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So, I was sitting using my old Compaq today, and realized that the HDD LED is dead. Bummer. So I and thought "Hey, what if there was software like NetworkLights where I can have the LED 'mapped' to an LED on my keyboard?"

 

So, yeah... Does such a piece of software exist?

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Do people actually care about a flashing hdd LED....I'm half tempted to unplug mine. 

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It doesn't exist because it's hardwired to something on the board. Probably controlled by the BIOS.

You can get around messing at a hardware level simply by handling it at a software level. You then set a base line as to where to separate HDD activity between idle and load based on monitoring the disks I/O. From there you can do whatever you want with it. You could use the scroll lock light on the keyboard as an activity light if you so wished simply by monitoring disk I/O and then firing off a keyboard event.

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Do people actually care about a flashing hdd LED....I'm half tempted to unplug mine. 

I can't see mine, or hear the hard drive, and since this drive is on its last leg, I don't know if it's actually thinking, or if the drive is just being a ditz.

 

You can get around messing at a hardware level simply by handling it at a software level. You then set a base line as to where to separate HDD activity between idle and load based on monitoring the disks I/O. From there you can do whatever you want with it. You could use the scroll lock light on the keyboard as an activity light if you so wished simply by monitoring disk I/O and then firing off a keyboard event.

How do you know this. HOW.

Main rig on profile

VAULT - File Server

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Intel Core i5 11400 w/ Shadow Rock LP, 2x16GB SP GAMING 3200MHz CL16, ASUS PRIME Z590-A, 2x LSI 9211-8i, Fractal Define 7, 256GB Team MP33, 3x 6TB WD Red Pro (general storage), 5x 8TB WD White Label/Red (Plex) (both arrays in their respective Windows Parity storage spaces), 1TB Teamgroup MP33 (dumping ground) Corsair RM750x, TrueNAS Scale

Sleeper HP Pavilion A6137C

Spoiler

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.4GHz, 4x8GB G.SKILL Ares 1800MHz CL10, ASUS Z170M-E D3, 128GB Team MP33, 1TB Seagate Barracuda, MSI GTX 970 100ME, EVGA 650G1, Windows 11 Pro

OptiPlex 7040M

Spoiler

Intel Core i7 6700, 2x16GB Mushkin Redline (stuck at 2133MHz CL13), 240GB Corsair MP510, 2TB Seagate Barracuda 2.5", 130w Dell power brick, Windows 11 Pro

Mac Mini (Late 2020)

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Apple M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB, macOS Sonoma

Consoles: Steam Deck LCD (512GB), Softmodded 1.4 Xbox w/ 500GB HDD, Xbox 360 Elite 120GB Falcon, XB1X w/2TB MX500, Xbox Series X, PS1 1001, PS2 Slim 70000 w/ FreeMcBoot, PS4 Pro 7015B 1TB, PS5 Digital, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Wii RVL-001 (black)

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How do you know this. HOW.

I can guarantee it's exactly how Network Light's works, except they monitor network I/O to trigger the event. Since none of these three keys (Num, Caps, Scroll Lock) trigger any event's inside software it's easy to just fire off a keybd_event. You could check a key's current state as well with GetKeyState to ensure the light is either on and off when it needs to be. I don't run Windows anymore so I can't compile a quick example to show you how relatively simple it is to control the keyboard lights.

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Damn, you are fast. :D

EcoBoost for a reason xD

Desktop: Intel Core i5 2380P (2400 w/o iGPU), MSI H61, 8GB RAM, 256GB SP610, 500GB WD Blue, HIS R9 280, Antec TruePower Classic 550W, Inwin MANA 134, QNIX QX2710, CM QuickFire Rapid, Logitech G402

 

Laptop: Toshiba Satellite L40D, AMD A6-6310, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Radeon R4 Graphics, 14" 1366x768

 

 

Phone: iPhone 6 Space Gray 64GB, T-Mobile $60/mo 3GB plan

 

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