Dell D820 won't hold display settings

I have a "hardware stock" D820 that I have upgraded to Win7. I have the ambient light sensor turned off, and have been using the keyboard controls to brighten or dim the display. Each time I turn the computer on, the display comes up at a lower brightness than I prefer, and I cannot adjust it any higher with the keyboard controls. When I go into Control Panel, and then Display, I can do the Calibrate Color routine to give me a brighter display by setting the GAMMA setting at a higher level ....and this works fine until the computer goes into "idle" mode after I haven't used it for a while, or until I re-start ...then it reverts to the darker setting, and I have to calibrate it all over again. QUESTION: is there a way to make the computer KEEP the display calibration setting where I set them at??

 

Try setting the brightness in the BIOS first. To enter the BIOS, press F2 when you see the DELL logo when you power up the laptop.

 

Thanks for the tip. I just checked the BIOS settings: the ambient light sensor is turned off, and the screen brightness is set to the highest point for both battery and AC operation. When I turn Ambient Light Sensor back on in BIOS, the screen goes to about 70% brightness ....turn it off, and the screen goes brighter. I re-started and then went back into the Calibrate Color settings, and set the GAMMA setting higher again (it was at its apparent default setting of about 50%) ...and then re-started. The setting reverted to 50% upon restart. Any other suggestions? Could a failing backlight or inverter be the problem??

 

Why are you adjusting the gamma? Gamma has nothing to do with display brightness. If you adjust the gamma too much, colors will start to look strange.

Have you tried installing an updated display driver? Go to http://downloadcenter.intel.com and get the latest, and see if that helps.

 

Well ...on my computer, GAMMA has everything to do with display brightness ...because that's the only way I can get it to go brighter. Sure, it washes out the colors a bit, but not so much that its bothersome. I use the computer mostly for email, and word processing. Yup, I've already updated the display driver, but it didn't make any difference. Any other suggestions?

 

That definately doesn't sound normal, I think your backlight is failing.

How bright is it when you are in the BIOS? Is it bright enough?

 

Oh yes ...the display is bright enough for normal use, however it is a bit dim when working in a brightly lit room. And in BIOS it is plenty bright enough. However, compared to a Dell D620 that we also have, it is noticeably dimmer. When I sit them side-by-side, I can adjust the D620 to a higher brightness level (using the keyboard) than the D820 will go to. They both dim to about the same levels.

 

So, it's brighter in the BIOS than in Windows? If that's the case, you may want to reinstall Windows first and see if that does anything.