Sony Z13 Brightness not Changing...

So I've done some reading around the internet and this seems to be a re-occuring problem for various models. Most of them are fixed via a BIOS update it seems. But on my Z13, after uninstalling and re-installing all Sony utilities and the GPU drivers, no luck. The brightness is stuck on full and refuses to change. Noticed this was the case after having installed SP1 for Windows 7 Professional (x64).

Anyone run into the same problem / know what to do?

Regards,

 

Do you at least see that brightness meter that pops up?

 

Yup, the meter pops up. But no change, it changes when in Stamina mode however, when in Speed mode, the brightness is full on. I think it's something to do with the hybrid switching and the GPU drivers.

 

hmm there might be something wrong with your Nvidia drivers. Switch to speed mode then open the Nvidia control panel and see if the screen is set to 60hz and not 59hz

 

It's set to 59Hz. Should it be at 60?

 

No there's nothing wrong, go into Vaio Control Center and under Display >> Automatic Brightness Settings, uncheck the box for it. If you have it activated, you can't manually control the brightness settings. Everything else is fine.

 

Actually, you can change the brightness while the automatic control is on. Either way, turning the feature on or off has no effect on the brightness in speed mode, it's still set to max and can't be adjusted.

 

This was a common problem on HP Envy's which I had before, and a simple solution was to close, and then re-open the lid (or shut down/standby) because that would cut off the power to the LCD and then bing it back which "resets" it I guess. But this only happened once in a while, yours seems like a permanent issue..

 

it doesn't change the brightness... if you want manual control of your brightness, turn off automatic brightness, no one uses their Z at max brightness as you'll probably burn out your retinas in about half an hour... Even though the little indication thingy goes up and down... nothing happens because have Automatic Brightness on. Try it, trust me, it's been discussed to death here. (it's also probably why your screen gets brighter when it's brighter around and darker when it's darker around, or when you cover the ambient light sensor right above your F9 key)

 

I just tested mine with auto-brightness, and yes the brightness does change automatically when covering the light sensor, but I can still change it manually with the controls...and it's not just the meter going up/down, the brightness is definitely changing. The only thing is that when you have auto-brightness on, the screen doesn't get as bright even when the meter is on full

 

Are you sure it's changing and it's not because your shadow is covering the light sensor? AFAIK, if you have Automatic Brightness on, you can't manually control the brightness. the default sensitivity of the light sensor is quite annoying (when i used it it would go on and off all the time, same with the backlight keyboard). You can also adjust the sensitivity of the light sensor (within regedit).

 

I'm 100% sure it's changing, I did notice that the light sensor does have higher priority so even if you manually set it to max, the brightness automatically dims when I cover the light sensor. But, while my finger is still on the light sensor, I can put the brightness back up manually. And then when I take my finger off and put it back on, it dims again. Maybe they changed something in the new drivers because I also saw a thread about this issue many weeks ago.

 

All the automatic brightness does is set the max level. The brightness can still be changed.

Anywho, thank you everyone for you your help. The problem seems to have sorted itself out mysteriously? The only thing I can glean from this experience is that it's a driver issue with Windows 7 (x64) SP1.

If anyone else encounters a similar problem, do try uninstalling the video drivers, cleaning it out using something akin to Driver Sweeper, and then re-installing them (be sure to be in speed mode and not auto or stamina).

Thanks!

 

Hmm that is interesting... i do notice both of you are using Z13's... maybe a minor driver change went with those... I haven't used Automatic Brightness... ever. I remember reading all about it back... a year ago (OMG I can't believe the Z is a year old... it's still at the top though) and the consensus was that Automatic Brightness was useless and made using the laptop annoying (although some might find it useful, but for the same reason i won't use a Mac, i want control over my laptop. that's why i like the graphics switch as opposed to Nvidia Optimus)

 

Ehh it's the same on my Z11 as well. It was always like that even with the first drivers.