nc8430 brightness controls stopped working in windows

On my new 8430 the fn+F11 and fn+f9/f10 controls all worked fine in both windows and linux for several days, but recently the controls aren't changing the brightness in windows anymore.. it's just stuck on full brightness all the time.. on AC and battery, and even when on AC with the battery completely removed. Other fn functions all work fine, so I don't think it's my fn key.

I've tried changing the bios option for whether the sensor is on or not, disabling NHC, and after seeing another thread about this re-installing the quick launch button software from the hp site.. but nothin's workin'

In linux the ambient sensor and manual up/down all works fine.. so I know it's not hardware :\

any ideas?

p.s. - i really don't want to go back to recovery disks.. it took me a long time to get my hard drive all loaded up how I want with my four different partitions with a couple linux distros and xp

 

Is the Quick Launch program starting at boot up (use msconfig to check)? Do the volume and wireless buttons work?

 

yes, yes, and yes.

The command in my msconfig list is: %ProgramFiles%\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\QlbCtrl.exe /Start

 

*bump* help? :[

 

At this point I'm not certain what is wrong here...but either a driver isn't installed correctly or a program is conflicting with those functions.

Does the device manager have any notifications?
When did the functionality stop? What programs did you load JUST before this problem started?

 

Device manager is not showing any notifications.

I'm not exactly sure when the functionality stopped working, unfortunately :[

I do have some new news though.. it appears it doesn't just get stuck in full-bright mode all the time. Currently, I'm stuck in ambient-sensor mode, and the sensor is definitely working properly.. (but it's far too dim for my tastes!)

maybe it remembers wherever it was set from the last time I was in linux? hmm...

I might be able to cope with this if this is the case.. but it's still d**m annoying lol

 

Have you disabled any of the windows services?

 

I thought I did, but I just looked ran services.msc and there's still well over 40 services started and set to automatic, and only about 20 not currently running, and none of them jump out as anything important.

are you aware of any needed for brightness controls to work? is there anything else I could try re-installing?

 

Try updating all your drivers

 

If any of them are not set to "Automatic"...change them. There might be a service disabled that you need running for that to work.

Windows is odd that way...for instance my BTTool program somehow influences how my CapsLock and NumLock desktop notifications behave .

 

FWIW, I've been using the light controls somewhat regularly in Linux (FC5), it hasn't effected anything when I boot into Windows so that is not related.

 

actually, i've been playing with it all weekend, and this is DEFINITELY the case.

whatever I leave the brightness set to in linux is what the computer will reboot into next time, windows or linux, the difference being that in linux I can again change it to whatever I want (sensor on/off, levels up/down) while in windows it's totally unresponsive to the brightness controls.

this really intrigues me. it means that somehow the computer is remembering the state it was last in even when completely off... this means the information as to what the brightness was set at is actually being stored in the BIOS somewhere!!! there's no other place for it to be stored.. it's not a property of the hard drive, 'cause windows is remembering what was done in linux.. and it's certainly not a property of the ram because it remembers between cold boots..

very strange indeed. i'm gonna let HP know (i opened a case with them) and see if they can investigate the issue some. maybe a new bios version could fix it

 

well, they suggested i get the newest bios, so i updated it to F.0E (09/26/2006) from F.0D..

despite even updating the keyboard controller and video bios, the brightness controls still aren't doin anything in windows.. this is so weird.

anyone know exactly how these controls work? are they special keycodes interpreted by a driver or actually directly linked to the display module somehow?

 

update: IT'S WORKING AGAIN!!

I installed the IE 7 and Windows Media Player 11, and after yet another reboot everything's working ok for the most part..

now I just have to fix NHC so I don't get a message saying ACPI is broken after each boot... any ideas? :]

 

Make sure you download the Core 2 Duo hotfix for NHC and make sure ACPI functionality is Enabled too.

Are there any devices in the device manager that have a warning message or a exclamation icon next to them? If one of them is related to ACPI it will not work.

 

gyar!!!!!! it's broken again!! what the heck!

I installed the latest ATI drivers from HP's website hoping to get the old-school ati control panel (i don't like the CCC)... but in addition to not even installing the ati control panel it broke my brightness controls again >:[

AND nhc is still complaining.. *sigh*

night.. are you on any instant messaging programs? I could use some live assistance here I think..

 

well, i got it working again..

but you won't believe how lol.. i disabled a crap-load of auto-starting stuff with autoruns..

after rebooting, bingo.. controls work again. strange stuff.. i'll see if i can get a list together of what i disabled..

 

I was having the same issues with my new dv9000- brightness controls stopped working in windows. Tried everything you had, but nothing worked. I ended up going step by step through anything I had loaded on since they were working, and it turned out to be the Logitech Setpoint program for my v200 wireless notebook mouse. crazy. with the program unloaded the brightness controls work just fine, and with it running it just stops, and stays at the brightness it was at before. I lose the extra features of my mouse with it off without this program, but I like the extra battery life turning down the brightness gives me. Any ideas other than buying a new mouse ?

 

I had the same issue come up with my new nc8430 and also discovered it was the Logitech SetPoint software for my mouse. If I don't load SetPoint, my brightness keyboard controls work fine.

CTDW

 

I had the same issue too. Uninstall the logitech setpoint software. this is the only problem. no driver issues or something else.

 

I had set point installed and had no problems. I had to disable the ATI hotkey poller through both the ATI CCC and msconfig.

 

Good call, ctdw! never would've suspected Setpoint as being the culprit! I installed setpoint right after I got my notebook back from servicing (since I got a new Logitech mouse while the laptop was away) and then I realized that the buttons weren't working. I just assumed that the issue lay with the 2nd "new" motherboard they swapped in.

 

I am going to send a note to Logitech to see if they can resolve this in the next release. It's possible some people don't see this issue since they may be running an older version of SetPoint. I have only tried the latest release.

CTDW

 

I love NHC ... but it is so f#@$ing annoying when it loads and automatically dims the notebook (NC8430). Also annoying is when I am in the car and my plug doesn't have enough juice to run and charge the notebook, so the screen constantly brightens and dims... because of NHC. I have disabled all of the ACPI functionality in the control panel, but still the notebook is dimmed whenever NHC loads... has anyone figured out how to disable this functionality altogether?