Macbook screen losing brightness

[Ozman712]

I bought my Macbook in the beginning of June '06. I have noticed that as time goes on the screen does not get as bright as it used to. I obviously have the brightness up to the max and in order to confirm this, I put my computer beside my friend's Macbook of almost the same age. Side by side my MB looks like I have the brightness set to about 3/4 brightness. I don't know what the deal is, but I was wondering if anyone has this same problem or knows if there is anything I can do. I have just extended my warranty with Applecare, so if I need to I'll take it into an Apple store.

Oz

 

[WillJS]

Has it been on for a while? I do notice when I first turn on my MB the screen isn't as bright.. but after about 2 or 3 minutes it "warms up" and is bright.

 

[MacDonaldsd]

Has your friends MacBook always had a brighter display ?

Does seem odd if there is a HUGE difference though.

 

[SWC]

I had the same problem when I still had my blackbook and I thought I was just going crazy because it seemed odd it would get a lot dimmer in such short time. I figured it was going back and forth between desktop and laptop that made me feel like that but finally realized when they replaced the screen (they scratched it during repair) that it had indeed gotten dimmer.

 

[porg]

I realize a 2-3 min warm up delay of my MacBookPro screen brightness

I own a MacBookPro (Core2Duo / Late 2006 / MA609LL) purchased in 2007-01.

I also thought that the brightness of my screen is decreasing over time.

But as @WillJS wrote, I realiszed, that the screen indeed "warms up" within the first 2-3 minutes.

Such measurements without technical equipment of course have the risk of being highly subjective, as our sense of sight adapts to environment, but even considering this, I am quite sure that there still is an effective "warm up delay".

The question is, whether this warm-up is technically intended by the constructor, and has always been there, since the MacBookPro came out of the factory, or whether this warm-up-delay gradually developed during the aging of my laptop.

Any ideas?

 

[porg]

If screen is LED based, age effect after 20 years, if Neon tube 10y, or dust issue!

A friend of me, Roland Borsky, senior technician at MacXimum.at replied to me in German:

Also wenn LED, dann sollte die Helligkeit immer gleich bleiben, abgesehen von 20 Jahren oder so. Wenn noch Neonröhre, dann kann die schon altern, aber auch eher so 10 Jahre...
Es könnte aber sein, daß Apple nun billigere verwendet oder daß Staub etc
drin ist.

Translated to English:

If your screen is LED-based, then the brightness should remain the same, except after 20 years of age or more.
If your screen backlight is based on a neon tube, then the tube possibly ages, but also only after 10 years or so.
But it could be, that Apple:

1. Uses cheaper hardware now
2. Dust is covering the tube inside