Reducing brightness to zero = sleeping display?

Hello.
In the Energy Saver settings I read that "never letting the display sleep may shorten it's life". But I really don't like that timer sleep thing. However, whenever I see fit, I turn the brightness to zero, until it goes darkest. Is this in any way similar to "sleeping"?
My question is does turning the brightness to zero whenever possible help increase the display's life?
What other tips do you have in this regard?
Bye,
Mircea

No, dimming the display is not the same as sleeping the display. When you dim it manually all you turn off is the backlight while the LCD display remains on. By manually dimming the display you are extending the life of the backlight which usually fails before the LCD.
I don't understand why you don't like the display sleep timer? If you are using the machine it won't turn off. I usually set my timer to 15-20 minutes. If I don't touch a key in that amount of time I'm generally not using it.
Are you having issues with the auto display dim? That is when the display dims but still remains on but at a low level? If so you can disable that in the Energy Saver control panel. Just deselect "Automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep".

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So you need total control over whether the display is on or off. This has nothing to do with leaving the computer unattended. You're still there, "using" the computer, you're just not necessarily using the display.
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