I have the same problem. The only thing that seems to really off set that is if I set the display to never sleep. For whatever reason it seems to prevent the display from dimming. I know thats not a great option, but it works for watching movies or reading for now.
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Leopard - MBP Screen Goes Dark
- Thread starter arcobb
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I have this problem as well and I am worried it will slip by the engineers trying to debug Leopard. What worries me is that there was never a fix for the older problem in Tiger where the screen would dim (I know that is a separate issue, the point is that it wasn't fixed except for a cop-out work around)
Has anybody with this problem sent a bug report to Apple? Either through the ADC bug report or through the OS X feedback site (assuming that even does anything).
Never mind. Something was running in the background that kept the screen from dimming. The backlight is still shutting off after about a minute.
I installed Leopard on launch day on my 3 year old 17" PowerBook and I get the same problem. After about a minute of no activity the screen dims even though my settings say put the screen to sleep after 15 minutes of no activity.
This problem didn't occur with Panther.
This problem didn't occur with Panther.
![picture1vc8.png]()
I solved my problems by unchecking the "Automatically adjust brightness" option.
Thanks very much brewno, this worked well for me... Before this, I was getting dizzy with the screen going through a continuous cycle of dimming and brightening and dimming again...
That's a separate issue...not even a bug.
This thread is addressing an actual bug in Leopard. I am experiencing it as well. There is a growing thread at Apple Discussions on this as well. I've filed a bug report to Apple and crossed my fingers.
The thing that really sucks about this is that the display will cut out while watching a video in a web browser...thankfully I haven't had it happen while watching DVDs though.
Apple Responds
After writing a thorough bug report via ADC, I received the following from Apple:
"This is a follow up to Bug ID# 5591191. After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 5533463. The original bug number being used to track this duplicate issue can be found in the State column, in this format: Duplicate/OrigBug#."
I guess that's good news
After writing a thorough bug report via ADC, I received the following from Apple:
"This is a follow up to Bug ID# 5591191. After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 5533463. The original bug number being used to track this duplicate issue can be found in the State column, in this format: Duplicate/OrigBug#."
I guess that's good news
I experienced the same problem you and others have described, on both tiger and leopard. My screens' backlight would go off 3 or 4 minutes(it goes dark but you can barely make out the screen). It didn't matter what i did with the energy saver settings, problem persisted.
After searching google endlessly and reading what others have to say, I came across a solution that worked for me.
You start off by deleting your energy savings preferences. Restarting your machine. Set your energy savings to better performance THEN using terminal, you set your sleep to 0, autodim to 0, disksleep to 0, and displaysleep to 0. You might also disable your screen saver. I have mine for 15 minutes.
Do not mess with your energy settings anymore.
The drawback to this, is your screen will NEVER go to sleep and according to apple, "never letting your display sleep may shorten it's life"
I always just close the lid on my machine, so this isn't an issue. I also have a shortcut key(thanks quicksilver) to sleep my machine. I haven't experimenting with setting the sleep to something like 30 minutes because everytime I do, the problem returns and I have to do all of the previous steps again.
conclusion
I think a lot of it had to do with corrupt energy saver settings and possibly a bug that corrupts your settings if you mess around with the energy savings settings. The workaround as I described is trashign the preferences and changing the energy saver settings via terminal.(Turning off sleep, dim, sleepdisplay)
After searching google endlessly and reading what others have to say, I came across a solution that worked for me.
You start off by deleting your energy savings preferences. Restarting your machine. Set your energy savings to better performance THEN using terminal, you set your sleep to 0, autodim to 0, disksleep to 0, and displaysleep to 0. You might also disable your screen saver. I have mine for 15 minutes.
Do not mess with your energy settings anymore.
The drawback to this, is your screen will NEVER go to sleep and according to apple, "never letting your display sleep may shorten it's life"
I always just close the lid on my machine, so this isn't an issue. I also have a shortcut key(thanks quicksilver) to sleep my machine. I haven't experimenting with setting the sleep to something like 30 minutes because everytime I do, the problem returns and I have to do all of the previous steps again.
conclusion
I think a lot of it had to do with corrupt energy saver settings and possibly a bug that corrupts your settings if you mess around with the energy savings settings. The workaround as I described is trashign the preferences and changing the energy saver settings via terminal.(Turning off sleep, dim, sleepdisplay)
The update actually fixed the issue for me. That was the first thing I tested whenever I applied the update.
You're lucky - the update didn't fix it for me (tried deleting the plist and the other configuration settings as recommended).
Only solution thus far is to set the display to never sleep (as others have reported).
Ok so I lied... Unintentionally. I guess it only worked when I tested it because when I took it to class it did it again. So yea I guess I will be waiting for the bug fix.
I have the same issue aswell on my MBP 2.4
I hve gotten alittle lucky and actually got a casenumber with Apple Support here in sweden
They have let me tried a few things such as conencting the laptop to an external monitor and tv.
same problem appears here but the tv an external monitor still shows the desktop.
Also I have captured data and sent it to them.
As soon as I know more I will return and post here.
Best regards Björn
I hve gotten alittle lucky and actually got a casenumber with Apple Support here in sweden
They have let me tried a few things such as conencting the laptop to an external monitor and tv.
same problem appears here but the tv an external monitor still shows the desktop.
Also I have captured data and sent it to them.
As soon as I know more I will return and post here.
Best regards Björn
I'll be the second to revive this old thread just to mention that I have this same issue. I am using a PB 15in FW800.
As mentioned above, it was logged as a bug, and hopefully the patch is in the upcoming 10.5.2.
As mentioned above, it was logged as a bug, and hopefully the patch is in the upcoming 10.5.2.
Yes i think i have the same problem. Im moving my finger on the trackpad and then all of a sudden the screen turns off. I can turn it on my touching the trackpad...
Is this a bug?
Lukeintosh
Is this a bug?
Lukeintosh