t60 auto dimming screen

I've been having some problems with a t60p in my office. The screen will automatically dim to the point where I can't see anything on it. It seems like the backlight is just turning off. This can happen anytime, like if it's just sitting idle, or if I'm running an application or word processing. There doesn't seem to be anything specific that causes it to do this, and I can't figure out how to turn the light back on. I've tried hitting random function buttons, and rebooting the machine, and eventually the screen will just light up again. Anyone else heard of this problem, and if so do you know how to fix it?

 

When you say you're hitting random buttons have you tried hitting "Fn" + "Home" to get the brightness to increase and that still doesn't work? The screen does dim a bit when you take it off of AC plugged in power but that's certainly a very odd occurrence for it to progressively get dimmer -- there is no built-in ambient light sensor that would be doing that like some notebooks have.

Might want to try hitting "Fn" + "F7" and select "Factory Default Settings" for the screen display to reset any setting that could be causing that. If playing with software settings fails, it could be a hardware issue though -- but it doesn't sound like it if the backlight works on reboot.

 

Yes, I've tried using fn home to up the brightness, and that does not work. And while rebooting has worked some of the times, other times it hasn't. And hitting fn + f7 a few times has worked in the past. I don't believe it's a hardware issue, as it happens on a couple of the laptops we have. We just recieved 9 of them, and have only set up 4, but this happens to two of them on a pretty regular basis. I'll try resetting to the factory defaults, and seeing if that works.

 

did u call them?

 

Call who? IBM? No, I haven't yet, was trying to figure it out without having to sit on hold for an hour.

 

Might it have something to do with your "power saving" options?

 

Yeah, it could be a software/settings problem...

 

It could, but it happens when the laptop is plugged in, so I don't believe it should do this. Also, I tried restoring to factory defaults, and it still happens. It just happened again with a brand new one, when I lifted it up off the table to read the serial number on the bottom. When I put it back down the backlight turned off. I doubt it's a hardware problem, as rebooting fixed it.

 

We found a temporary fix, just changing the power settings to never shut down the screen.

I found one other person on a different forum that had the same problem, and someone recommended upgrading the bios. The laptops we got are only running 1.04, so might upgrading it to 1.07 fix the problem? Is it even worth it to upgrade to 1.07?

 

It very well could. If you do upgrade you'll want to make sure that you backed your computer up so if the update screws it up you can fall back to something.

 

I had the same issue with my TP R40. The screen would go off on me, though in a very brightly lit room I could see that the computer was still on, (the back light was off). Also, the back light would go off suddenly (without dimming) at any setting.

Thankfully I still had warranty on my machine and ended up having a converter (or something else that controls the backlight) replaced. Also, the tech noticed that I had a crack on the old screen, so they gave me a new screen as well.

Hope things workout for you...

 

I have the same problem with my t60. I called Lenovo tech support and they wanted me to ship the thinkpad back for a replacement. It's a motherboard problem according to them. However, I hate to lose for a week and I found I can always fix it by "Fn+F4" putting the laptop to sleep mode and bringing it back with the screen light.

 

Did they say if it was a big batch of them that was bad? or just a few select ones? Because we've had this happen to 4 out of 9 of our new laptops so far at one point or another (we haven't touched 4 of them, so only one doesn't have this problem). We can't really be without our laptops for a week, as it is some peoples main computers in the office.

 

So on the default settings, what can one do to see if this problem will crop up? How long from the time the machine is on, to the time the problem starts?

 

My thoughts exactly.