Screen Has Dimmed Considerably-Help

I have a screen question regarding the laptop in my sig. It's just shy of a year old and does NOT have many miles on it at all. However, I have noticed a significant and noticeable difference in the brightness of the screen the past month or so. It's almost as if it's in power saver mode but its not. I have it plugged in and its on High Performance. It pretty much has never been used on battery power and is plugged in most of the time. Could this have affected the battery/power brick at all? Whites are especially much "dimmer" than they used to be...but in general it just seems like the whole screen is dim....not bright and alive like when I first got it. I have only cleaned the screen a couple times..twice with laptop no alcohol lcd wipes and twice with a very mildy damp microfiber cloth (damp with water). Am I missing something??

 

Maybe a longshot, but have you tried pressing fn and f9 a couple of times to see if that brightens it up?

 

Thanks for the suggestion...but it doesn't change anything at all...that function doesnt even seem to work...

 

Try adjusting brightness up and down in the nVidia control panel. If you can't that suggests that there's something wrong with the brightness control system. If you can, but the brightness is still too low, there is probably something wrong with the backlight bulb, the inverter, or the connector.

 

it might be the backlight needs replacing or there is a loose/faulty connection.

if its under warranty (or not), contact your vendor about it.

 

Is it dim in the BIOS?

 

Thanks for the suggestions..the screen is totally readable and viewable..its just that it is NOTICEABLY..for lack of a better word..DIM! Everything is much less vibrant...my wife's 7 year old Sony VAIO sitting right next to it is brighter! I tried adjusting the brightness in the Nvidia control panel and as I drag the slider...nothing. The screen doesnt change at all. This laptop has really not seen much use at all, I am very surprised if something is faulty after a year of very light use. Anyway venture to guess what this would cost to fix if it is a backlight issue?

PS - I have never updated Nvidia drivers....still have same ones there the laptop was shipped with a year ago...would this play a role?

 

Well it could be a driver issue so maybe try a couple of different drivers.

Maybe try the official notebook nvidia 179.28 drivers which were recently released. http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista_179.28_beta.html

You can also visit http://www.laptopvideo2go.com. Remember to download the .inf file next to the driver download link and replace the original so that you can install on a notebook.

When installing any new drivers you may want to use the program driversweeper. http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

Run in safe mode and clean the 'Nvidia - Display' option right after rebooting from uninstall. Then reboot again and install the new drivers.

 

I'm not sure if this is good news or not, but, at least, it probably eliminates questions about the backlight/inverter, and if and when you call your vender, you will be able to provide him with specific information. Although I doubt that a driver change will help, it's easy to do, and certainly worth a shot. To be on the safe side I suggest you go with your vendor's latest driver (you don't want to hear your vendor say, "It's a driver problem"!), and use a very safe installation method that you can find by searching this board.

 

I have the APP9C69 (LG lcd) and I think I get this same dimness. But it only really feels dim when next to my HP DV7 which a lot brighter and whiter. My APP9C69 seems dimmer and a bit more yellow in comparison to the HP DV7.

Its definitely on max brightness, plugged in, high performance mode. I think my main problem is a very slight yellow hue that is only noticeable when you compare it to the HP monitor which a lot whiter.

 

So you've tried the keyboard macro to brighten the screen. The only thing I can think of is what is stated above. Just make sure that the drivers are up-to-date, other than that there is something faulty with the monitor whether it be the back-light or the connector. Before I got into PC gaming, I had a VAIO for about 8 years, and the screen never dimmed out unless it was in power-save.

Running Win98se for about 6 years, and slowing chugging along with Xp for the last two years. It only had a 2GB HDD, 64MB of RAM, and one of the MMX processors. In other words, it became horrendously slow and eventually unusuable. Even with the scheduled defragments and maintenance done on it. Eventually the battery failed and the laptop would have to be plugged in for about 5 min, before it could even power on.

 

As emike said, "Is it DIM in the BIOS!?"
Restart your computer and go into your BIOS and play with your brightness controls. See if this problem exists outside of Windows.

You might also want to go to www.ubuntu.com and download and burn a LiveCD and see if this problem exists when you're in Linux.

Both are simple and quick ways to tell if Windows is the problem.

Also, is this happening in Safe Mode?