Why can't I get the brightness up on the w3j

Sometimes the notebook will be dim whenever i plug in the power cord for whatever reason, and it doesnt happen all the time so i not sure whats causing it. However its not the screen because whenever i go into battery mode i can set the screen to any brightness I want and it goes all the way up in battery mode if i so choose. But since they dont let you change the brightness in AC mode I cant force the screen into high brightness. Anyone know whats causing this or what I can do to fix this? Also are there any BIOS updates or new fixes that I should know about not concerning this issue?

 

It's definately lag for that. Reinstalling HControl and Power4Gear may help.

 

Reinstalled Pwer4 but didnt do anything. Does HConrol have anything to do with power profiles? Thought that managed all the quick buttons on the laptop

 

HControl only enables the buttons' functions; does nothing with managing or altering P4Gear's profiles.

I can't remember right now - I thought when you disable Auto Performance in the P4Gear taskbar menu that opens all of the power profile's components for changing, on both AC and Battery profiles. But my z63 is at home, so I can't check that recollection to confirm it (and I use NHC rather than P4G anyway).

 

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All that managed to do was open up the CPU performance bar on the AC only profiles. Ill try NHC but its kind of irritating that the stock program isnt working.

 

Well I installed NHC, and atleast it defaults on FULL power brightness on AC, but one drawback I dont know how to turn it down for battery mode. With this much brightness even underclocking the CPU and GPU leaves the batt @ only 3hrs. Otherwise NHC is teh 1337 !!! Any idea of how to set panel brightness w/o power4gear? Using Asus products for a while now Ive coem to expect buggy software from them, at least in the beginning so I think if i can just move away from power4 and controll all of the power saving features on my own i'd rather do that. Only thing I don't know how to control however is the Panel brightness so some plz fill me in on that. PS are there any new BIOS's worth upgrading to, or any fixes I should worry about? I dont think i have installed any fix that will help out w/ some of the standby problems this laptop is having.

 

how about just USE FN and the brightness control. power 4 gear stinks anyways get centrino hardware control.

 

Wow! I feel like an idiot. Thx for the advice. I'll look into the centrino thing too just for kicks.

 

Centrino is better simply or the fact that you can lower the cpu voltage. and exactly how fast your pc will be running. It helps much better for battery life than power4gear.

 

I hear theres a new bios thats fixes the coming out of standy. It might be worth downloading for you. im surprised you are only getting 3 hours of battery life.

 

You've already got it. Notebook Hardware Control is Centrino Hardware Control (renamed).

LCD set at Full brightness is a battery consuming monster - LCD is one of the biggest power hogs of any notebook. You should be able to get at least 30-45 min if you drop the brightness down to ~50%, I bet.

 

OK thx for advice everyone! How safe is it to flash this computer inside the OS. Ive always avoided flashing my motherboards inside the OS, but there no easy way to use a floppy here. Can I make the flash utility currently in the BIOS pick up say a bios file inside a thumb drive?

 

Easier to just extract the BIOS image to your desktop, and then let WinFlash do the rest - it's designed to work inside XP and do this. The procedure is pretty much automatic, and you shouldn't have any problems - instructions for using WinFlash can be found at the Asus download site , click on How To Upgrade BIOS button, and then WinFlash upgrade procedure. I've had no trouble using this to upgrade the old BIOS on my z63 to the latest W3 BIOS.

 

k thanks again you guys have been really helpful