Dark screen?

Alicat

Ok this might sound ridiculous but I can't seem to brighten my screen?

The keys I can normally use to brighten it don't seem to be having any effect. I've looked through a lot of settings on the Control Panel but can't seem to find anything

There has to be a really simple answer to this!

Thanks


Edit: Oh and I'm using Windows Xp

Biggins

Whats the model number/make of the screen?
How old?

Alicat

Biggins wrote: »

Whats the model number/make of the screen?
How old?

Oh sorry, it's a Samsung R70 laptop, bought it in January 08

Biggins

Have you installed any additional graphics software or has the laptop software that controls your screens graphics not booting up at start up?

Yuor system is fitted with the Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS GPPU card so there should be additional installed software to help control it.

Alicat

Biggins wrote: »

Have you installed any additional graphics software or has the laptop software that controls your screens graphics not booting up at start up?

Hmmm...I haven't... it was my brother who set this laptop up for me.... Only last week he installed a new Windows Xp on it for me...but I think he said it was a XP/Vista hybrid that he got somewhere ......

I rang him and he said the only thing he could think of was something to do with the power settings but didn't get any further

Biggins

Have you tried to go to windows update service to see will it install the latest updates for any drivers it might need?

Or you can try searching on the Nvidia site for a possible driver to help.

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/geforce_8400M.html

Biggins

Upon searching I found this driver: http://download.softpedia.ro/dl/14dc742472b853fa7586bc4d35587421/492b0f2a/300040288/drivers/VIDEO/15655.exe

Source page here: http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/NVIDIA/NVIDIA-32bit-ForceWare-GeForce-Go-15655.shtml

yoyo

I havn't heard of a legit "XP/Vista" hybrid disc, however, is it that there seems to be no light coming from behind the screen (known as a backlight), I.e: you must hold the screen under light to view it? If so the backlight may have gone in the LCD, to rule out Operating System issiue, is the screen dark when turning on the pc? I.E: at the bios/manufacturer logo stage, if so more than likely backlight issiue, or maybe video card failure, I'd lean toward option 1

Nick

charlesD

My friend just bought a new Dell laptop and was having the same problem. Despite turning everything up in Windows, it would still get really dim when the power was disconnected.

It turned out that there was a setting in the Bios that controlled the screen brightness. It let you set it on a scale from one to ten for how to operate when the power cord was unplugged.

To get to the bios, you have to restart your computer, then watch the screen, because it will say something to the effect of "Press F2 to Enter Setup." If windows starts to boot, you missed your opportunity to enter the bios.

I would check this first, before you start reinstalling drivers and such.

yoyo

charlesD wrote: »

My friend just bought a new Dell laptop and was having the same problem. Despite turning everything up in Windows, it would still get really dim when the power was disconnected.

It turned out that there was a setting in the Bios that controlled the screen brightness. It let you set it on a scale from one to ten for how to operate when the power cord was unplugged.

To get to the bios, you have to restart your computer, then watch the screen, because it will say something to the effect of "Press F2 to Enter Setup." If windows starts to boot, you missed your opportunity to enter the bios.

I would check this first, before you start reinstalling drivers and such.

Interesting m8 never heard of this feature!

Nick

Alicat

Thank you all for the advice. I began to restart the computer like Charles suggested, missed the setup bit (:rolleyes:) but all of a sudden Windows started up really bright again.

Maybe it was as simple as having to restart the computer before the settings would apply?

Anyways, thank you all again

yoyo

Alicat wrote: »

Thank you all for the advice. I began to restart the computer like Charles suggested, missed the setup bit (:rolleyes:) but all of a sudden Windows started up really bright again.

Maybe it was as simple as having to restart the computer before the settings would apply?

Anyways, thank you all again

Great to hear

Nick

97i9y3941

i have another feeling the reason the laptop dims abit when you disconnect the plug is to save on battery power been drained when brighting the screen.,anyone tried power settings on control panel,you can set it to performance and stuff which would make the screen bright again,but it would go heavy on your battery

rubadub

Yeah check the power settings, had to change mine before as it turned the screen off if you left it for 20seconds.

The normal way to turn it up on most is hold down the function key and use the up & down arrows.