Joel Up Front Posted April 1, 2013 Share #1 Posted April 1, 2013 I've had this laptop for about 5 months now and while I love it, for some reason, since about Christmas, my brightness is either at 100% or 0%, and the function keys won't change the brightness. Before someone regurgitates what I've been trying since December: 1) I turned off Adaptive Brightness 2) My Power Options all have the brightness at 100% 3) My drivers are up to date 4) W8 blows donkey **** and the BIOS doesn't show anything regarding the brightness Just before starting my laptop up a minute ago, my brightness DIMMED and now I can't get it back to 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacemak3r Posted April 1, 2013 Share #2 Posted April 1, 2013 My friend as a Lenovo and I think he had a similar problem, I'll give him a text to see if he had a solution to this. I'm sure all Lenovo's have similar commands as I don't think he has your specific model. *Edit* - Nevermind, he actually returned it afterwards and got something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realizm Posted April 2, 2013 Share #3 Posted April 2, 2013 I've had this laptop for about 5 months now and while I love it, for some reason, since about Christmas, my brightness is either at 100% or 0%, and the function keys won't change the brightness. 3) My drivers are up to date Bingo. Some of the models has common software end issues related to conflicts with Windows Updates and the Intel or Nvidia graphics driver updates included. It's because of the graphics chipset most of the different models uses, which may not be compatible with this crap that are in the latest Windows updates. Please don't tell me you are on Win 8..... Joel you might have to roll back that latest driver Intel graphics driver or Nvidia video driver update to fix it. This is a common problem. Try that -or- worst case scenario perform a system restore (I don't mean a fresh re-install back to factory default, a windows system restore) to a previous state to uninstall the Windows updates itself that conflicts with the graphics driver. Either or. Flip a coin and decide which way you want to go with this. You may have to then (if it works) configure the way you want Windows to install the updates so you can choose to not include graphics driver updates, to avoid the problem in the future. If that doesn't work, sad as it is then we know this is definitely a hardware end problem for sure. In this case the laptop has to be sent back to the manufacturer because either the backlight is going or LCD inverter on the screen itself is SHOT. Which means the Lenovo tech has to replace the entire screen. But that usually isn't the case so don't worry. You are still under manufacturer's warranty if you had it for only five months so if that's the case you will be fine they will fix it free of charge because they know they screwed up on the design of this laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted April 2, 2013 Share #4 Posted April 2, 2013 lol... Joel has the worst of luck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realizm Posted April 2, 2013 Share #5 Posted April 2, 2013 Joel, use these drivers from this link as well, uninstall the old ones and install these if you don't want to go on the other option posted: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?DocID=DS031585 Screenshot: That should fix it. Just make sure that once you do it, don't include the graphics drivers in the Windows updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Up Front Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share #6 Posted April 3, 2013 My P500 has an Intel HD graphics card, according to DXDiag. I caved and just reinstalled Windows. The stupid OneKey recovery software took two hours to back everything up, but when I try to recover my backup from my external drive, it claims it isn't valid. It had to have been a driver issue; when the reinstall finished and I had to make an account, I hit the brightness keys (F11 and F12) and they worked... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realizm Posted April 3, 2013 Share #7 Posted April 3, 2013 Mission accomplished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Up Front Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share #8 Posted April 3, 2013 I'm still trying to figure out why OneKey Recovery refuses to allow me to backup from the image I made using that exact software. I tried posting on the Lenovo forums and seeing if any Lenovo shills employees will help me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Up Front Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share #9 Posted April 4, 2013 Update: When I reinstalled W8, the brightness keys worked as they should. I restored the backup by moving the files to my C: drive which made the utility work but then I hit the F12 key, causing the screen to dim again. This can only mean that this is a driver issue and that my laptop is more than fine, other than this stupid thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realizm Posted April 4, 2013 Share #10 Posted April 4, 2013 Roll back those particular drivers and restart the OS then. That should fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Up Front Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share #11 Posted April 4, 2013 Actually, updating the drivers fixed everything. Why it took two attempts to work is beyond me. At least I know the backup software works if shit hits the fan and I have to reinstall everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realizm Posted April 4, 2013 Share #12 Posted April 4, 2013 Ok gotcha you grabbed the latest drivers off the site. Now the thing is the Windows updates.... it could conflict with the drivers which we can see was the apparent problem. You think that if you go into Windows Update in the CP and shut off automatic updating which is set by default, and configure it so you can select the updates to install will be a good preventive measure against further graphics driver problems? That's what I would do. And do the backup right away just in case. My two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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