Adjusting Brightness: Vaio Event Service and LaptopVideo2Go Driver

Hi,

I have just recently, after reading up on it on several forums, updated my Sony Vaio SZ's Nvidia's Geforce Go 7400's drivers to the ones on LaptopVideo2Go's 167.43 for Vista. It works beautifully, and I can finally have more than just the option of changing my multiple display orientation in my Nvidia Control Panel.

However, my Fn + Brightness isn't working. My laptop's screen is now permanently on full brightness, unless I change it in the Nvidia Control Panel. If I press Fn + F5 (Decrease brightness) it shows the Brightness Box on the screen with all bars full except for one at the end. If I were to do Fn + F6, the bars are all filled. Either of these doesn't change the brightness at all. Is there any way of letting Vaio Event Service control the brightness settings rather than the Nvidia Control Center? Thanks.

Regards,
Snoopster J

 

I was using 167.43 and found some other limitations - it did not provide the full nVidia Control Panel and I had problems with it properly remembering my external monitor location. However, I still had brightness control via the FN keys.

I installed 175.16 last week and it is much better. We have different cards, but if the 7400 is listed for the 175.16 driver, I would recommend you try it.

 

Isn't this behavior related to the Powermizer feature?

I have mine disabled and the brightness works as expected.

 

Thanks so much, I'm going to try 175.16 right now and see. I'll also fiddle with the Powermizer (Google, here I come!) if the brightness is still gimped. Thanks again, I'll keep you updated.

Edit: Just tried, everything's great...except my resolution is limited to 1024x780. Sigh.

Edit again: I just tried the 169.09, and so far, it seems perfect. My brightness is adjustable, my resolutions are fine, and I am one happy camper. For all of you with SZ's and are new to trying custom display drivers, download the latest one off the drivers page for your OS and you should be good to go. Thanks bubbatex and iisdev for your help! It's very much appreciated! Hopefully someone will find this thread helpful.

Much thanks,
Snoopster J

 

Another user Bogart posted some modified laptopvideo2go drivers that support brightness control. Thread is here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=195238

 

Hey bunbuns (hehe I feel funny saying that), thanks for the link. My brightness was working fine with 169.09, but then I found out that the message "Host Process (Rundll) has stopped working" kept popping up every time I came into Vista. I was reading on another forum and somebody suggested Driver Cleaner Pro like bogart did, but now I'm confused as my Nvidia Control Panel seems to have disappeared even though it's still in my Windows Control Panel (it's double-clickable, but nothing pops up). Does this mean I have to find an entirely different driver with an entirely different inf now? I guess I could live without the Nvidia Control Panel, but it seems to be good to have with me. Any ideas?

Edit: Oh and I want to point out that I realize that Driver Cleaner Pro was the one that killed my Nvidia Control Panel, just in case you were wondering if I knew

Double edit: I went back to 167.43, and I think the settings saved, so I still have brightness at this point. However, I didn't use the setup that came with it, and I think I'm still running the Control Panel that I installed when installing 177.26. I've decided I'm just not going to fiddle with it anymore, and I'm happy at this point. Thanks for all your help!

 

And did powermizer worked in with this drivers? Is there a automatic downclocking in vista?

 

Beyond installing the drivers and using my computer normally, I don't know much beyond that with these custom drivers. However, I have another problem. The drivers I installed seem to work fine with my Nvidia card when I'm in SPEED mode on my Sony Vaio SZ, but when I use STAMINA mode with my Intel graphics card, when Vista boots up I get the "Host process (Rundll32) has stopped working" message. It doesn't really do anything to the usability of my computer, but I'm thinking it's probably best if all Windows processes DID work on boot up. Can anybody lend me a hand? Now I'm thinking of reverting back to the original Nvidia drivers for my SZ, but the Control Panel is the most limited I've ever seen. Thanks!