Case lights and buttons on laptop

[Mike T.]

Hi,

I have a Medion MD5950 laptop, which is a bit under 3 years old. Specs:
2.53GHz P4 Mobile
768MB RAM
30GB HD
CD burner/DVD reader

It had come with XP Home and a bunch of pre-installed apps, and I later
added a dualboot with SuSE 8.2. Over time, in the course of
installing/uninstalling programs and other typical use, performance
degraded, so I decided to flush everything and do a clean reinstall, using
XP Pro SP2 (and later I plan to add SuSE 10).

The laptop has three buttons in the case (not part of the keyboard). They're
quick-launch buttons for 1) default e-mail, 2) default browser, and 3)
user-defined. There are also three lights: 1) signifies that the laptop is
running from power, 2) the battery is charging, and 3) e-mail notification.

The laptop originally came with a program called EZButton, which allowed the
user to define the action when the third case button is pressed (I use
Trillian), and also EZMail, which activated the e-mail notification light.

After reinstalling the OS, I installed the above two programs. The third
button and the e-mail notification light did not work. I've traced the
problem to the following: These items only work properly when the user is an
administrator. Under XP Home, this was not an issue. Under Pro, however, it
is. For reasons of security, I have a separate user (non-administrator)
account for normal use, only logging in as admin when necessary.

I've given my normal user full r/w/x rights to the two directories
containing the programs.

I've found one workaround for EZButton: After startup, if I launch the
EZButton as administrator, the third button works. Is there a way to
automatically start the program as administrator at boot (logging in with
normal user), maybe with some sort of flag?

The same method does not, however, work for EZMail, maybe because it reads
Administrator's default mail profile instead of the actual user.

The manufacturer isn't much help, and the latest version of the software was
released sometime in 2003. I have not yet succeeded in finding out who the
author is. Apparently, this system has been used in several brands of
laptops, primarily in the European and Asian markets.

Does anyone have a possible workaround or alternate program that will make
everything work?

Failing that...I've done some programming in the past (although my aptitude
is more in the database area). Is there any way I could find out how those
devices are called/activated? The EZButton program came with a DLL called
KeyHook.dll, and EZMail came with WinIo.dll, if that helps anyone with more
low-level HW expertise than I have.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[John McGaw]

Hi,

I have a Medion MD5950 laptop, which is a bit under 3 years old. Specs:
2.53GHz P4 Mobile
768MB RAM
30GB HD
CD burner/DVD reader

It had come with XP Home and a bunch of pre-installed apps, and I later
added a dualboot with SuSE 8.2. Over time, in the course of
installing/uninstalling programs and other typical use, performance
degraded, so I decided to flush everything and do a clean reinstall, using
XP Pro SP2 (and later I plan to add SuSE 10).

The laptop has three buttons in the case (not part of the keyboard). They're
quick-launch buttons for 1) default e-mail, 2) default browser, and 3)
user-defined. There are also three lights: 1) signifies that the laptop is
running from power, 2) the battery is charging, and 3) e-mail notification.

The laptop originally came with a program called EZButton, which allowed the
user to define the action when the third case button is pressed (I use
Trillian), and also EZMail, which activated the e-mail notification light.

After reinstalling the OS, I installed the above two programs. The third
button and the e-mail notification light did not work. I've traced the
problem to the following: These items only work properly when the user is an
administrator. Under XP Home, this was not an issue. Under Pro, however, it
is. For reasons of security, I have a separate user (non-administrator)
account for normal use, only logging in as admin when necessary.

I've given my normal user full r/w/x rights to the two directories
containing the programs.

I've found one workaround for EZButton: After startup, if I launch the
EZButton as administrator, the third button works. Is there a way to
automatically start the program as administrator at boot (logging in with
normal user), maybe with some sort of flag?

The same method does not, however, work for EZMail, maybe because it reads
Administrator's default mail profile instead of the actual user.

The manufacturer isn't much help, and the latest version of the software was
released sometime in 2003. I have not yet succeeded in finding out who the
author is. Apparently, this system has been used in several brands of
laptops, primarily in the European and Asian markets.

Does anyone have a possible workaround or alternate program that will make
everything work?

Failing that...I've done some programming in the past (although my aptitude
is more in the database area). Is there any way I could find out how those
devices are called/activated? The EZButton program came with a DLL called
KeyHook.dll, and EZMail came with WinIo.dll, if that helps anyone with more
low-level HW expertise than I have.

Thanks!
Mike

I would think that some variation of the "runas" command in a script
which runs from the common startup directory would be appropriate
although I don't have the time right now to mess with it to determine
the proper incantations.

Funny thing those buttons -- I've got three systems which have some
variation of the "press this button means run this program" and never
use it at all. It might be broken on every one of them and I wouldn't
know it.

John McGaw
http://johnmcgaw.com

 

[Mike T.]

I would think that some variation of the "runas" command in a script which
runs from the common startup directory would be appropriate although I
don't have the time right now to mess with it to determine the proper
incantations.

Funny thing those buttons -- I've got three systems which have some
variation of the "press this button means run this program" and never use
it at all. It might be broken on every one of them and I wouldn't know it.

John McGaw
http://johnmcgaw.com

Hi John,

Thanks for responding.
It looks like runas would do the trick for the button, but not for the
e-mail indicator light. When I run EZMail as admin, it looks for admin's
mail profile. I also temporarily added my normal user to the administrators
group, and it worked. Maybe it has something to do with a service? Obviously
the light is non-critical, but I'd like to have it working if at all
possible.

Regards,
Mike