Problem with Vaio Z Windows 7 brightness

Hi: I recently upgraded by Windows Vista 32bit business VaioZ690C Laptop to windows 7 professional. So far, everything has worked out great, but I have a couple questions:

1) How do I get my brightness keys to work? I cannot increase / decrease it
2) When I installed Windows 7, many of the Windows Vista drivers rolled right onto Windows 7, and would absolutely perfectly, do I still need to uninstall them all and install the "windows 7 version" or is this fine.

extra info:
*running R3054M3 bios ("I THINK")*
*running v.5 of vaio event service(i think something like that*

 

hi

well, there's a loooong discussion here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=342562 and it seems they figured out how to get the brightness keys to work.

concerning your drivers, as long as everything works fine, there's no reason to change it . I used vista drivers for my sound card and camera and so far, so good.

 

OK. I'm no idiot, but I just browsed damn near every page of that thread and couldn't find a solution to the FN Brightness in SPEED mode issue for Windows 7 64 bit. It would be much more helpful to provide the actual fix (or if people kept threads dedicated to just one issue at a time instead of creating one massive marathon thread with a random jumble of Windows 7 upgrade issues spread unpredictably though it.

PLEASE, can some just post either:

1. The exact page with the 64 bit Windows 7 Brightness fix
2. A (duplicate) copy of the fix here in this thread
3. (Or the fact that there isn't actually a fix yet)

It's easier (for you) of course to just say "look here in the massive pile of 3,000 things for the one you want" but if you post the fix here, it will serve EVERYONE in the future by making it easier to Google the fix and jump straight to the solution.

Thanks in advance for your spirit of volunteerism and patience in posting here.

 

Another way to access it is "windows key" + "x".

 

Actually, I've just spend several hours with Sony Support and searching their support site. This problem has been officially acknowledged by Sony and there is currently NO fix . See their support page: http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=C1010803&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KNOWLEDGEARTICLES_1_1&dialogID=166192947&stateId=0 0 166208186

What this page doesn't say, however, is that the nVidia driver for the Z series laptops isn't compatible with the Windows 7 brightness control (at all) and therefore you may not even be able to change the brightness with the Windows power applet (including the very cool CTRL + X keyboard shortcut).

Still, I've bookmarked this page to track it's resolution.

 

few weeks ago Sony support told me that they are working on it and suggested me to reinstall the Vista...........

well maybe I been lucky to don't listen them............
I installed last Bios Utilities update found on my model support,

when I restarted my Z790DLX everything started to work .

 

I just upgraded the driver for NVIDIA card and the problem has gone

 

Perhaps you didn't read the thread fully? I haven't been on here for months, but I know for a fact that the Z-series brightness issues in SPEED were solved way back in October at least. It consisted of:

1) install the new (R4043 i think?) bios
2) install a recent nvidia driver (a working one was on the sony europe support site)

It's definitely not an unsolvable issue, and there are many many many posts and several repeat threads asking how to fix it.

 

There is a new driver, at least for the Z790D W7/64, which Sony claims resolves this problem: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNZ790D&upd_id=5394&os_id=47

 

After a Win7 install, including all Sony updates (including the latest nVidia driver from the Sony site), I still had three remaining issues:
1. Brightness control (FN keys) did not work in either STAMINA or SPEED mode (the brightness slider display appeared but did not move)
2. The Windows-X brightness control also did not adjust the screen brightness, even though the slider did move.
3. In SPEED mode, the display did not work properly (the Windows desktop was compressed to the left hand half of the screen).

Resolved all 3 issues by updating the BIOS to the latest version (R4044M3). Make sure you're also using the latest nVidia drivers from Sony.