x360 spectre - keyboard disabled when screen hinged back

[sjh261]

Hi there,

Just bought an x360 spectre and am using it with a Dell 24" monitor. 

The monitor is connected by HDMI.

I want to be able to use the Dell monitor as my only display, from time to time, but use the laptop as a keyboard.  This is easiest when I turn the screen around at the hinge, like I'm using the laptop as a tablet, and place the screen on a soft surface (I'm currently using the soft case) and type with the keyboard face-up.  However, when I do this, the keyboard is disabled entirely.   When I hinge it back into a laptop, everything works fine.

So in short, I just want to use the keyboard when the screen is hinged back.

Any ideas on this specific issue?  I've tried all the basic troubleshooting.

Thanks 

[A4Apollo]

Hi! @sjh261, Welcome to HP forums.

I understand that keyboard gets disabled when the screen is hinged back.

When the laptop is folded back it automatically converts to tablet mode, wherein the keyboard is automatically turned off so that the keys are not accidentally pressed while using the touchscreen interface.

Hope this answers your query!

Have a wonderful day ahead! 🙂

[sjh261]

Sorry, no, that doesn't answer my query - that *is* my query. I don't want the keyboard to be disabled when I do that. I want to be able to use the keyboard. How do I do this?

I don't think tablet mode is on, because on the right hand sidebar I still have the option of turning the laptop onto tablet mode.

[A4Apollo]

Hi! @sjh261, thanks for the response.

Thanks for trying out the steps.

Please try few steps recommended below.

Click the Windows button (lower left corner)
Click on  settings
Click on the system to open it.
In the left pane of the screen, scroll down to the bottom until you see "Tablet Mode"
Verify that it is set to off.

When the laptop is rotated sideways it attempts to switch to tablet mode. The sensing is done by an orientation sensor in the base of the laptop, To turn the keyboard back on and to go to laptop mode and tilt the whole laptop towards you slightly check if it works.

Let me know if this works!

Have a wonderful day ahead! 🙂

[sjh261]

Hi there,

Sorry, that didn't work. 

I verified that Tablet Mode was off, and it was. 

I tried tilting the screen every which way, but the keyboard still did not turn on. 

Is there a simple option where I can enable/disable the keyboard?  Can I disable the annoying motion sensor so it never disables the keyboard? 

This is very frustrating for me. 

Thanks

[sjh261]

Hi,

I have already posted about this issue here:  http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Video-Display-and-Touch/x360-spectre-keyboard-disabled-when-sc...

However, none of the responses seemed to address my problem.   

I want to be able to use the keyboard on my Spectre x360 when the screen is rotated all the way back 360 degrees. 

Tablet mode is OFF. 

I have tried tilting the laptop. 

Neither method works. 

If there is no other way to use the laptop's keyboard while the screen is flipped back, can someone please advise how I can disable the orientation sensor.  My external monitor is basically unusable if I can't fix this issue, since I have no space on my desk for both the laptop and the monitor and need to be able to fold the screen back so I can use both at once. 

Thank you for your help

S

[jlonomo · Accepted solution]

This has been asked before, fairly sure that each time the answer is "you can't". There might be some third party software to allow you to control the action of the sensors, but in Windows and BIOS settings there are no options.

The keyboard switches off once the screen is rotated past 180 degrees, so your closest position would be with the laptop splayed out flat on the desk, though your screen would still be on. You might be able to manually turn off the screen by selecting the 'external monitor only' in the windows presentation settings.

Here's a probably silly idea, but you could always use the touchscreen keyboard on the screen instead of the physical keyboard. 😛

[A4Apollo]

Hi! @sjh261, thanks for the response.

Thanks for trying out the steps.

I had mentioned in my previous post that here is no option use the keyboard when the screen is rotated all the way back to 360 degrees. 

As you mentioned you need to know how to disabled the orientation sensor.

You cannot disable the orientation sensor however you can try disabling the auto screen rotation.

1. Go to control panel
2. Go to Display
3.Go to Adjust Resolution
4. Be sure "Allow the screen to auto-rotate" is UNCHECKED..
5. The screen auto rotation will be disabled.

Have a lovely day ahead! 🙂

[sjh261]

Hi there,

Thanks for the suggestion.  I should've said I already tried that - even when the box is unchecked, a message pop-up saying "Autorotate ON" still pops up every time I move the screen back beyond 180 degrees, and the keyboard locks. 

Another user has said that there is no fix for this problem.  It seems like that might be the case and I'm probably best to get a new laptop. 

Thanks

[sjh261]

Thanks for the helpful response - unfortunate that there's no fix but at least I'm not going crazy 🙂