15" PowerBook Display Won't Get Brighter!

[chinacupcake]

Has anyone had a problem with their PowerBook display being really, really DIM? I have a new 15" PowerBook, and I have adjusted the brightness with the F2 key and the System Preferences Display window, both to the max value. I have also turned off the Auto-adjust brightness feature. The display is still pretty dim after all this.

Is there something I am missing, or do I need to make a trip to the Apple store? (I hope I don't have to, because I bought it in Singapore and live in Shanghai)


All you Mac gurus out there, any ideas?

Thanks..

 

[hhlee]

Has anyone had a problem with their PowerBook display being really, really DIM? I have a new 15" PowerBook, and I have adjusted the brightness with the F2 key and the System Preferences Display window, both to the max value. I have also turned off the Auto-adjust brightness feature. The display is still pretty dim after all this.

Is there something I am missing, or do I need to make a trip to the Apple store? (I hope I don't have to, because I bought it in Singapore and live in Shanghai)


All you Mac gurus out there, any ideas?

Thanks..

that sounds pretty odd... you should be able to take it to any apple store. shanghai doesn't have one??

 

[mooshoo]

You know, alternatively, try repairing permissions first. I've found that sometimes when you do that some of the original functions come back.

 

[grapes911]

I always thought my PowerBook brightness was fine until recently. Just a few weeks ago I purchased a 20 inch Dell LCD. My PowerBook looks so dim after staring at the new monitor. Are you used to looking at a nice new LCD?

 

[iDM]

After switching in 2003 one of the first things I noticed was how DIM my 15" Pb was, and it's still one of my complaints about this otherwise sweet comp.

 

[chinacupcake]

Thanks for the ideas..

I've had a look at a friend's 15" PowerBook monitor and hers is definitely brighter, so there is something wrong with mine. Mooshoo, any hints as to what should I repair in Permissions?

Anyway, I guess I'll be trekking to the Apple "store" here tomorrow. Given the savage-ness of the tech market here, it's a last resort.

 

[chinacupcake]

Weirdness.. but goodness!

So.. here I am sitting at my desk, surfing the web, installing something and generally minding my own business, when.. all of a sudden and seemingly for no logical reason.. my monitor became aptly BRIGHT! I swear I did nothing intentional to make this happen; I was in the process of sending a support case to a 3rd-party software vendor on their web form, and brightness simply arrived.

What's up with that, I wonder? Well, as long as it is a permanent change, I'm cool with it. Maybe websurfing is really the solution to all my problems (as I have always suspected )

And it means I don't need to go into the cyberpit in downtown Shanghai tomorrow (yay!)

 

[matticus008]

You probably had been using your PowerBook in a dark place, or resting your hands over the speaker grilles. The newer PBs have photosensors in the grilles that dim the display when it perceives darkness (so you don't hurt your eyes). You should be able to override this with the brightness setting, but sometimes the keys are ignored when pressed (I have this problem intermittently with my volume keys).

Edit: nevermind, I missed the part about turning off the auto adjust. You might just have gotten a cold backlight that took a few days to break in.

 

[iMeowbot]

What's up with that, I wonder? Well, as long as it is a permanent change, I'm cool with it. Maybe websurfing is really the solution to all my problems (as I have always suspected )

Yeah, LCD backlights are just baby fluorescent tubes, and the mercury may have been clumped up just from storage. Running them will disperse it more evenly over time.

 

[efoto]

Yeah, LCD backlights are just baby fluorescent tubes, and the mercury may have been clumped up just from storage. Running them will disperse it more evenly over time.

Running the computer could disperse the mercury more evenly over time, however over time through running could the mercury settle or clump in other areas....such as darkness towards the bottom which I am recently experiencing and others have stated? Does anyone have a reasoning or explanation to why the backlight would seemingly suddenly become darker towards the lower portion of the screen?