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    Dell 1340, W7 and screen brightenss

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Shaamaan, Oct 31, 2009.

  1. Shaamaan

    Shaamaan Notebook Guru

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    Good day everyone.

    I have the following problem. I have set a power plan to automatically adjust the brightness when the laptop is on AC power and when it's on battery.

    It works fine if I don't turn it off. When I turn it off while it's on battery power (screen dimmed) then when I turn it back on it "forgets" the settings for the AC power and copies over the "dimmed" setting. In short: I need to manually set the brightness every time I come home from school and start recharging the laptop.

    Any idea what could be the cause?
     
    Shaamaan, Oct 31, 2009
    #1
  2. Student Driver

    Student Driver Notebook Consultant

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    Which BIOS do you have?
     
    Student Driver, Oct 31, 2009
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  3. Sephoroth

    Sephoroth Notebook Evangelist

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    Ensure your BIOS is updated and then edit the brightness values from there if you haven't already.
     
    Sephoroth, Nov 1, 2009
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  4. m1n05_4

    m1n05_4 Notebook Consultant

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    This sounds like a problem with BIOS A10 if I remember correctly.
     
    m1n05_4, Nov 1, 2009
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  5. Sephoroth

    Sephoroth Notebook Evangelist

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    You're sure you aren't thinking of the SXPS 16? AFAIK A10 was never publicly released for the SXPS 13. The last release before A11 was A08 which was "retracted" by Dell soon after its release in favor of A07. That said, I never had this problem on A08 and I don't recall it being a problem on A07 (atl east for me).
     
    Sephoroth, Nov 1, 2009
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  6. Shaamaan

    Shaamaan Notebook Guru

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    I'm sorry for the late reply; I was having some internet issues.

    It's definitely not the BIOS as I have the A11 BIOS installed.
     
    Shaamaan, Nov 3, 2009
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  7. Sephoroth

    Sephoroth Notebook Evangelist

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    Just to make sure, did you set the brightness settings in the BIOS, Windows, or both?
     
    Sephoroth, Nov 3, 2009
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  8. Shaamaan

    Shaamaan Notebook Guru

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    Both.

    It seems it's like this:

    AC power: start the laptop, verify that the brightness settings for the given power plan are correct; screen brightness is OK.
    (I shut the system down, disconnect AC power)
    Battery: brightness levels drop to the ones selected in the power plan correctly, but the power plan now has the brightness set for the AC power the same as for battery power.
    (EDIT: On AC brightness is OK until the system boots.)

    PS. It all started the moment my W7 system got access to those brightness sliders in the power management options. Before that brightness could only be controlled via the keyboard command (Fn + Up or Down).
     
    Shaamaan, Nov 3, 2009
    #8