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I have an HP ZBook 15 laptop. When I first got it, it came with Windows 7 preinstalled. I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 8.1.

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There is a mute button and a wireless button on the laptop. They each have LEDs inside that can be either white or orange. Before I installed Windows 8.1, the LEDs would turn orange when I pressed the buttons. Now that I've reformatted and installed Windows, the buttons stay white. They still work (mute button turns the volume to 0 and the wireless button puts the laptop into airplane mode), but the LED just isn't changing color. I installed some drivers including "HP Hotkey Support" and "HP Wireless Button Driver" but they didn't fix it. Does anyone know how I can fix this problem with my laptop?

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3 Answers 3

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To my knowledge, this laptop may need be fully supported with Windows 8. HP usually has to upgrade the firmware/bios of their laptops in order to support full Windows 8 Compatibility. The bios/firmware of the internals will usually effect if your radio buttons work properly and allow them to change color as they used to with Windows 7.

You can use the following link in order to check if your laptop is compatible or not with Windows 8:

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ad/windows-8/instructions.html

Furthermore, you can check the following HP article if, in-fact, your laptop does support Windows 8:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Wireless-Internet-Home-Networking/Consumer-Notebooks-and-Windows-8-Wireless-BT-WWAN-amp-Radio/td-p/1984915

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  • That first link said that my laptop hasn't been tested with Windows 8. But it looks like they sell it with Windows 8 preinstalled sometimes... Look at the top of this page: h71016.www7.hp.com/…
    – bdr9
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 2:50
  • From what I can tell, HP selling it preinstalled usually has all of the HP supported Apps. It is usually these apps, or even updates that will cause everything to function. Installing a fresh copy of Windows 8 on your own, rather than the branded HP Windows 8 will most likely be the cause of these buttons not working the way they should (or displaying in this case)
    – Mike Diglio
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 19:09
  • So is there a place where I can download and install these "HP supported apps"?
    – bdr9
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 19:11
  • You can possibly try HP websites, but I am not sure if they will offer it. You can also try to see if you can contact support of HP and see if they offer this software for you to install alongside your copy of Windows 8. However, these companies that have their own branded installs of OS' usually do not offer their software unless you purchase it through them
    – Mike Diglio
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 19:14
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Go to HP's ZBook driver page and download and install the audio driver - "IDT High Definition (HD) Audio Driver (International)". That should fix your mute button. I just did this, so I know it at least works for my computer. My wireless light was working fine, so I don't know for sure how to fix that one, but I imagine one of the other drivers on that page should work.

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  • Thanks, I'll try this later today. Did your wireless light work as soon as you installed Windows 8? Or was it later, after you installed some drivers?
    – bdr9
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 14:38
  • It was after. I think I pressed the wireless button a few times and something in the notifications area prompted me to update the driver for it.
    – DeadEli
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 14:41
  • Thanks for your help, this actually did fix the mute button light. By the way, did you get the fingerprint reader to work in Windows 8? I'd like to use the fingerprint reader to log into Windows but nothing seems to happen when I install the driver.
    – bdr9
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 19:18
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I solved this by going into the BIOS and clicking on the tab to Restore Defaults.

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  • Did it fix both the wireless button and the mute button?
    – bdr9
    Commented Jan 5, 2015 at 2:02

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