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Snow Leopard changed the brightness range of MBP 13" ?

nicoplanet said:
There is no DisplayVendorID file for 9CC2 panel in Snow Leopard (both on iMac and MBP). That's probably the reason of the "no detection" on the display in 10.6...

If you want, you can check this here: /System -> Library -> Displays -> Overrides

I've loaded the version from THIS website, but it doesn't seem to fix the backlight level issue.

I think there is a trail to follow with "IOBackLightDisplay", but I have my limits in this exploration.
Hope someones with more skills can go ahead! :D
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Have you tried copying across the working DisplayVendorID file from Leopard over to Snow Leopard? You would need to repair permissions afterwards as the these files need to be root:wheel.
 
weckart said:
Have you tried copying across the working DisplayVendorID file from Leopard over to Snow Leopard? You would need to repair permissions afterwards as the these files need to be root:wheel.
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Yes, but this doesn't change the problem: in fac, it's probably located in AppleBacklight.kext kernel extension.

Maybe changing this file with the one from Leopard (10.5.8, very important !!!) will fix the problem. I currently don't have any more Leopard backup 10.5.8, so I can't try. i've tryed with a 10.5.7 backup, and it messed my backlight adjustment (that's why you need 10.5.8 !)...
I've reinstalled 10.6 from then. :rolleyes:

teerexx52 said:
Has anyone gone back to 10.5 from 10.6?
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I've tryed to boot on Leopard 10.5.8 partition many times, and it definitely correct this particular problem! :D
 
I posted about problems I had with upgrading to SL with a brand new MBP 13" in another thread, but after seeing this and seeing I have the same panel, I am wondering if it was the cause of my upgrade problems.

In short, the SL install began OK but very noisily and then restarted to continue installation (I am presuming) even though it said there was still 46 minutes left. It was trying to boot from the SL disc and the gray apple was there but after that the screen went black and the computer continued to make loud sounds from the DVD player. I am thinking now that something in the SL disc caused the display to go black but it was actually still installing. Apple had me turn off the machine after it had been like that and try booting to the disc again. Everytime I booted to it, the screen would go black and the disc would continue to make loud noise anyhow like it was trying to do something. So, I had to restore to Leopard, as when I turned on the computer I had a corrupted system folder. But even when I was installing Leopard the screen was very, very, very dark (barely visible). It finally worked and after I installed Leopard, the brightness came back to normal. I don't know why, but trying one more time to boot from Snow Leopard worked. It was a long noisy installation (much, much longer than Leopard), but it worked (except for lingering bizarre files on my HD).

Anyhow, now that I am in SL I can see exactly what you all are talking about. There is barely any gradient difference in brightness and then it just drops off to black out. I seriously wonder whether this was causing the screen to go black during installation and was the source of all my problems.

I am so frustrated with Apple. Their tech support was clueless, rude, and uninterested (and I normally sing their praises). They just sounded confounded when I described these problems.

So anyhow, I have the same issue as you all except I would say my screen is not too bright at the brightest level. I wish it would go up a few more notches. I compared it side by side with the UMB that I am replacing and they are both equally bright I would say. Also when I first booted into SL everything was very blue, I went to displays and saw under Color that there were two default profiles. I selected the second one called Color LCD and the color went back to the typical warm yellowish Apple hue I am used to. The other one was called just Display--but why were there two defaults?

I am kind of annoyed at all this, especially at the wear and tear I think I did by having to hold the power button down umpteen times yesterday and all the chainsaw sounds the optical drive was making, and I don't have a "clean" system still. I would rather do a full clean install of snow leopard, but I'm not gonna risk trying to boot to the disk again.

Edit: Since you all mentioned 10.5.8 being different than 10.5.7 in some way, I should point out I started with 10.5.7 on the machine and didn't update since I had the SL disc ready to go. Maybe going from 10.5.7 to SL made a difference?
 
swingerofbirch said:
So anyhow, I have the same issue as you all except I would say my screen is not too bright at the brightest level. I wish it would go up a few more notches. I compared it side by side with the UMB that I am replacing and they are both equally bright I would say.
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Yeah, I've noticed that both have approx same brightness... But panel quality (color, contrast, viewing angle) is WAY better in the new MBP 13" :cool:

swingerofbirch said:
Also when I first booted into SL everything was very blue, I went to displays and saw under Color that there were two default profiles. I selected the second one called Color LCD and the color went back to the typical warm yellowish Apple hue I am used to. The other one was called just Display--but why were there two defaults?
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The new "buggy" one is called "Default", and directly related to the missing file in the Overrides folder. It's the cause of the blueish profile. It seems you updated from Leopard, and didn't proceed to a clean install, that's probably why you still have the good one called "Color LCD".

By the way, maybe the upgrade procedure is the cause of all your problems. It's usually better to go with a clean install and a fresh start :rolleyes:

swingerofbirch said:
Edit: Since you all mentioned 10.5.8 being different than 10.5.7 in some way, I should point out I started with 10.5.7 on the machine and didn't update since I had the SL disc ready to go. Maybe going from 10.5.7 to SL made a difference?
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe... upgrading is not the best way to go in my opinion!

Also, these mid 2009 MBP comes with a special build of 10.5.7: it's more advanced than the standard one, and probably also includes information about the new 9CC2 panel.
 
nicoplanet said:
Yeah, I've noticed that both have approx same brightness... But panel quality (color, contrast, viewing angle) is WAY better in the new MBP 13" :cool:



The new "buggy" one is called "Default", and directly related to the missing file in the Overrides folder. It's the cause of the blueish profile. It seems you updated from Leopard, and didn't proceed to a clean install, that's probably why you still have the good one called "Color LCD".

By the way, maybe the upgrade procedure is the cause of all your problems. It's usually better to go with a clean install and a fresh start :rolleyes:



Maybe, maybe... upgrading is not the best way to go in my opinion!

Also, these mid 2009 MBP comes with a special build of 10.5.7: it's more advanced than the standard one, and probably also includes information about the new 9CC2 panel.
Click to expand...

Interesting....my blue tone default one is called Display..the better one is Color LCD but it still has the lack of brightness levels problem....at least I am glad to hear that you think the overall brightness on this is OK....I have been wretching, trying to decide whether to go through the pain of returning this after getting my files set up on it the way I like it or not. Although maybe I'll just back up and go ahead and buy a new Snow Leopard full install disc once they update to 10.6.1 and see if that helps. I did try doing a clean install with the UTD but that was one of the times it started up to black. By the time I got around to being able to install SL I figured maybe the only reason it even let me get to the installer was because I had 10.5.7 on there, so rather than risk it (after hours of this nonsense) and needing the computer, I just did the update. But I'm still not convinced there wasn't something wrong with this disc--it was so noisy.
 
I thought I would chime in with my experiences with Snow Leopard and the 9CC2 screen on my MBP 13". I also experienced the black screen when I upgraded to SL. It kind of freaked me out because it was black for close to an hour but eventually it finished upgrading and everything seemed okay. When I booted the display looked a little off. Not really a brightness issue but the colors just looked different to me even though I was using the same color profile I had before. I just downloaded a color profile that someone made for the 9CC2 screen in snow leopard and it looks great, I think even better than it did before. Brightness doesn't seem any different than it was in leopard so I don't think the problem others are having affects all users with the 9CC2 screen.
 
MrFrump said:
I thought I would chime in with my experiences with Snow Leopard and the 9CC2 screen on my MBP 13". I also experienced the black screen when I upgraded to SL. It kind of freaked me out because it was black for close to an hour but eventually it finished upgrading and everything seemed okay. When I booted the display looked a little off. Not really a brightness issue but the colors just looked different to me even though I was using the same color profile I had before. I just downloaded a color profile that someone made for the 9CC2 screen in snow leopard and it looks great, I think even better than it did before. Brightness doesn't seem any different than it was in leopard so I don't think the problem others are having affects all users with the 9CC2 screen.
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I thought that my 9cc2 screen was just a bit to dark in Leopard. Darker than my uMBP 15". I definitely like the increase in brightness. However I am unable to get the screen as dark as I would like it under low light conditions. The screen on one click is significantly brighter than it was before. I also believe I have taken a bit of a battery hit as well although that is not a deal breaker for me as I rarely take this MBP anywhere So what I would like is to keep the increase in brightness but have more control over that brightness. I am wondering when and if Apple will address this as it seems to only effect the 9cc2 screen.
 
MrFrump said:
I thought I would chime in with my experiences with Snow Leopard and the 9CC2 screen on my MBP 13". I also experienced the black screen when I upgraded to SL. It kind of freaked me out because it was black for close to an hour but eventually it finished upgrading and everything seemed okay. When I booted the display looked a little off. Not really a brightness issue but the colors just looked different to me even though I was using the same color profile I had before. I just downloaded a color profile that someone made for the 9CC2 screen in snow leopard and it looks great, I think even better than it did before. Brightness doesn't seem any different than it was in leopard so I don't think the problem others are having affects all users with the 9CC2 screen.
Click to expand...

OH wow. So I was right! It still was trying to upgrade.....and the stupid Apple reps had me turn off the machine..that guy I talked to was so rude to me. I am pretty upset with Apple. This was supposed to be a "painless" upgrade. I think I am going to call customer service tomorrow.
 
I was at an Apple Store this weekend and tried out every 13" in the place and they all seemed to have a much larger range of adjustment than mine.

I did, however, check the iMac and ACD and the range on those was even LESS than my MBP... has the brightness range on the desktops always been limited?

The interesting thing to me is that my battery life does not seem to be affected at all. I just watched a two hour movie and I have 47% left with just over 3 hours.
 
macboy4 said:
I was at an Apple Store this weekend and tried out every 13" in the place and they all seemed to have a much larger range of adjustment than mine.

I did, however, check the iMac and ACD and the range on those was even LESS than my MBP... has the brightness range on the desktops always been limited?

The interesting thing to me is that my battery life does not seem to be affected at all. I just watched a two hour movie and I have 47% left with just over 3 hours.
Click to expand...

I am more or less coming to that conclusion as well. I thought my battery life was less but as I use the computer more it seems to be very close to what it was in 10.5 if not the same
 
When I first installed Snow Leopard, I noticed this same issue, also with the 9CC2 screen. I made a thread on the Apple boards, too, which is here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2140616&tstart=0

It sucks because I can't really use it in the dark in my room without my eyes starting to hurt. I emailed apple using their feedback form, as did another member there (who made this thread here), but no reply yet.

The 10.6.1 update didn't fix it, either. Someone there offered Shades as a solution but that doesn't fix the problem because it just puts a color filter over the screen.
 
besides the brightness issue, how do you rate the 9cc2 display? how does it compare to the other mbp displays?
 
I had this issue, luckily I recently exchanged my new MBP 13" (dead pixel) for another one and ended up with the 9C9E screen which is unaffected by this. Doesn't help anyone else though.:eek:
 
vitavo said:
I had this issue, luckily I recently exchanged my new MBP 13" (dead pixel) for another one and ended up with the 9C9E screen which is unaffected by this. Doesn't help anyone else though.:eek:
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I'm wondering if anyone exchanged their 9cc2 macbook pro for a new one due to this issue? I haven't been to the Genius bar with this problem but thinking about it. Trying to figure what they might do?
 
bump

So, does anybody have any new ideas short of exchanging the computer? This is annoying!!!! Is apple just denying this problem or what? SL has been out for a month, come on!
 
macboy4 said:
I did, however, check the iMac and ACD and the range on those was even LESS than my MBP... has the brightness range on the desktops always been limited?
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Was it a 20" ACD? When I switched from my 24" iMac to a Macbook Pro, I noticed that the Macbook Pro has a much larger range of brightness. I've always assumed that this was related to the LED backlighting, vs. the compact florescent backlighting on the iMac. 30" ACD's are still CCFL backlit, I believe, as are iMacs.

I would expect the 24" LED ACD to have a more dynamic range, similar to the MBP, but I'm not entirely sure.
 
teerexx52 said:
Seems that the only thing to do is go back to 10.5.8 or try to exchange it
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Just tried today, and failed. Went to the Memorial City Apple store (in Houston) and they were rude and refused to fix the display. I didn't want a whole new computer or anything, just for the screen to be fixed. Man, do I hate those smart ass "geniuses".

The people I talked to on phone support line were equally rude. When I told him that it hurt my eyes to use the computer in a dark room the jerk told me that it was my fault and that I "shouldn't be trying to use a computer in a dark room". This is very frustrating. No one will even acknowledge the problem, much less fix the computer:mad:
 
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