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refrax · ‎04-05-2012

Hi guys,

I have a problem with my G74sx and adjusting the screen brightness. Here are the symptoms: I can press fn-f5 and fn-f6 to increase and decrease the brightness, and the little LCD BRIGHTNESS up/down animation happenes on the screen, the little pie graph spins around to show the current level of brightness and all, but the screen brightness does not change one bit. This is either on battery power or plugged into AC.

Also in Power4Gear, on all of the 4 available defualt options, the screen brightness slider is set to 0 and cannot be moved.

Here's what I have done to try to resolve: I have uninstalled, reinstalled, power4gear and the ATK apps. Done a clean nvidia 296.10 driver install.

This laptop is still running the factory install of windows et al from when I received it in January. I have not tried a full reinstall/factory restore, since it seems like a shotgun approach when there might be something simple I'm overlooking.

I've seen some similar threads, but just wanted to put in my particular experience, to see if anyone has ideas. I've tried most of the fixes listed in other threads, to no avail. Hopefully someone can assist here.

dstrakele · ‎04-05-2012

Is this a relatively new problem? If so, try using Windows System Restore to restore your system to a time before this issue occurred.

G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT

refrax · ‎04-05-2012

dstrakele wrote:
Is this a relatively new problem? If so, try using Windows System Restore to restore your system to a time before this issue occurred.

I honestly can't say when it started, I use my laptop as a desktop replacement 99% of the time, and only recently started hauling it around occasionally, so I never needed to lower the brightness of the screen. I tried to do so about 2 weeks ago to squeeze another 5 min out of my battery but the screen stayed 100% bright. I have not been able to find a setting inwindows that controls screen brightness, but the nvidia driver has an option to allow the driver to manage color settings, and I can adjust the brightness a bit in there, but I'm just wondering why the fn key suddenly would be doing the animation showing the brightness going down, but not actually changing the brightness. All the other Fkeys work as far as I can tell.

BrodyBoy · ‎04-05-2012

refrax wrote:
I have not been able to find a setting inwindows that controls screen brightness, but the nvidia driver has an option to allow the driver to manage color settings, and I can adjust the brightness a bit in there, but I'm just wondering why the fn key suddenly would be doing the animation showing the brightness going down, but not actually changing the brightness. All the other Fkeys work as far as I can tell.

Sounds suspiciously like one of those quirky P4G problems. (I'd completely uninstall that program and just use Windows power management tools.) Try hitting the Windows key + X ....that'll pull up Windows Mobility Center, where you should have the Windows brightness slider.

dstrakele · ‎04-05-2012

Have you updated the NVIDIA driver version from what was shipped with your system? If so, I would use a Restore Point before the video driver change.

The ATK Package drivers that control brightness from the function keys interface with the NVIDIA driver. I suspect that relationship is damaged.

G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT

zsld0423 · ‎04-05-2012

I had this exact issue with my G74, the problem is the newest ATK package, the .0015 version. It wouldn't let me change the brightness of my screen until I uninstalled it and rolled back to the .0014 driver

Sager NP9370
256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD + 750GB 7200RPM Secondary HDD
nVidia GeForce GTX 680M 4GB VRAM
Intel Core i7-3630QM 2.40GHz
16GB RAM
Mouse: MadCatz R.A.T. 7
Keyboard: Razer Lycosa Mirror
Additional Monitors: 24" 1080p Insignia LED/LCD TV and 21" Acer LCD Monitor
Windows 7 Ultimate

refrax · ‎04-05-2012

I have a new symptom to report now. 🙂 I can get the brightness of the screen to adjust using the shortcut keys now... sort of. If I press fn-f5 the animation pops up and shows the brightness being lowered, but of course it stays at 100% brightness. HOWEVER, if I unplug the ac cable after I've turned the brightness all the way down using the keyboard shortcut, THEN the screen dims to the proper brightness level. Plugging the power supply back in does not cause it to go back to full brightness, in face if no changes made using the fn-f5 or fn-f6 keys make any difference on screen, UNTIL I plug int he power cable. Then the brightness of the screen becomes whatever I have selected with the fn keys.

curiouser and curiouser. 🙂

EDIT: I tried to downgrade ATK to 0014 as zsld0423 suggested it worked for him. This did not change he behavior of my unit. Still only changes brightness if I unplug the ac cable after having lowered/raised the brightness using the fn key. System restore also has not worked, tried a couple restore points, but I'm not sure where it started, so kind of shooting in the dark. MIght just have to do that clean install after all 😕

BrodyBoy · ‎04-05-2012

refrax wrote:
curiouser and curiouser. 🙂

Not really.....

It continues to reinforce my suspicion that P4G is lurking behind the curtains in all this.

dstrakele · ‎04-05-2012

What happens if you uninstall Brody's suspect - Power4Gear? And REBOOT...

It certainly has the symptoms of a power management issue.

G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT

refrax · ‎04-06-2012

I uninstalled P4G and rebooted, same problem still. I see the animation, but no brightness changes on the monitor. I also tried Windows Mobility Center, and it doesn't have an option for brightness in there. Lots of other selectors, but no brightness.

ASUS G74SX cannot adjust screen brightness