T61 Screen Brightness OSD problem...

Well i know a couple of us have the problem of the screen brightness OSD (on-screeen display) feature not working on our notebooks (here and at other forums).

Well i just got off a 1 1/2 hour phone call with Lenovo Technical support, who transfered me a total of 5 times, twice to Canada, and i'm happy to report there's is NO solution at this time. The rep i spoke with from Atlanta, Georgia tried to walk me through the driver install for Hotkeys, etc, but i told him i already tried installing the newest Hotkey driver and Power Manager drivers with no avail. After installing the newest Hotkey driver the night before, all the functions did not work- the volume OSD, the Magnifier, and even the Thinkvantage button stopped working.

According to the Rep i spoke with, there's 4 drivers that could be associated with the problem:
1. Hot Key driver
2. Power Manager driver
3. ACPI Power Management driver
4. Keyboard Customizer driver

One, two, and three are supposed to be installed before you install the Keyboard Customizer driver.

The rep stated, we could go ahead and try to install the drivers, but since you already tried and the system became worst, it would be a good idea, if your notebook is working normal at this time, to not do the installs. If something were to go wrong again, the only way to fix the problem would be to reimage the HDD, basically do another install from the partition or from a backup image.

I asked if he would notify his manager about the problem, and he stated his manager already knows about the problem because he was helping him try to resolve the problem while i was on hold. I asked if someone would be able to notify me when there was a resolution to the problem, and he stated no because basically, they're very busy. He then stated i should just give it a couple weeks, and then call back. By then there should be some type of solution (i'm not holding my breath on that one).

So there you have it folks, there's no solution.

Has anyone installed the 4 latest drivers and was able to get the brightness OSD feature to work on their T61? Since receiving the notebook, the function has never worked for me.

Edit: I asked if the problem could be associated with integrated graphics, and he had no idea.

Edit: I discovered the Intel X3100 (960GML / 965GM) v.7.14.10.1244 driver to be the culprit to the missing brightness OSD.

2nd Edit: All the igfx drivers available at the moment, including the newest one at the Intel site, have a compatibility issue with the Hotkeys driver. It's not just the problem of the igfx driver listed above.

 

Ick! That sucks.

 

I have the same problem. My three week old T61 had a failing HD, so they sent out a new one, and I clean installed Vista onto it. I can't get the hotkeys to change the brightness when I'm in Vista, but the OSD shows up. However, I can change the brightness during the boot screens. Can you do the same?

I'm using an updated display driver from laptopvideo2go.com. I'm going to load the original nVidia driver and see if it makes any difference.

 

Alright, I loaded the original nVidia driver, and everything is back to normal. I can now change the brightness using the hotkeys. Before doing so, Fn + F3 didn't work, neither did Fn + F5. I'm not sure why using the original display driver helped, but it did.

BTW, I have all the other drivers listed by you installed from the Lenovo drivers site except the keyboard customizer.

 

Wait, did you have problems adjusting the screen brightness with FN+Home or End key? I've never had a problem adjusting the brightness. What i am having a problem with is the screen brightness meter not showing up on the screen, which is the OSD (on screen display). You know how when you press the volume keys and there's a horizontal line bar that shows you what volume you have set? There's supposed to be something like that for the screen brightness as well.

I can also adjust the screen brightness during boot, BUT, there's no brightness OSD.

I have an integrated graphics card.

 

Honestly, who cares if the OSD shows up for brightness changes. Can your eyes not detect the difference in brightness such that you need a bright green meter to tell you?

Theoretically, the bar could help us if we wanted to, say, dim to exactly half brightness to save battery life. But in that case, I always dim to the least my eyes could take.

 

Who cares? Actually i do. OCD aside, it's just one of those little things that you know is supposed to be there, because others have this feature enabled, yet for the life of me, i cannot seem to get working. I see you've given up?

 

I posted in the other thread too...I also have no OSD in Vista on my X61s.

I find this especially strange since I only did a custom install from "rescue and recovery" and not a clean install using vista discs. If I'm doing a "factory restore" it seems the OSD should work!!! Perhaps because I used Lenovo's "custom factory install" option and removed some of the bloatware (at least I thought it was bloatware)...

 

I actually didn't even know there was supposed to be an OSD for brightness until this thread showed up. Never missed it, never expected it.

 

Come on Johnny, what about this thread, post #5? That's when i first realized there was/is supposed to be a brightness OSD.

 

LOL you caught me.

I think a better way to describe the situation is that i never expected nor missed the OSD for the brightness until people complained about it on these forums. In fact, a lot of things uncalled for are showing up on these forums (eg. squeezing the bezel to make it pop and calling it bad quality?).

 

Yeah i agree with you on that point. To place unnecessary "stress" on the unit, just to be able to say "the build quality sucks compared to so and so model" is ridiculous. Though i tend to agree with most people who speak negatively towards the palmrest. Ideally, Lenovo could have designed the palmrest with a tighter tolerance, but they didnt. The right corner of my palmrest does lift up a bit compared to the left side (no play at all), which causes the right latch to not fully engage when i close the lid with one hand or off centered to one side. If there wasnt that bit of play on the right palmrest, both latches would engage without a problem. But now we're getting OT.

 

Yeah I've gotta admit all this poking and squeezing to find parts that flex is funny. Reminds me of the old "Doc, it hurts when I do my arm like this"... "Then don't do you're arm like that"


That's weird about the OSD- it was there on my 61. I would rather have it than not have it. Not like you can't do without it, but still. It's an indicator that's supposed to be there, that you paid for, and isn't. Would bother me enough to ask too.

 

LOL, OSD to tell you the screen brightness? That's like a popup window telling you that you've just been shot in the face!

The things they think up these days.. I'm telling you..!

 

It must be related to some certain file in factory restore!

 

its nice to know when yo uhave adjusted to the max or min brightness so you are tapping your Fn home or end key like a monkey

 

id ont know how, but my T61 has it, and it was a clean install

 

When I install xp into my X61s, the BOSD works fine. However, it doesn't work when I clean install vista on it!

 

I was NEVER able to get this function to work. The first time i turned on my notebook, which still had all the factory installed software, there was no brightness OSD. I dont think the factory restore files are related with the problem.

 

i posted this in the R61 screen brightness OSD thread, too, but here goes...

my friend has a x61s, and it does not have a working on Screen Brightness Meter. Most of the other on screen displays (volume, light, etc) work perfectly normally.

i DID notice, however, when you press caps-lock on her computer, it doesn't display anything in the bottom right, which happens on my z61t. I don't know if this is a relevant issue, but just thought i'd add it. (i'm assuming it was the same with the num-lock, but i didn't try it)

i've installed the 4 programs you mentioned, but i didn't labor to the point of uninstalling and reinstalling them all, because it seems like that wouldn't even help anyways.

maybe i should go out and make a poll about this to see how widespread it is

 

Just finished installing all five drivers after a total CLEAN install of Vista: Lenovo System Inferface v1.00.0702, Power Manager v2.05, ACPI Power Management v1.43, Hotkey v2.03.0705, Keyboard Customizer v1.0.01. The brightness OSD still does not work.

I'm thinking it has to do with the integrated graphics.

 

Interesting turn of events guys. There was a problem with the display driver on my notebook, causing the display to blink out causing the driver to restart itself every couple of seconds. I just uninstalled the Intel X3100 (960GML / 965GM) driver v.7.14.10.1224 and upon restart, the screen brightness OSD appeared! But to note, now the screen does not increase or decrease in brightness. I'll reinstall the driver and see if the OSD stays.

Edit: Bad news. The driver automatically reinstalled itself and upon restart, i received the dreaded BSOD. I had to restart the computer where it was stable last. I'll install the driver manually and see where that goes.

 

Well, the OSD is gone again after the Intel X3100 driver was installed. That is the culprit to the missing brightness OSD. I guess i'll call lenovo again to report the driver incompatibility.

 

So i just got off the phone with Tech Support in Atlanta Georgia again and notified them about the driver incompatibility with the screen brightness on screen display.

He stated that it was one of "those" types of problems where if not enough people call in to report the problem, they will more then likely not try to resolve the issue.

With that note, if any of you are having the problem, please notify tech support so they can find a solution. Thanks.

 

The OSD for volume and the light work on my T61 but no display for brightness. I liked the OSD for brightness too on my old R40.

 

not working on mine either

 

My OSD for brightness is now working intermittently. I did not change anything or add anything...really confusing.

 

I think it is time to let this thread die. There should no longer be an issue with OSD.

THIS IS THE FIX FOR OSD ISSUES
CLICK HERE FOR OSD FIX



.

 

Hey stallen. I'm afraid the "issue" is still relevant if you have integrated graphics.

 

I had a similar problem with the Fn + Home/End buttons not adjusting the brightness and no OSD.

I restarted my computer a few times with no change.

I had contemplated re-installing some drivers today, but noticed that my battery died last night; I had thought I put my notebook into sleep, but apparently didn't; idunno.

What I do know is that the brightness controls and OSD work now. Weird. I'll let you all draw your own conclusions.

 

Just spent half a day fighting the OSD software - T61, XP. My brightness/volume adjustment keys were working (without the OSD software, the mute button was NOT a toggle seemd to mute all the sounds at "hardware" level, Windows volume still looked like before; either of volume up/down buttons unmuted, then), but I could not get the OSD to work, neither for the volume, nor for the brightness.

Turns out that, although the installation goes OK, for some reason two required processes are not starting (and even if they do, they don't do their stuff = no working OSD).

Processes in question are:

TPONSCR.exe
TPOSDSVC.exe

So, if after the system starts, and you have them, but no OSD - slay them, and re-run the respective .exe's from:

c:\Program Files\Lenovo\HOTKEY\

(or wherever you've installed the hotkey app from Lenovo).

I've solved the problem just dropping shortcuts to these into my "Startup" folder in the Start menu. Everything (both volume and brightness, and a few other, too) OSDs now work for me.

Maybe this will work for someone else, too.