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    Can not get full brightness on battery power

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by unagimiyagi, Apr 23, 2010.

  1. unagimiyagi

    unagimiyagi Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi guys,

    I have run across this issue before in the past, but on battery power Lenovo does not enable the ability to run the screen at full brightness, period. Someone said that there is an option to enable the lcd on full brightness in the BIOS but I do not see this option. I do recall this option when I had a T43, but now when I unplug on an x200 tablet and t400s, I get a subtle, graded dimming of the LCD. Even though it's showing max brightness, it's not truly at max b/c as soon as I plug it in, the screen does a subtle, graded increase in its brightness. All told it's probably about a 1 notch difference and I am confident that I am not imagining this. I want the option to run my screen at full brightness when on battery, da**it!

    Could anyone help me out or at least tell me that I'm not out of my mind?
     
  2. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

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    i will have a look at my T400s.
     
  3. cyber16

    cyber16 Notebook Deity

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    Make sure you are @ 60hz and not 50hz.
    I have seen this as well on our T400
    Along with the 50hz screen flashing of the refresh rate
     
  4. mike5065

    mike5065 Notebook Consultant

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    My 3-year-old work T60 does exactly this, but it's not subtle, the brightness is quite a bit less, I'd say about 30%.

    It's one of the key reasons I bought a new personal T510, which does not do this at all, i.e. there is zero difference when running on battery or AC given similar Power Manager settings.

    My guess is the fluorescent lighting ages; I'm hoping the LEDs on the T510 do not.
     
  5. cn_habs

    cn_habs Notebook Deity

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    Yes, I have experienced the same phenomenon on my T61. Is this any cause for concern?
     
  6. unagimiyagi

    unagimiyagi Notebook Enthusiast

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    I tried this very quickly this morning. I think that you may be right about this being the "cause". I will investigate this, but it is odd to me that Lenovo would limit this choice for the consumer. That smells of something Apple would do. Either way, I'm sure that it adds another 10-15 min to their battery life runtimes, unfairly, I think, if anyone cares.
     
  7. cyber16

    cyber16 Notebook Deity

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    I know that Lenovo has the screen refresh go down to 50hz during a power saver mode & when coming out of a sleep, I also think this invokes a saver mode scaling the screen back light intensity that is several steps lower.

    Speaking of Apple, it would be great to have my mid 09 mbp screen with in my T400 ;)