Very dim screen.

Hi guys. I think my fix is fairly simple; I just don't know how to do it.

I have a used Alienware Aurora m7700 around 5 years old. It's running Windows XP Pro. On this computer, when you unplug the AC cord and go to battery, the screen dims a lot automatically. I've been trying to figure out how to force the computer to stay bright even on battery.

With my other Alienware superman computer, also running
XP Pro, I just used the Fn +F7 keys to brighten the screen and the computer remembers that regardless of whether it's on AC or battery power.

With the Aurora, I would use the Fn + F9 keys to brighten it. The F9 key shows the sun with an up arrow. However, the Fn + F9 key combo has never worked on this computer. So I figured I'd have to live with the dimming in battery mode.

So a few days ago while playing with it some more, I tried the Fn + F8 which is the sun with a down arrow and that one works too good. Stupid me, the screen is almost too dim to read now. So now I'm stuck with a very dim screen.

I removed the battery for a couple hours hoping that would bring back the default settings. No change. I brightened the adjustment in the GeForce Go 7800 GTX Color Correction section, but that only makes the pages whiter to the point you can't read any print on the screen. I've also plugged in 3 different older keyboards to override the built in one, but none of them have an Fn key. I've even tried Fn on the Aurora and F9 on the keyboards. Again nothing.

I think when the Aurora dims, it's the backlight that is dimming and that's why the graphic card adjustment doesn't really help.

My thought is that since both computers save the brightness settings when done manually with the Fn button, it must be changing a value in the registry, so even after removing the battery, the brightness always stays where I had it regardless of the power options or number of bootups.

I've typed in regedit and looked around quite a bit, but changed nothing. So now is where I need a lot of help. One of you guys or gals should know where to go in the registry and know what to change and what to change it to. And if it's not the registry holding the change, then where? It has to be in software somewhere, remembering the manual change made with the keyboard.

Thanks for any help.

 

Try this: unplug the battery, unplug ac, hold the power button for 20 seconds. Start up the computer and see if its working again.

 

double post, whoops