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    Darkness of 1420 Glossy when unplugged

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by gary1958, Aug 4, 2007.

  1. gary1958

    gary1958 Notebook Guru

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    I'm not sure if this applies to only the 1420 and/or only glossy screens, as opposed to matte, but when I am unplugged and using the battery source, the screen is much darker. Also, it seems that this is where reflectiveness is worse.

    I've compared it to a year old Lenovo T60 which doesn't lose as much brightness when running on just batteries.

    Has anyone else noticed this problem?
     
    gary1958, Aug 4, 2007
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  2. coriolis

    coriolis Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Have you tried manually toggling the brightness using the FN command?
     
    coriolis, Aug 4, 2007
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  3. DoubleBlack

    DoubleBlack Notebook Deity

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    ...or you can change the brightness in the Power Options ;)
     
    DoubleBlack, Aug 4, 2007
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  4. gary1958

    gary1958 Notebook Guru

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    Well I think I may have found the cause. I brought up the Windows Mobility Center. When plugged in, it is set at the highest brightness. When you unplug and run on a battery, the display brightness meter drops from 100 down to 36. You can then adjust the meter to make it brighter.

    Is the purpose to automatically bring down brightness when on batteries to save battery life?

    Do other laptops have the same problem?

    Is this have to do with mainly glossy?


    Thanks in advance
     
    gary1958, Aug 4, 2007
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  5. gary1958

    gary1958 Notebook Guru

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    Hi Doubleback,

    I see where you can change the brightness via the Windows Mobility Center and via fn Up Arrow (brighter) /Down Arrow (dimmer). How and where can you change it with the power option?
     
    gary1958, Aug 4, 2007
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  6. DoubleBlack

    DoubleBlack Notebook Deity

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    You can change it both temporarily, but if you are looking for a permanent fix it's better to do it inside of Windows :)
     
    DoubleBlack, Aug 4, 2007
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  7. dc74

    dc74 Notebook Consultant

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    It's part of the power options. If you didn't change anything, it's probably using a power profile called "Dell Recommended". There are two modes for some of the options under each profile, one for AC powered and one for battery powered. For the screen backlight brightness, the Dell Recommended profile sets 100% brightness for AC and 40% brightness for battery. So as soon as you pull the AC, it detects that it's now on battery and changes from 100% to 40%.

    To access the power options, right-click on the battery icon in the notification area (beside the clock) and select "Power Options". A window will open where you can either modify an existing power profile or create a new profile from an existing.

    If you left-click on the battery icon, you'll notice that a menu will pop up where you can select which profile to use.
     
    dc74, Aug 4, 2007
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