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amitabhbansal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2011
438
20
Delhi, India
friends
m using macbook pro 17", before El Capitan i was using yoesmite or mavericks dont remember, in the last OSX when i turn my notebook power on the keyboard light gets on to enter the Password for OSX, but after El Capitan whenever i power it on instantly it shows white screem with my User ID to enter the password, but there is no keyboard light, i usually work in night in dark so i need keyboard light to enter the password, but after entering the password the keyboard lights turns on, is there any setting to turn the keyboard light on at startup login osx or not?
please help
 

LewisChapman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2015
600
861
I've had this issue for as long as I can remember. Since I've seen it for the first time my MBP has undergone countless SMC resets and PRAM 'zaps' as well as a service with Apple.

Just got used to it I guess - would love to get to the bottom of it.
 

c8rlo

macrumors 6502
Sep 1, 2015
377
167
FL
but its happening only on startup login screen, after logging in keyboard lights starts working, but not in logging screen..

both my 2010 MBP & 2011 MBA running El Capitan both behave in the same manner, it was also doing the same when i was running Yosemite. after some researching the problem begins w/ the install of Yosemite, turning OFF FileVault fixes the problem...
 
Last edited:

Max(IT)

Suspended
Dec 8, 2009
8,551
1,662
Italy
Same for me.
I'm not going to turn off FileVault for that.
When FileVault is enabled, the first screen you see is before the operating system is booted (since the disk is protected by your password).
The software that runs the part you see is called the EFI (extensible firmware interface, that used to be "BIOS" in older versions), and does not contain as much features as the operating system. In this screen, the hardware drivers (the piece of software in charge of managing the hardware interactions) for the keyboard backlighting are not yet loaded (they will be during the operating system boot sequence), hence the absence of light.
 
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