Hp Envy x360: Keyboard Backlight Timeout is the reason I’ll be returning my device.

[Redsox97]

Maybe someone here can help me solve this issue: the Keyboard Backlight on my new Envy x360 times out after 30 seconds. There is no option to adjust in device setting or the BIOS.

I appreciate what HP has done to improve battery life, however my device will be plugged in, on my desk 99% of the time. I am working from home until it is dark outside almost every day, and make constant typos because this tiny setting is not adjustable. It seems like HP is going out of their way to take this flexibility away from us. Like, there has to be an additional layer of protocol telling the backlight to turn off after a certain period of time, you would think after so many customer complaints about this topic, their devs would take 30 mins to add this functionality.

Sorry, HP. Unless someone here has a workaround for me to try, It looks like you will lose yet another sale because of something that is extremely easy to address. 

[Dragon-Fur]

@Redsox97 

Edits - Remove all personal commentary - unnecessary in context of the answer.

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The option you seek is available on HP business class machines that include access to BIOS > Advanced section to control the timeout.  At this writing, the section (Advanced) is not available in consumer class systems.  Envy is a consumer class series.

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At this writing, there is no "workaround".

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[Redsox97]

Why would you simply say that it’s not available to this class of devices? You say it is not a popular functionality, meaning many other customers have complained about the same issue. 

In 2019, HP had $38.69 bn in revenue in their Personal Systems business segment.

Let’s lowball it and assume 1/4 of that is laptop sales.

We can also assume that the “Consumer” segment of laptop sales makes up the lions share of total laptop sales, but lets lowball it and say that only 50% of the laptop sale assumption above is allocated to this “Consumer” segment. 

That gives us $4.84 bn in “Consumer” segment laptop sales. Let’s also assume that this issue only bothers 1% of consumers. Further, let’s assume that only 10% of that group is bothered enough to return their device due to this issue (I am part of this group). That’s $4,840,000 in sales lost LAST YEAR ALONE from and issue that takes less than a day to fix. 

These are all extremely conservative estimations. However you said that this problem is common. From a strictly financial point of view, HP is really dropping the ball for their stakeholders (shareholders, employees, and customers alike) by not implementing such a simple fix. 

I really do like my device. But this lack of functionality is a dealbreaker for me. I hope this post is enough to be escalated to your superiors and someone takes a small amount of time to make your customers happy. It’s not difficult. 

[Dragon-Fur]

@Redsox97 

I don't work for HP.

Your comments are welcome as long as they adhere to our Community Rules of Participation

I mistook your comments for asking for an answer.

I will edit my previous post to remove my own comments about the solution - they are unnecessary.

I shall withdraw.

Stay Safe.

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The Community is a separate wing of the HP website - We are not a business group of HP..

Our Community is comprised of volunteers - people who own and use HP devices.

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Question Resolved / Answered, Click "Accept as Solution" .