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10019
Screen Brightness No Longer Works on Inspiron 8500
Hello,
I've had my Inspiron 8500 with Geforce Go card for the last 2 1/2 weeks and it is a great machine. However, I am having a problem now where I can no longer change the screen brightness with either the FN key or the system's bios. Pressing the FN + up/down brings up the slider which does nothing (the slider moves but the screen does not physically dim or brighten), and changing the power settings and unpluging the laptop no longer does anything for screen brightness as well. It appears, that the display is stuck on bright which is better than the other way around, I would guess but still annoying nevertheless. I have upgraded the bios I 2 times, first from the original, then to the A01 revision, and finally to A02. I have also updated all sound and video drivers and all windows XP updates so I don't know exactly where something might have gone wrong, but I am beginning to think it may be a bios issue, as the bios brightness controls do nothing as well. It's a great machine (though the keyboard could be better, some minor CD sound hissing, and I don't think battery life is where it should be), but this is really starting to bother me.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
ryri
360 Posts
0
May 1st, 2003 17:00
wow321
3 Posts
0
May 6th, 2003 00:00
Finally fixed the problem with the help of my IT guy, and no it was not that the display was broken, rather it is a problem/bug in the latest revision of the bios where the display needs to be set on the minimum brightness in the bios in order for the FN to work properly. But you know what, I just tried to adjust screen brightness and once again it is not doing anything at the moment so I think either the bios code or the software is flaky with this control. But luckly it gets stuck on the brightest setting and not the other way around.
DELL-Rance
298 Posts
0
May 6th, 2003 11:00
wow321:
I don't remember seeing this particular problem before. If it happens again please let us know. If anyone else experiences this with their Inspiron 8500 please include details of the experience in a reply to this thread.
DeJimbo
91 Posts
0
October 29th, 2003 21:00
wow321
3 Posts
0
October 31st, 2003 22:00
Hi,
My brightness is now working again, after fiddling with the brightness settings in the bios, as I mentioned above. Everyone once in a while it seems to stop working for a bit, but for the most part now it works all the time. Also I noticed, that when it does not work the power saving feature of the display does not go on after being idle for a while, it just flickers and the screen returns to its normal on state. I personally think it is a conflict between XP and Dell's porwer management features somewhere that is flucky enough not to be wide enough problem. I hope this helps.
DeJimbo
91 Posts
0
October 31st, 2003 22:00