FZ190 Brightness controls acting up

I just tonight noticed that the F5/F6 keys do not work after the machine wakes from sleep. It works fine after I reboot. But after sleep the OSD will show up when I hit F5 or F6. The display gauge will move to the left TWO positions when I hit F5 but only once. If I hit F5 again, nothing happens. If I hit F6 it moves to the right TWO positions again only one time. In both cases there is NO change to brightness.

I tried to log off and back on to see if it has any effect. It did not. I'll reboot now and the hibernate to see if the problem recurs coming out of hibernation.

I am running Win7 ultimate 32 bit.

UPDATE: Well this is strange. I rebooted and the F5/F6 keys worked fine of course. I hibernated and then came back out and they still worked fine. I logged off and back on and again they were fine. So this seems to be ONLY a sleep issue.

If any of you have an FZ model running Win7 32 bit. Can you try this and report your findings? Thanks.

Gary

 

This happened for me with the close lid setting set to "Hibernate" in windows 7 64-bit. I lose the brightness control totally. The brightness control disappeared from the Windows mobility center and power options. All these will work after a reboot. I was using Nvidia driver 186.91 from MS update catalog. Resuming from sleep was fine.

Now I am using modded 186.40 driver provided by Sony for the AW-390 series. This driver includes support for 8400M GT card, but with a different SUBSYS number. The brightness control works fine now in lid close setting set to "Hibernate". You can try the driver below
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNAW390&upd_id=5071&os_id=48

Extract the driver using Uniextract program and open nvszf.inf file, edit the SUBSYS of Nvidia 8400M GT to "9005104D" wherever it appears, save the edited inf. You can run the setup.exe to install the driver and ignoring the "not digitally signed driver warning" (since you had edited the inf).

 

I don't loose the control. It just acts weird. And ONLY with sleep. Hibernate works fine. I'll set a restore point and try the driver tomorrow night.

Thanks Rajesh.

Gary

 

I got the same problem like you. But after installing more recent version of Sony shared library and Vaio event service, I could get it done.

I found those driver at public FTP server of VAIO.( ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/VAIO/ORIGINAL/)
SONY_SHARED_LIBRARY_5.4_5.4.0.05200.ZIP
VAIO_EVENT_SERVICE_5.0_D_5.0.0.08180.ZIP

Tell me if you get the positive result.

 

Oh, thanks. And this is on an FZ190 with Win 7 as well?

Gary

 

For the past year, I had the same problem using both the x86 Beta and x86 Release Candidate of Windows 7 on my FZ470. With the Windows 7 Beta, I had installed as much as of the Sony software as possible. With the Release Candidate, I had installed much less of the Sony software - opting to install only what was necessary to use the hardware. Both times I installed version 4.x of the Sony Shared Library and VAIO Event Service from the FZ470 model support page at Sony. Both times I had the exactly the same problems both you and coolguy describe. I would lose the brightness control after hibernating, but not after sleeping alone. Rebooting always solved the problem. I also tried stopping and restarting the VAIO Event Service via the Services MMC, but would gain brightness control at the expense of audio control. Again, rebooting would "fix" the problem.

With RTM I decided to go x64. I installed versions 5.x of both the Sony Shared Library and VAIO Event Service based on a NBR thread. Though I've since lost track of the thread, it was suggested the 5.x versions had been updated to work with Windows 7. Nonetheless, my brightness controls now work as expected upon rebooting, hibernating, sleeping, etc.

coolguy will be quick to point out those versions don't work for him. Perhaps this is because of the slight hardware differences or maybe some of the other Sony software is conflicting with the Shared Library or the VES. Both yours and coolguy's guides make use of far more Sony software than my guide.

Perhaps something in my experience will be helpful.

--L.

 

Just to clarify, I have NO problems at all with losing the brightness control. It just acts oddly. And it NEVER gives me any issue after hibernation, ONLY after sleep.

However I am going to give the newer Vaio Event Service and Sony Shared Library and see what happens.

Gary

 

By losing brightness control, I meant "not losing the OSD", but the disappearance of brightness control from the Power options and the Windows mobility center.

 

OH! I didn't realize you were taling about that. I have no clue if I am having that issue or not. I will have to check on that. I'll get back to you. I don't remember having brightness control in the mobility center. I'll do a reboot and see.

Gary

 

Rajesh,

I just rebooted and have the screen brightness slider in the power options and mobility center as shown in the attachment below (AfterReboot.JPG). I hibernated and when I restarted I still had BOTH. But when I put it in sleep mode and woke it up I have neither of them. (See AfterSleep.jpg)

This is odd. I have the same issue with sleep that you are showing with hibernation. Yet you have no problem with sleep mode. And it appears the ibhon is having the same results as you. (ibhon is that correct? You have no trouble with sleep mode, only hibernate?)

Tomorrow I'll set a restore point and try the drivers.

Thanks guys!

Gary

 

When I had the problem ... yes, I had no trouble with sleep, only hibernate. To clarify what was happening for me, when I would press Fn+F5/F6 after hibernating, the OSD would pop-up and the indicator would move only one or two ticks, no matter how many times I pressed the Fn+F5/F6. The display would dim/brighten those same one or two ticks then "stop" wherever the OSD would stop and I would no longer have control over brightness. If I were to unplug AC power after hibernating the auto-dimming would not work at all: the laptop would stay at 100% brightness. The same thing occurred if I booted on battery and plugged in AC; the laptop would stay at 20% brightness. Forcing a VES restart would give me brightness control back, but now Fn+F2 and the volume keys would stop working. A reboot always set things back to normal ... until the next hibernate.

I don't have any of those issues at all with RTM and v5.x. I can sleep, hibernate, close the lid, press the power button (which sleeps my laptop), etc. and the brightness function will always work after resuming or waking from sleep.

--L.

 

Gary and lbohn, can you guys set the close lid option to Hibernate and check whether the brightness OSD and the slider work properly after resuming from hibernate? This was the problem I had with the MS update catalog 186.91 Nvidia driver. But now with the Sony driver 186.40, this problem had vanished.

lbohn: I tried the latest VES 5.X (with 186.91 driver) with no luck. The brightness OSD slider will move and lock the brightness at 39% ( adv. power options) when I press Fn + F5/F6. I had to change the brightness manually after this.

 

Sounds like we have (or HAD in your case) the same issue but with two different triggers. In my case sleep in yours hibernate.

I hope to set aside some time this afternoon to see if I can sort this out. I will try the updated drivers (after I check to see which ones I currently have) and report back.

Gary

 

I'll check and report back. It will be latter today though.

Gary

 

coolguy,

I changed "Lid Closed Action>Plugged In" from "Sleep" to "Hibernate" in "Power Options>Advanced settings". I closed the lid and walked away from my laptop for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I resumed the computer from hibernate. Using Fn+F5/F6, I changed the brightness along the entire range. The OSD pop-up, the slider in the Windows Mobility Center brightness panel and the slider in Power Options all moved in unison.

FWIW, I haven't done a reboot/restart in about two weeks. I sleep my computer when I'm done, and depending on when I use it next, I either Wake it from Sleep or Resume it from Hibernate. I've been doing this since I had Vista on my FS790, and only since Windows 7 RTM on my FZ470 has the OSD operated 100% reliably no matter what state I shut down the computer to and boot/woke/resumed it from.

What version of the Sony Shared Library are you using? I am using v5.4.0.05200. The VES does depend on part of the SSL, so perhaps version (not just minimum 5.x) is important.

The only other thing I can offer is that I do not install the VAIO Power Management software. I receive correct battery telemetry without it and the optimizations were written for Windows Vista not Windows 7. Microsoft made further refinements to power savings in Win7 from Vista, so I felt it wasn't a good idea to use an "enhancement" for a previous operating system. (link: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/01/06/windows-7-energy-efficiency.aspx) Understanding that the problem is only occurring with Hibernation or Sleep (in Gary's case), perhaps something with the Power Management utility is interfering with the VES service or SSL during power management events like Sleep and Hibernation.

--L.

 

That's fine.

 

I used the latest Sony shared library 5.4.x. Also for your information, the most recent Vaio Power management 4.0.X is for Windows 7. The Vaio Power management removes the system cooling policy from advanced power options and lets you to disable some devices under AC/ Battery. The latest VES was not working for me when I didn't have VPM installed.
The problem with SSL is that it can't be uninstalled. So older registry entries should be manually deleted. I will uninstall all the Sony drivers and utilities and check if VES works fine. Thanks for your time.

 

Thanks for the info. I expected it would be updated for Windows 7, but since I've gotten along without it (without any loss of functionality for me, anyway) I haven't monitored the updates.

What additional devices does VPM allow you to disable? It appears the stock power options only allow for the PCI Express buss to be disabled as an option.

--L.

 

coolguy // I used Sony shared library 5.x and vaio event service 4.x with NVIDIA 182.50 I used to have problem(brightness stuck to 50%) like you with 186.91. So I highly recommend you should use 182.50 or latest 195.55. I hope you get positive result.

 

VPM lets you to disable/enable i-link port, modem and change display color setting.

 

I don't have problems with 186.40 driver (from Sony).

 

Thanks for the info.

--L.