Screen brightness pulses, help

Hi all,
A brand new macbook air 11" with Lion.
I've noticed tonight the screen is pulsing its brightness slowly (like a sin wave almost). It it's on a semi bright state, then about 3 seconds later a darker state, then back again to the brighter state. It's a good 6 seconds full turn around.
I thought I was going mad, but no it's real.
It was also plugged into the mag charger but even after unplugging it still does it.
Is the macbook a dud? Is there a fix?
Thanks so much for your help,
Rob

The 2011 MBair has an ambient light sensor that can control brightness. Experiment by turning this feature off in System Preferences > Displays > Display tab > uncheck Automatically adjust brightness.
If this helps then the ambient light is changing or you might need to do a SMC reset.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Regards,
Captfred

Similar Messages

Windows 10 Screen Brightness! HELP!

I would also confirm - although you might have the drivers installed and up to date, that they are actually Windows 10 certified, just because they work, does not mean they are certified or indeed 100% working in Windows 10 - it only came out 2 days ago remember. You may need to download and install specific drivers for your GPU and modules, light sensors and base drivers - which may or may not be windows 10 compliant yet, or ever.

As I move from window to window, or even just scrolling through a web page, my screen is dimming ever-so-slightly. I can't even notice it dim, but then suddenly, it will jump back to full brightness. This is giving me a major headache and I can not find a setting to fix this.At first, I thought this was an illusion, but it is not. Check it out at 6-7 seconds, the screen gets brighter! Sorry for the poor video. I'm just glad it's visible on video at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2RYBvjn_zUI checked my power settings, I'm set to full brightness and adaptive brightness is turned off. To the best of my knowledge, this is not a hardware issue. My laptop is 2.5 years old and has never done this on Windows 8/8.1.It's about to cause a seizure, and I need help figuring this out before it does.
Thanks!
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

Help - Screen brightness is very low

Hello all,
I am having problems with my touchsmart. The screen brightness is very low and I can't see anything unless I have a flashlight. The brightness is already at 100%. A couple of things I noticed. When my computer is in sleep mode and I move my mouse to get out of it, the screen will appear normally for a few seconds. When I changed the screen resolution to 800x600 and click apply, the screen brightness will go back to normal for a few seconds and when I revert it back to 1600x900, it will go to normal again for a few seconds. Here are my specs:
HP Touchsmart 300-1025
Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 240e Processor 2.80 GHz
System: Windows 7 64-bit
THanks for any help.
Tim

Hello tim1218:
Lets get you started with calibrating your display. Go to Help and Support click on it. Opens type in brightness will take you to: Adjust your monitors brightness and justment. In secound sentance at the end of it click after word (see) Click on Calibrate you display Next window will give direction follow them. If you are unable to get it resolved by running calibrations . Then I recommend that you take your computer in for service. I wrote this bold and large type for you to be able to read it on dark screen.

Help! Screen brightness won't adjust =(

I have windows 7. Screen brightness won't adjust. Tried adjusting it with Fn, the battery settings, and the mobility center. The slider bar adjusts on the settings and mobility center, but once I close the window and reopen it, the bar is always at the brightest side. Help!

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-Y-and-U-series-Laptops/y550-win7-screen-brightness-and-dolby-dig...
next time do a search.

Windows 8 Pro Upgrade Problems (Switchable Graphics, Screen Brightness Adjustment, etc.)

Hi guys! I hope you can help me with this.
My laptop is a Lenovo U400 bought last April. I upgraded it yesterday to Windows 8 Pro.
The Upgrade Assistant detected incompatibilities on the following softwares (I'll be mentioning only those I had problems with after the update.)
-AMD Catalyst Install Manager
-Catalyst Control Center
-Lenovo Energy Management
-Cypress Trackpad
After the update, the following problems occurred
-Windows kept prompting me about the incompatibility of Catalyst Control Center and Lenovo Energy Management
-When I check the Device Manager -->Display Adapters, My AMD Radeon HD 6470M was changed to HD 7400M and has an exclamation point on it indicating a problem. When check Properties it says, "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"
-I can't manage switchable graphics because the AMD Radeon driver has been stopped by the OS and Catalyst Control Center doesn't work. It says, "Catalyst Control Center cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured using Catalyst Control Center."
-My touchpad works but does not support multitouch functions.
-Screen brightness adjustment stopped working both on hotkeys and Power Options.
I tried the following actions to fix the problems:
-Downloaded the new softwares from Lenovo Support but the Catalyst Control Center and Cypress Trackpad still doesn't work. I also tried installing driver software from the AMD site but it still didn't work. [FAILED]
-I tried to use the Cypress Trackpad software for U300s/e and it fixed the problem with the touchpad [FIXED]
-Installed the Energy Management software for Windows 8 but when I click the 'Optimized Battery Health' button, it keeps reverting back to 'Maximum Battery Life'. [PARTIALLY FIXED]
-Resorted to 3rd party software to fix the Switchable Graphics (Catalyst 12.11 Beta from leshcatlabs.net) and it fixed the switchable graphics problem as well as the Catalyst Control Center problem. This is temporary until a working solution or update is available. [TEMPORARILY FIXED]
-All actions trying to fix the Screen brightness adjustment didn't work. [FAILED]
Please do help me on this. Thanks in advance!!!

Yes I own U400 too and I'm using it now. To many forums been read, can't remember which one. Basically, u have to clean AMD and Intel drivers that come along with Win 8. Why? Because the Win8 driver database will lead the device ID "DEV_6760" (if you looking at display adapter device properties) to HD 7400 series instead of HD 6470M, again why? At the bigining only the HD 7400 series already "certified" by Microsoft, while the 6470M out of somewhere. Current CCC (or else) + 6470 drivers, contain also driver for 7400 series in same packages (at least until now, hopefully near future they will release an update). So you can gues where the windows will lead to? Yes 7400 series (certified one). This will explain also why the Energy Management didn't work to= "missing identifier" or we can say "hardware not match".
You have to find a "fix" driver which contain only HD 6470M and install it manually trhu "Have Disk" option, after you claan all AMD and Intel driver. If you success, then install the CCC from Lenovo Support and from ATI ( I use 12.11 Beta8 Net4 CCC - this is a must), but remember to unchek the AMD Display driver when you install both CCC, and leave the rest checked including Intel Component. Then you can download install anything you want =).
Leschat's driver did't work on my and "harm" the system. Believe it or not, I found the AMD 6470M standalone driver on HP website. They call it "SoftPack", which actually contain CCC software.
It's quite tricky thing, that's why not everyone willing to try. But I think it's worth to try, as the risk is not too deep, just backup anything befor you do it. Cheer

Flashcards for screen brightness no longer work after BIOS upgrade

I have a Toshiba Satellite T135D/1320S laptop, and last night I upgraded the BIOS to v1.90 under the recently released recall notice. AFter installing the BIOS, however, the Flashcard brightness controls no longer work. Whenever I press FN-6 or FN-7, the screen brightness Flashcard pops up and the toggle on the slider bar moves back and forth, but the brightness of the screen does not change.
I have disabled and re-enabled the Flashcards as suggested in a separate forum, and I've also downloaded the most recent display driver (AMD display driver v8.615). Neither effort corrected the problem.
Anyone have any other suggestions?

Satellite T135D-S1320
Sometimes it helps to reset the machine. With the battery and AC adapter removed, close the Power switch for half-a-minute. Re-attach those, press the Power button to turn the computer on, and then immediately press the F2 key while the Toshiba logo is displayed. Press F9 to restore the BIOS default settings, press F10, and then select Yes (Exit Saving Changes). The computer will restart.
Another things to try is reinstalling the TVAP.
Toshiba Value Added Package for Windows 7 (64)
-Jerry

Dell L501x Screen Brightness

I've gotten most things working on my new laptop but I can't seem to figure out how to adjust my screen brightness.
The first thing I noticed was that there was no /proc/acpi/video directory. So I searched for where it might be:
~ $ find / -iname *brightness* 2>/dev/null
/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/actual_brightness
/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/max_brightness
/sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled
/usr/lib/gegl-0.1/brightness-contrast.so
/usr/share/laptop-mode-tools/modules/lcd-brightness
/usr/share/gtk-doc/html/libgimpwidgets/stock-tool-brightness-contrast-16.png
/usr/share/gtk-doc/html/libgimpwidgets/stock-tool-brightness-contrast-22.png
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/lcd-brightness.conf
The first three seemed like they might be useful since they are similar to the ThinkPad brightness values here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/La … brightness. Each one has only the number 15 in it. When I try as root to do
echo -n X >/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness # X being replaced by any number from 0 to 15
I get:
bash: /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness: Permision denied
I have tried setting laptop-mode-tools to automatically echo different numbers when I unplug my laptop but they don't do anything. If you might be able to point me in the right direction, or know how to change the brightness on the Dell L501x, I'd greatly appreciate the help.

Lothium wrote:
Yes exactly... I have the i7 and no integrated intel graphics... Sorry that I can't help you with this.
Just another thing: Do you get the synaptics touchpad work well? For me it works, but when I try to use two finger scroll, I can't use it when I lay my two fingers at the same time on the touchpad. I have to lay them one after another on the touchpad to use two finger scroll. Do you have the same problem or found a solution for this?
Best regards!
I own a Dell L401X i7 with Nvidia GT 425m and my touchpad also has problem. I use gpointing-device-setting to enable two finger scrolling. Sometimes it worked pretty well, sometimes when I put two fingers on the touchpad, my mouse jumped all over the screen. I don't know why.
Another thing I notice with this laptop is that my touchpad lock key does not work anymore (it used to work with the fresh installation of Arch)
If you find the solution to these, please share!
PS: I don't why to hijack this thread of CanadaRox, I just want to share some problems some of you guys out there who is owning the same Dell laptop line.

Screen brightness OSD not working after 7 clean install

Hi all,
I just did a clean install of Windows 7 on my T400. Initially, none of the OSDs were working (volume, led light, screen brightness). But, I found this thread--http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/On-Screen-Display-feature-no-longer-works-i...--and downloaded the Hotkey drivers. This brought back the volume and led OSDs, but not brightness. Additionally, for some reason now the screen does not get nearly as dim as it used to.
Am I missing something obvious? Thanks!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Fantastic. FIxed the problem. Thanks so much for your help!

[Solved] Screen brightness control issue

I just purchased a Lenovo T410s. I have set it up to only use Nvidia and only give visibility to the Nvidia GPU. The problem I have is once X starts I can no longer change the screen brightness with the function keys. I'm using KDE and it registers that I'm trying to change the brightness but the screen never changes. If switch to run level 3 I can use the function keys to change the brightness without an issue. I'm confused at what is causing the issue. I'm not sure what information you need to help me, but I will give you what you need if you tell me.
EDIT: I discovered on the Nvidia forums that the backlight function was disabled in the drivers for this model. Apparently when in use it causes squealing sounds.
Last edited by migizi (2010-12-09 13:15:40)

I did some more testing and here is what I found out. I switched my laptop to use integrated GPU only, so that means Arch sees my GPU as the Intel HD. Now I can boot X and control my brightness with the functions keys. Has anyone else run into the problem with Nvidia drivers and the Quatro NVS 3100m GPU?

My screen brightness control buttons don't work windows 8

my screen brightness control buttons don't work?
the light in the mute button is always on when NOT on mute?
Have set up Win8 3 TIMES but get always same bug agan
Hope someone can help

Hello smarisig. I understand you are not able to control screen brightness from the keyboard on Windows 8. By chance, did you upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows 7? I have located an online forum that contains troubleshooting on this issue: http://thedailybuggle.com/forum/unable-control-screen-brightness-windows-8-a-200.html
The person who posted the issue on this forum had upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8, and then this issue occurred. That is the reason I asked if this Windows 8 was upgraded. Regardless, follow the troubleshooting presented and it could resolve the issue for you. If not, let me know and I will continue to research the issue in the meantime. I'm only here to help!
Mario
I worked on behalf of HP.

Odd Screen Brightness behavior

When I toggle the screen brightness keys, the status bar stops to notches short of all the way bright. When I open system prefs and slide the status knob all the way to the right, it stays at about 80%?
Weird?

Hi rahzel,
Welcome to the Lenovo Community Forums.
Regarding the Screen Brightness sliders, its not that they are not synching its just that they are not scaled right. As you have explained the PP (power plan) screen brightness slider when set at half, the corresponding PM (power management) slider is 3/4 full. I tried this with a different lenovo unit (B570) running Windows 7 and its the same thing. We have no option to change this since this is scaled by Windows 7.
The Lenovo Energy management It just gives you the option to toggle from the 3 power plans listed. Regarding the On screen indicator, I may suggest that you try to uninstall and reinstall the Lenovo Energy Management program. Check to see if this addresses the Onscreen indicator problem.
Let me know if this helps.
Don

Bootcamp screen brightness does not work.

Hello, i can't adjust my screen brightness at all.... I hit the fn and f2/f1 buttons and the brightness icon appears and the bar goes down and up normally but the screen brightness does not change. i also tried changing the brightness in the bootcamp control panel and nothing happens. I can't find any solution for this problem anywhere, so I figured i'd give it a try and ask here how can i fix this.
I'm using: Windows 7 - x64 on a macbook pro 2009 with bootcamp updated to version 3.3.
Thanks

Click on the start icon (bottom left of your screen) and search "Brightness" click on the adjust brightness thing. Hope this helped.

Screen brightness windows 8.1 problem

Hi I have MSI GT683DX, after update windows 8 --> 8.1, scm have some new problems, now not only turbo button not working(Yes I know if I install older nvidia driver will work) but screen brightness and ECO button(power plan movie,office,game etc..) not working as well... Some help please I try some windows 8.1 fix (google) methods for brightness but without success so I think that is again SCM problem is not updated for windows 8.1 ... ?! THANKS

Installed older nvidia drivers again and wow again everything work well

I am unable to change my screen brightness using the fn+f2/fn+f3 keys. i understand that it can stil

I am unable to change my screen brightness using the fn+F2/fn+F3 keys. I understand that it can still be adjusted differently but I want this way to work. Also whenever I change my volume using the fn+F7/fn+F8/fn+F9 keys, the little on-screen display doesn't pop-up any more. I would like to fix this and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi
You have a couple of options as I see it please find the web link given below and the steps might help you to fix your issue on the unit.
Resolving Problems with the Brightness of the Display
Let us know how it goes!
*Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
****Click the White Kudos star to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
Regards
Manjunath
Let us know how it goes!
"I work for HP."
****Click the (purple thumbs up icon in the lower right corner of a post) to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
Regards
Manjunath

New 24" iMac Screen Brightness Problem

My new 24" iMac's screen is much brighter on the left side than on the right. What should I do? Surely this is not normal for an iMac. Did I get a defective screen? Please help! Thanks in advance!

I got a 24" iMac from Amazon and noticed the screen gradient after a few hours of use. Then I also noticed a stuck pixel in the middle of the screen. I was very bummed and after reading through forums I realized that this seems to be a common problem. I was getting prepared for 3 "geniuses" gathering around my iMac telling me that they can't see anything wrong with it and then me trying to sell it on ebay with a $500 loss.
But things turned out quite different for me.
I took the iMac to one of our 5! Apple Stores here in Houston and explained the gradient and the stuck pixel to the Genius. He turned the computer on, looked at it for about five seconds and says "yep", turns it off and starts typing away on his MacBook. Five minutes later I asked him what he was doing and he goes: "Oh, I'm replacing it." Me: "the screen?" Him:" No, the whole thing!"
I was overjoyed, I almost couldn't believe it.
They brought out a brand new box and I asked him if they would let me transfer my files. They agreed and handed me a FW cable. I checked the new iMac for any screen issues and it looked perfect. So I started the setup and let it do its thing. I decided to go get something eat with my daughter while the iMacs were transferring files. Got back an hour later and it was done. The new iMac started up in my user account and everything. But then I noticed a black dot that almost looked like a dead pixel but it appeared to be right behind the glass and not on the screen itself. I asked another genius (the first one had left) if he could remove the glass and try to clean it. Sure enough he went to get the suction cups and popped off the glass. The black dust speck was visible and easily removed. The glass got re-installed and I packed the new iMac back into the box.
I expressed my feeling of satisfaction and headed home.
At home I thoroughly inspected the screen again and it appears to be nearly perfect.
I'm very happy now. Apple sells their products for a premium and I my case I received premium customer service. Way to go!

Screen brightness pulses, help

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for