 17" laptop... in my laptop.

Then there is the issue cabling and connections. That could be a real mess with a TV hanging from the ceiling. I suppose I could strap the laptop to the back of the TV and connect via wireless keyboard and mouse.

It's for the greater good of mankind. ;)

I'm told part of the problem is these are desktop processors in a laptop ca se. That said, the last week or so the laptop has been very comfortable. It varies from time to time. If the CPU gets up to 25% utilized it usually starts getting too hot to hold in my lap. Likewise a high GPU utilization does the same thing. Other times the CPU will be at 30% and comfortable. Currently it's single digit and comfortable... mostly.

TV maybe, projector, no. There just isn't a place to project it that would appear as large as the laptop screen. In the bedroom where I don't want t o spend *all* my working time, the wall is 11 feet, I believe. Do the math of a 17 inch laptop about 24 inches away and what size screen would be nee ded 11 feet away to look the same size.

It was a good time. Small group, with great weather. This Sunday we are g oing down the Antietam which is rather rocky and will have significant shal low spots this time of year. We may be dragging the kayaks more than paddl ing.

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