Screen dimmer when plugged in

Question

Hello, I have an Inspiron 1520 running Vista.

I noticed a curious thing recently. My screen is dimmer when its plugged in.

I've checked the control panel settings under power options and windows mobility centre and the settings for Dell Quickset but everything looks like it should be full power. I've even downloaded the newest version of Quickset but the problem persists.

No matter what power plan I use, I can never get my screen to full brightness while it is plugged in.

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

chickenscratch, Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum. You have tried using the FN UP ARROW to increase brightness?

chickenscratch · Answer

Yes, haha I 'spose i should have mentioned that also. It goes up to about 60% and then there's a deadspot where nothing happens.

DeathRider · Answer

Yeah, If Control Panel->Power Options->Edit Plan Settings (choosing adjust the display brightness), and the sliders are all the way over, not much more I could suggest.

If it just wasn't as bright as it used to be, could be the display.

Did you move the slider all the way over (or further right than the On Battery slider) to see if you only get so bright?

Or turn brightness all the way up you can while on AC, then disconnect power to see if it (1) still goes brighter, (2) stays the same brightness, or (3) goes dimmer.

If it's the second/third and only 60% brightness, something may be wrong with the panel.

Message Edited by DeathRider on 08-25-2008 06:48 AM

fashbash · Answer

Same problem chickenscratch. I have yet to figure this one out. The brightness will go up to 100% just fine on battery (when you wouldn't want it to...), but the instant it goes to ac, the screen dims. it can't be raised above about 60% or so. Fn+[up] doesn't work beyond 6-%, power settings show brightness to be identical with battery, but distinct differences. Since the monitor WILL go to 100% on battery, it leads me to believe it's not the monitor, but something running it. Random question....have you installed Firefox 3.0+ recently?? Mine started right after I did, but System Restore won't work for me since I have 'an error on my drive' but cannot ever be detected by the wizard. Have you come up with anything??

chickenscratch · Answer

Whew, glad it's not just me. And Firefox is my preferred browser but it only started this about 2 months after I installed it so your suggestion seems kind of fishy

carlaaclark · Answer

this is happenign to me too. just started today. i don't know what to do about it, it's way too dim to be working on. it was fine last night, there were some recent updates but i don't know what could have caused it as it was normal windows updates.

this is really frustrating, you can't run the computer with no AC for that long either

kristenfaulkmk · Answer

I am having the same problem with my dell inspiron 1420... Have you discovered the problem yet?

Shiraz Dindar · Answer

SOLVED!!

Go into your BIOS (press F2 during bootup) and scroll to Video settings, and set brightness to Max for plugged in. Mine too was at about 60%. I'm not sure how or why it got set lower in the BIOS.

My suggestion would be to set the brightness to max for when on battery also (in the BIOS). Then tweak the settings via Vista alone thereafter.

Peace for Gaza

Shiraz

kristenfaulkmk · Answer

thank you, thank you! This solved my problem! I owe you big time for this. I even brought it to Best Buy and they couldn't fix it.

Sookim2 · Answer

Thank you Thank you Thank you!  I have an Inspiron 1720 Laptop (Vista) and I've had this problem for 2 weeks now.  Couldn't find an answer in the laptop help menu.  Don't know what caused it but thanks for the solution!

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Screen dimmer when plugged in

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