Vista - A Unique Screen Brightness Issue...

OK, let me preface this by saying that I repair computers as a hobby, I do know that I'm doing usually.

Given that, I have an issue with screen brightness...

Using FN and F10 does not increase brightness (swap FN with CTRL is disabled in my bios - FN is FN)
The screen brightness indicator when I use the FN F10 key indicates the screen is at max brightness, yet at minimum there is no change in brightness.
My ambient light sensor is disabled so I COULD use the FN key to adjust brightness
I have reinstalled my chipset drivers, flashed my bios and tried damn near everything to get my brightness up.

Currently, my brightness is at minimum, despite my power options saying its full and the onscreen indicator when FN is used telling me the same.

At bootup and in the BIOS I am able to adjust the brightness and it DOES get significantly brighter (and dimmer) when I use the FN keys.

I have scoured the internet and have found nothing relating to my issue as of yet, hopefully someone here can help me out

Side note: I have a Compaq 8710w with Vista Ultimate x64 on it (yes, a legit copy)

All windows updates are done, I have even done what I normally refrain from doing - installing all of the HP / Compaq base software garbage that they like to preload in hopes of remedying my issues with the screen brightness level....

Anyone have any idea what I should do next?

-Grodii

Bump Bump

did it ever work since you got it?, reduce your resolution temporarily and try and change the brightness levels, i suspect that the fn keystrokes for brightness have been disabled by your graphics card application, Nvidia control panel is where you can change your brightness levels.

Welcome to Vista Forums grodii3k

First of all, it would help the helpers if you would checkout the Forum FAQ, Rules and complete all the detail of your CP "My System Specs".

Just a thought, but have you tried using Fn + < , for reduction, and Fn + > to incease the brightness. The keys < and > that I refer to are 2 of the four arrows on your keyboard.....< v > ^.

Using the left and right arrow keys does nothing other than make the page scroll up and down.

I reduced my resolution and I am still not able to adjust the brightness. In the nVidia control panel, the only control for brightness that I can find isn't actually for backlight brightness, but rather white balance of the colors on the display. I'm still stuck in square one...

The brightness levels used to work fine. They did work on prior installs of Linux, Win XP and Vista Ult. It quit working this most recent install. At the time of install, I had the ambient light sensor turned on. I have since d isabled it in the bios. That was when the brightness decided not to work any more. I have tried re-enabling it and seeing if it was just work as an ambient light sensor and autio adjust the brightness like it used to when I first installed and it no longer works either. So it's not set to off again since it really doesn't matter what position its in.

Note: When the ambient light sensor is on, I have no control over the brightness, its all automatic. When it's off (it normally was for me) is when the FN keys work.

Would taking a pic of my keyboard be helpful at all?

your best bet would be to take your laptop to a specialist, this maybe a problem with the brightness settings of the monitor not responding. Its not rare, but its not common either.

By specialist, I assume you mean take it to a computer repair shop, yes? Because the shop that I used to work at .. none of the team can figure out the issue either.

I had a thought the other day, that maybe it's a registry setting that went haywire when I switched the ambient light sensor off. Think this might be a possability?

can you make a bootable linux disc (ubuntu, SUse) or similar just to test the fn keys on a different operating system maybe? if it is the registry, then this may give you the vital info you need, a fresh install may ensue.

I have been desperately trying to avoid a rewipe. They le suck with the number of programs and quantity of data that I have.

The answer however is yes, the function keys work correctly using a CD bootable OS like linux. If I put my XP disc in and boot from there (you know, the blue screen with grey text) I can adjust the screen brightness as well. So, I'm pretty sure we have narrowed it down to an OS issue... damn...

you dont need to rewipe, just an operating system repair, surely it will fix the registry, and any other problems you may have.
theres a step by step tutorial of how to do a repair install of vista here Repair Install For Vista