Darkened laptop screen

prisonermonkeys

prisonermonkeys

Be Fearless
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Hammerhead Garage
Urgh, I hate this. I'm having problems with my laptop again. I fired my computer up this morning - just like I do every day - and when I launched Firefox, my screen dimmed to the level it would be if I was in power-conservation mode. I checked everything and the settings were all normal, so I restarted. And the screen dimmed again, this time as soon as the start-up procedure finished (about the same time as it happened in the first instance, only I didn't go straight to Firefox). Anyboy got any ideas on what is happening? I hope one of the bulbs in the screen hasn't blown, because it's probably going to be an expensive repair job.
 
I never recommend a laptop repair to anyone unless their particular laptop is valued over $1000 and even still those people have 3 year warranties usually. Two things that could make this occur are power fluctuations from the power adapter (better of the two) or backlight for monitor going out.

Go to a local best buy and see if their universal power charger will keep the device lit up another thing to check as well is the power saving options in the Operating System your using, its possible it is set to low.
 
I don't have a Best Buy. I live on the opposite side of the world. I do, however, have a brother who has a second screen attached to his laptop. Maybe I can rig something like that up.
 
Are you using a PC? I think I know your problem :sly:

In all seriousness though, this is almost definitely a software issue. I would back up your data, reinstall the OS and then put the data back on. Will take maybe an hour or more depending on how much stuff you have and if you need to reset settings in some programs, but it could save you a few hundred dollars on repairs or a second display.
 
Easier than that, create another user and log on as that user, to get a default profile. That will probably show you if it's a setting in your profile rather than a hardware issue.
 
wfooshee
Easier than that, create another user and log on as that user, to get a default profile. That will probably show you if it's a setting in your profile rather than a hardware issue.
Click to expand...

This is true if it is a bad setting, but it could still be a software problem even if he didn't change any settings. Computers are weird.
 
What kind of laptop is it? I know sometimes with my Lenovo Thinkpad my screen darkens, I have to press fn+ the home key several times and that fixes the problem.
 
Dracwolley
This is true if it is a bad setting, but it could still be a software problem even if he didn't change any settings. Computers are weird.
Click to expand...

Rather than just booting into another user, you can try booting into Safe Mode (or any of the other Safe Mode derivatives). That will only load the essential drivers and you can see if the screen still darkens.

Otherwise, try updating the graphics drivers, that might help.
 
Could be the backlight going.
Same thing happened to my mum's laptop. You could barely see the screen, but if you shone a light at it you could see most things.
We ended up just hooking a PC monitor to it until she could get a new laptop or get it fixed.
👍
 

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