Display too dark to use

I got a new MacBook Pro several days ago (Dual Core Intel 2.0 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB HDD, etc). Everything has been working perfectly (aside from a faulty power adapter that I replaced at the local Apple retail store) up to this morning. When I got up today and went to turn the MacBook on, the display has now somehow turned itself down to minimum brightness (or otherwise failed) and now the display is dark to the point of being unusable.
I have tried using the function keys to change the brightness, I have connected an external LCD display (which works perfectly) so I can see the OS and change the brightness. The OS tells me I have maximum brightness, and altering the setting makes no difference. I have reset the PMU by removing battery and power adapter, then holding down the power button for 5 seconds, etc ... but still no joy.
I know the display is working, as I can actually see the GUI very, very faintly ... but it is so dark that it is unusable. Has anyone else encountered this before?

I got a new MacBook Pro several days ago (Dual Core
Intel 2.0 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB HDD, etc).
Everything has been working perfectly (aside from a
faulty power adapter that I replaced at the local
Apple retail store) up to this morning. When I got up
today and went to turn the MacBook on, the display
has now somehow turned itself down to minimum
brightness (or otherwise failed) and now the display
is dark to the point of being unusable.
I have tried using the function keys to change the
brightness, I have connected an external LCD display
(which works perfectly) so I can see the OS and
change the brightness. The OS tells me I have maximum
brightness, and altering the setting makes no
difference. I have reset the PMU by removing battery
and power adapter, then holding down the power button
for 5 seconds, etc ... but still no joy.
I know the display is working, as I can actually see
the GUI very, very faintly ... but it is so dark that
it is unusable. Has anyone else encountered this
before?
I have the same problem with a one week old MBP 1.83...The display was working fine and in the middle of compsing a letter, the display went dark. It's a pain because I just got through setting up the computer with all my information.
MBP 1.83 Mac OS X (10.4.6) One Week Old

Similar Messages

External Keynote display too dark

Hello
I have several presentations made with Keynote on my main computer, an iMac 19". Once converted to movies I was able to use them successfully on a Toshiba portable and on an MSI Wind. Last week I purchased a white Macbook with a 2.13 Core Duo processor and 2Gb of memory (running OSX 10.6). When I link this to my Optoma projector, the presentations, whether in keynote format or as movies, are far too dark to see. I have calibrated the display for the Optoma, following the instructions, but this has no effect. Changing brightness and contrast on the Optoma make little difference.
Using OpenOffice as a whiteboard, the display is noticeably darker than with the Wind or the Toshiba, although it is still legible. jpgs in keynote, however, are usually far too dark to see.
As I purchased the Macbook primarily for use with the projector, this is a big problem.
Thank you for any help you may be able to provide.

Try and do a color calibration again on the Mac when it's connected to the projector. This time, put a check mark in the "Expert mode" box before the calibration begins. When you get to the screen dealing with gamma, try moving the slider to the left (lower gamma values) and see if that brightens the image from the projector.

MSI GX710 display too dark - defective cable?

Hi there.
Since nearly 2 and a half year I have been the owner of a MSI GX710 notebook. Until yesterday I was quite satisfied with it. However now I can't see anything on my display. If I look very closely I can see (or better guess) silhouettes of windows and contrasts like black and white, but apart from that the display is way too dark.
I've already tried to press the buttons for adjusting brightness without any success. Same with OS-adjustments.
I'm running a dualboot Fedora 11 (32-bit) and Win 7 (64-bit), but the OS doesn't matter, because in any of them the display is dark.
At the moment I'm running it with an external monitor, which works fine but isn't a possibility for longer.
On the external monitor I see everything and can work without any problems, so I guess it's not the graphicscard. Maybe the monitor-cable has some sort of defective contact? Since the guarantee has been over I've already tried to open the case, but got stuck, because of some screws I can't find. Does anyone has successfully opened the notebook?
Has anyone ever encountered such a problem (or even solved)?
Facts:
MSI Gx710 (MS 171-A)
AMD Turion X2 TL-64
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 (512mb)
BIOS Version A171AAMS V1.0G

Contact MSI, it's not normal for that to happen after two and a half years.
You never know, they might take it for repairs or even for a small fee.

Is my display too dark?

I bought a refurb macbook. The display seems kind of (actually quite a bit) dark compared to my iMac. I know they are of different makes so my question is, how do I tell if the display is functioning properly without the use of a light metre?

I would compare it to another MacBook rather than to an iMac to try and judge if the screen seems of normal brightness. The iMac likely is brighter by design. When you don't have to run something from a battery, it gives more latitude in the design for making the screen brighter.

Alternate display too dark

I use a 21.5" iMac running 10.6.3 to display videos for our meetings etc. I use keynote to arrange all the videos and then when presenting run it through a switcher to about 4 TV's of various sizes (we also have 3 cameras and a DVD player in the system). When I first got it, it worked perfectly. Now, after a software update, the alternate displays are VERY dark; you almost can't see anything. Because of what the switcher inputs accept I have to go from the DVI to VGA and then the VGA to a 5-BNC. Once again, everything was perfect until the software update. I know about the brightness settings in the System Preferences, that is all the way up. Also, if I just play a video in Quicktime or use the DVD player on the iMac it still shows up darker than it should be on the TVs. Any ideas?

Hi Eric
Welcome to Apple Discussions
Open the Display Preferences and in the panel for the connected Display(s), uncheck the box +(Show profiles for this display only)+ and try a different Color Profile.
Dennis

Display too dark

When I connect my MacBook via Mini-Display and HDMI adapter to my TV set, the image on the TV is much darker than on the MacBook.
I tried several resolutions. I tried to adjust the TV, but only got unnatural colors.
What can be done to get a brighter image on the TV?

I should add that I already calibrated the display on the MacBook without success.

NEF Nikon D5100 - displaying too dark in LR

I just bought a Nikon D5100.
While importing the NEF files, LR firstly shows the images with the correct exposition (equal to the ones previewed in camera), then two seconds after (after fully rendering the image) LR darkens the images, so that they seem underexposed by 1 or 2 stops.
I was using LR 3.4, then I updated to 3.5 and later on to 3.6 and in every version the same happened.
The same pictures viewed in ViewNX2 appear with the correct parameters. So, I believe that LR does not read the camera adjustments?
The JPG images are also shown with the correct parameters.
Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
Thank you.

Using ExifTool to examine the shooting parameters of each example photos posted, here, it appears that both the Exposure and the Flash were set to Manual mode; hence the term to “operator influenced” because the camera was doing what it was told by the operator rather than using its own metering. Exposure Compensation only has an effect if camera metering is controlling the exposure. In M mode, the value is merely being recorded but not utilized.
The Flash-related info for DSC_0074, paying special attention to the power being only 1%, is:
Flash                           : On, Return not detected
Flash Setting                   : Normal
Flash Type                      : Optional,M
Flash Exposure Compensation     : 0
External Flash Exposure Comp    : 0
Flash Exposure Bracket Value    : 0.0
Flash Mode                      : Fired, External
Flash Info Version              : 0104
Flash Source                    : External
External Flash Firmware         : 6.01 (Unknown model)
External Flash Flags            : Fired, Dome Diffuser,
Flash Commander Mode            : Off
Flash Control Mode              : Manual
Flash Output                    : 1%
Flash Focal Length              : 14 mm
Flash GN Distance               : n/a
Flash Color Filter              : None
And the Flash-related info for DSC_0115 is:
Flash                           : On, Return not detected
Flash Setting                   : Normal
Flash Type                      : Optional,M
Flash Exposure Compensation     : 0
External Flash Exposure Comp    : 0
Flash Exposure Bracket Value    : 0.0
Flash Mode                      : Fired, External
Flash Info Version              : 0104
Flash Source                    : External
External Flash Firmware         : 6.01 (Unknown model)
External Flash Flags            : Fired, Bounce Flash
Flash Commander Mode            : Off
Flash Control Mode              : Manual
Flash Output                    : 12%
Flash Focal Length              : 50 mm
Flash GN Distance               : n/a
Flash Color Filter              : None
For reference, ExifTool can be downloaded from:
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
and can be used by dragging and dropping an image file onto the EXE that is renamed exiftool(-k).exe
For a friendlier interface, something like ExifGUI can be used:
http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/~bogdan/
In summary, if the EXIF information is to be believed, these images are dark because the camera was being told to shoot with settings to dark for the other lighting. Does this sound right, or did you use the camera and/or the flash in TTL mode, which should have allowed the camera and/or flash to make things bright enough with more motion or focus blur as the shutter became slower or the aperture became wider.

Images too dark on external display

Hello,
I use Lightroom on my (Lenovo) notebook. Because of the small screen size, I tried using it with an external (Samsung) display. However, when I open Lightroom on the external display, all the images suddenly seem way too dark. It is the case that this display is generally too dark, because when I view the same picture in a photo viewer or a browser it is not too dark. See for example this screenshot. On the left hand you see an image (export from Lightroom) in my browser, on the right hand the same image in Lightroom. You can clearly see it is much darker. When I view both images on the screen of the notebook itself, there is no difference between them.
Actually, when I move the Lightroom window from the notebook display to the external display, you can clearly see Lightroom adjusting the images from light to dark.
Does anyone know what causes this, and how I can prevent Lightroom from showing the images too dark?
Thanks!

I guess you misunderstood my problem. It's not only that images on the external display are way darker than on the notebook, but also that on the external display images in Lightroom are much darker than when I view the same image on the same display in a photo viewer or a browser. In the screenshot pictured above both the light and the dark version of the image are on the same external display.
However, in the meantime I found a solution. Changing the Windows Color System device profile to a non-WCS-profile did the trick: Photos appear as black, gray rectangles | Lightroom | Windows
Thanks anyway for trying to help.

Prints Managed By Aperture Too Dark/Red; Printer Managed Match Display

I did a Startpage.com search and found this archived discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1378192?start=0&tstart=0. It has lots of suggestions but before I tried any I did a little experiment: I told Aperture 3 to allow the printer software to manage the color.
The result: the print essentially matches my display. The Aperture-managed print is too red and dark. Go Figure...
I'm trying to understand why Aperture is botching the print job while the HP software gets it spot-on. Theoretically the Aperture color-managed prints should be better than the HP software-managed prints.
My hardware: Mac Mini and 10.8.3. HP Photosmart 8450 printer. NEC 2490WUXi2 display. I am using the stock NEC display profile because it is so darn good. My option is software calibration but nothing I have created has come close to the NEC profile. I have checked the NEC profile against various online display checkers and it looks good, so I see no reason to invest in hardware calibration. sRGB images exported from Aperture for Web use look good too.
When using Aperture 3 "Printer Managed" color management is automatically disabled. I select the proper HP paper profile. The image looks good on the display. The print looks not so good...
When using "Printer Managed" the only automatic setting that I had missed in the HP software was automatic sharpening; I'm going to disable it and see what happens. The only thing I change is the color setting from sRGB to Adobe RGB 1998. Otherwise I stick with the correct paper profile, select "Best" or "Maximum DPI" and hit print.
I would say that my test image is challenging to reproduce: skintones, light blonde hair, deep red/purple color in the clothes.
It's been a while since I printed from Photoshop CS3 but prints managed by that application look fine. I also use Nikon Capture NX2 but I don't recall using it to print. I'm going to test it later.
Any thoughts/feedback? At this point it looks like I should just stick with using the HP printer software. But the question remains: Why are the Aperture prints sub-par? Is it me or is it Aperture?

Honestly, it's probably your calibration. Saying it "looks good" with the software profile is completely subjective. If you don't measure the display, it's all guesswork.
Aperture can print fine, with its drivers. You do have to ensure you're not double color correcting (i.e. Aperture AND the printer drivers, which will double down the adjustments and make things look bad), but if you have stuff set up right and colors are bad, then you really can't go to step 2 without doing a hardware calibration.

Portege R500-10J: Not possible to watch movies - display colors too dark

Hi!
I've recently bought a Portege R500-10J and have a pretty bad problem - I can't watch any movies here (DVD, or *.avi, or any others). Any media can't be seen on the display. Its too dark and some colors are reflected.
I have no problems with any office applications, or internet browsing, colors are great for 12.1 inch display, but using any media applications is nearly impossible.
Changing any settings doesn't help. Colors are extremely poor. I didn't install anything but that came with the notebook first.
Anyone knows - is this a hardware problem (videocard), or software (codecs, drivers, smth else), or it is a normal condition?
Hope it can be fixed. This notebook supposed to be used for watching films while travelling...

To be honest it is not easy to understand your problem. I presume you will use battery power supply while traveling. In this case power saver tool will probably switch to power saver mode. In this case the display brightness will be set to lower level.
You can set it to highest level using FN+F7 key combination. Be also sure the display is in the right direction (90 degrees to your eyes).

Hello, I have a Windows 7 Pc where Lightroom 5 is on installed. When I open a photo using " verkenner" I see a good coloured photo. When I open a photo via Lightroom 5, the photo will be too dark. This gives difficluties during shaping the photograph. C

Hello,
I have a Windows 7 Pc where Lightroom 5 is on installed.
When I open a photo using " verkenner" I see a good coloured photo.
When I open a photo via Lightroom 5, the photo will be too dark. This gives difficulties during shaping the photograph. Can someone help me to solve this problem?
Kind Regards,
Marianne

Into the Develop module Not all the sliders in the Basic Panel are at 0.
Temperature ° is on 5600
Colourtint is on + 30
Balans: slider in the middle
History panel:
Balans gespitste tinten -3 0
Balans gespitste tinten -3 3

My Display is getting brighter and darker during use

Hi everybody,
my display is getting brighter and darker while using the computer. Do you know if this is a problem pple knows about?
Thank you for your help
Ulli805 (Germany)

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
The Mac sets up the brightness automatically. Go to System Preferences > Display and deactivate Automatically adjust brightness

HT3964 Hello, my isight camer is not working properly, i was using photo booth and suddenly the image was black or too dark and also ichat and facetime are too dark as well, please helpme out i can not find any solution.

Hello, my isight camer is not working properly, i was using photo booth and suddenly the image was black or too dark and also ichat and facetime are too dark as well, please helpme out i can not find any solution.

read this and see if it helps: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2090

HT5557 I highlight and study e pubs in ibooks. Now with the up date the color coding that I've be using are too dark and no way to adjust opaqueness. (SHOULD ADD THIS.) Is the an app to by to add to ibooks????

I highlight and study e pubs in ibooks. Now with the up date the color highlighters that I've be using are too dark and no way to adjust opaqueness. (YOU SHOULD ADD THIS.) Is the an app to by to add to ibooks???? Or an app to but to have other highlighter colors and be able to use the in ibooks???

I highlight and study e pubs in ibooks. Now with the up date the color highlighters that I've be using are too dark and no way to adjust opaqueness. (YOU SHOULD ADD THIS.) Is the an app to by to add to ibooks???? Or an app to but to have other highlighter colors and be able to use the in ibooks???

When using printer Epson R1900 with Aperture 3 and if I mistakenly choose the wrong paper such as, epson's luster instead of glossy, does that change the exposure? Like make it too dark one or two stops!

When using printer Epson R1900 with Aperture 3 and if I mistakenly choose the wrong paper such as, epson's luster instead of glossy, does that change the exposure? Like make it too dark one or two stops!

Hi,
If you choose the incorrect settings for printing, yes - the print quality will be affected.
Different papers absorb the ink differently, so you can end up with prints that are too light, too dark, or have a colour cast if you make incorrect choices in your Aperture or printer settings.

Display too dark to use

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for