FE31H Brightness controls not working with Windows 7 x64

Hi,
I've recently installed Windows 7 x64 build 7229 on my Vaio and I've managed to get everything working except for the screen brightness controls.

So far I've installed the x64 version of SFEP driver along with Vista versions of Sony utilities dll, sony shared library, sony event service and sony settings utility.

Installing the xp versions of those programs made the brightness control work fine, but on Windows 7, the screen brightness control pops up on the screen but the brightness doesn't change. Also I've read that I should be able to control the brightness in the Windows mobility manager, but there is nothing there about screen brightness.

I hope someone can help me with this. The screen running at full brightness is hurting my eyes.

Thanks

 

Someone in this thread got it to work - post #8. You might want to check it out.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=380872

cheers ...

 

Thanks for the reply, but I've already tried installing the same driver described in that thread and it didn't fix anything.

 

You must install 64-bit versions (extracted from other models) of Sony sharded library, SFEP driver, Setting Utility Series and Vaio Event Service in the following order together with the GPU driver to get the FN+Fx key functionality.

1. SFEP driver
2. Sony shared library
3. Setting utility series
4. Vaio event service.

 

Thanks for the advice. I've installed x64 versions of SFEP and Sony shared library but I'm trying to install the x64 Sony Notebook Utilities from one of the Sony FW series laptops, but it tells me that it's not intended for my laptop model. Is there any way around this?

 

You need to extract the setup files using Uniextract software. Then find the setup files inside the "tempexefolder".
Link : http://legroom.net/software/uniextract

 

Ok, I was able to extract the files and install the setting utility series and the event service, but I still have the same problem. The fn keys bring up the brightness setting box, but the screen brightness doesn't change.

I was wondering if this might be a bios issue? I've already upgraded to the latest bios version for my laptop and that fixed the issue with the screen not switching on when opening the lid. Maybe there is a newer bios for a different model that works on mine and will fix the problem?

I'm going to try installing the x64 graphics driver from the vaio z series and see if that changes anything.

 

What is your Graphics card? You can try installing the latest Nvidia driver Microsoft Update catalog. The drivers there are generic and work with all laptop GPU's.

 

My card is a Geforce Go 7400. Funnily enough I tried to download the drivers from the nvidia website, but when I tried to install them it said they weren't compatible with my card. At the moment I'm using drivers from laptopvideo2go with a modded inf.

 

Why don't you install the driver (181.72 I guess) provided through Windows Update?

 

I've just uninstalled the nvidia drivers and run driversweeper and installed the ones from windows update which are 179.67, not 181.72. There is again no change.

 

Hi there, please could you tell me a little more about your driver setup.. I too cant get the Nvidia driver to install and am not quite sure about how you modify the inf file.. well what you modify it to. I had a similar issue to your brightness issue with vista which i never got around, but i did find brightness in control panel. Also does your DVD Writer work fine? Thanks. Stefan

 

You need to install SFEP driver (64-bit), Sony shared library, Setting utility series and Vaio event service (all 64-bit) to make the Fn keys work.

 

As mentioned in many threads and posts for many models. Sony brightness control simply will be missing under W7 in its present form and version.

cheers ...

 

After I installed SFEP driver, Sony shared library, Setting utility series and Vaio event service the Fn/F6 and F7 brightness control is working just fine for me on my VGN-FW370J with win7 64 ultimate.