Annoying "dim" screen issue! Help

My C90S always runs with a completely dimmed screen from boot-up. No matter whether its unplugged or not it is always fully dimmed.

After manually putting brightness up using fn f6 its fine till I either plug power in(after running battery) or when taking power out - both of these actions will put the screen back to the maximum dimmed screen.

I have re-installed several different drivers including 178.28 and dox 182.20 and have played with all the option in the power menu and power mizer to no avail. I think this problem began after I used RMclock to mess with the voltages on the CPU (then e6600, since upgraded to e7500 with no change to problem either) but have re-installed it and checked all the values are set to the proper defaults.

This is a problem that is very annoying can anyone help!?

 

If you are using Vista the following might help

Can you not go into control panel then hardware and sound, and then click on power options and then click on adjust display brightness, set the display brightness to 50% or whatever?

 

I am using XP pro sp3 unfortunately

 

Sometimes there is a brightness control in the bios, maybe you can change it from auto to manual if you have the option.

 

yeah, definitely check for a BIOS-level brightness modifier.

 

The C90S bios is very limiting there is nothing that I can adjust related to brightness in the BIOS. I was hoping some kind of registry edit could be done to force the screen to maximum brightness the whole time. Is this possible?

 

No, preboot is in the bios. Not os specific. It needs to be changed in there.

 

Could you explain how to access this preboot? Cheers

 

Maybe this free program might help , It looks good anyway.

http://www.instantfundas.com/2009/02/display-tuner-adjust-monitor-brightness.html

 

Thanks for the link Tinderbox. I just tried it but it said it doesn't support my monitor so I can't adjust anything.

The screen used to dim only when either booting from battery or when unplugging power while running, but never did it dim completely.

Surely something must be messed up in the registry for it to be dimmed 100% at all times unless manually brightened once in windows? Computers really seem to have a mind of their own!

 

bump .

 

If the display is completely dim and you can barely see the writing on the screen then it is most likely that the inverter which powers the backlight has died. The inverter generates the high voltage needed for the fluorescent tube and is one of the least reliable of the electronic components used in notebooks. [The arrival of LED backlights means that this cause of failure will gradually go away.]

John

 

The OP says he can increase the brightness using the F keys , but the notebook is not remembering the brighness setting when he reboots.

EDIT : I suppose it depends on how bright he can get his screen, if it`s not very bright on max settings , then it is likely the tube or the invertor.

 

The backlight is fine as I can brighten it fully but have to keep doing it manually after every re-boot as tinderbox says and again if I put power in or take power out while running as this will cause screen to dim again.

 

Read my last thread. Hope it helps. Good luck!

 

Thanks Chananel but sending it in isn't an option for me as I need it for work

 

bump .

 

This is going to sound pretty elementary, but are your Power Management settings in Control Panel set up for being constantly plugged in? Not meaning to insult, but sometimes these things slip through our fingers.

 

Yep they are.

 

Can somebody give instructions on how to force the backlight to maximum brightness 24/7 via the registry? There is no other way as far as I can see and the backlight is definitely not broken.

Thanks