MacBook Pro Boot Camp Control Panel Brightness in XP

[Dardle]

Hi, I am a bit new to Mac but not THAT new. Anyway this is a Macbook pro running XP question. If I boot into Windows on my Macbook pro (XP), I can never adjust the screen brightness in a smooth way. Boot Camp Control panel works, but the slider for screen brightness goes from EXTREMELY bright, to too dim in ONE tiny step. I upgraded to boot camp 2.1 but still same problem. Of course I bought the Mac to USE as a Mac..but I can't believe Mac would make such a crude adjustment slider in XP. It's so crude I can't stay in Windows too long or I get a headache. Does anyone have this problem and or know of a simple fix..? Thanks much.

 

[richard.mac]

thats how the brightness has always been for my MacBook Pro when in windows.

i think the Boot Camp drivers for screen brightness just arent the best, hopefully they will be better in the future. thats why its stupid to only run Windows on a Mac. the hardware drivers just arent as good as OS X's yet.

P.S. you dont have to write your title in caps, other members will still reply if you dont.

 

[Dardle]

Too bad about the Boot Camp drivers..

Hi, Thanks much for the reply. Oh..and sorry about the caps thing..guess I didn't notice. Yeah I agree buying a Mac to run Windows is sort of dumb. In my case I put Windows on my Mac cause I have all sorts of little mp3 players, an older Garmin GPS, A Nokia and Sony Ericsson phone that ALL need Windows..their software won't run on a Mac. So thought I could have the best of both worlds..which I guess a Mac user can..BUT if THEY are gonna support Windows.why not do it right instead of...well not all the way. To me it's more a Windows thing doing things just SO SO . What I have been loving about the Mac is it's overall quality level vs typical Windows stuff..so I felt let down that the control panel brightness THING seems so crude. Well..anyway thanks again..maybe in the future it'll be better..

 

[richard.mac]

^ you could use Parallels or Fusion to use windows in a virtual machine then the screen would still use OS X's drivers for brightness. but it comes at a price.

 

[Dardle]

Parallels...maybe

Thanks. Yeah I first started with Parallels and yes the screen looked PERFECT. But as you say it comes with a price..though not bad...XP was not running nearly as fast as it does with boot camp.Also maybe I juist got unlucky my Windows directory under Parallels got corrupted and never worked again..lucky me..

I still wonder if there may be a tweak or fix still out there..as there must be others that are bothered by this. It's not the end of the world..and oddly the boot camp control panel brightness in XP DOES work very smoothly as soon as you hit the second notch down in brightness. Then there are about 10 more notches and each one is quite smooth and gradual. Just the next to last notch is too dim..and it almost gets 50% more brighter in the last notch up. hah, sorry I am repeating the same story again.. Again thanks for your help here..

 

[slowpoke]

Hi; using Boot Camp right now and whenever I try turning the brightness down with the function keys (or otherwise), it immediately pings back to full brightness. This is annoying. Any kind of fix I can use?