Weird LCD brightness problem on IBM Thinkpad X31

I wonder if somebody can give me any hint on a problem I'm having with
my IBM Thinkpad X31:

One day I just can't adjust LCD brightness anymore (Fn + Home/Fn + End
buttons). It looks looks it's 'stuck' on the lowest brightness
settings all the time no matter what I try. Picture is still clearly
readable, just not bright and I can't adjust brightness.

It's not an inverter or LCD problem.

I tried to replace inverter with new one - didn't work. Same problem
I tried to replace whole LCD screen assembly - from the identical
laptop - didn't work. Can't adjust brightness of the 'new' screen on
the 'old' laptop but on the same time 'old' screen works fine on 'new'
laptop - brightness and everything.

So it looks like it's not a problem with a LCD screen at all, but
something else. I'm puzzled - what can it be???

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

MaximDim wrote:
> I wonder if somebody can give me any hint on a problem I'm having with
> my IBM Thinkpad X31:
>
> One day I just can't adjust LCD brightness anymore (Fn + Home/Fn + End
> buttons). It looks looks it's 'stuck' on the lowest brightness
> settings all the time no matter what I try. Picture is still clearly
> readable, just not bright and I can't adjust brightness.
>
> It's not an inverter or LCD problem.
>
> I tried to replace inverter with new one - didn't work. Same problem
> I tried to replace whole LCD screen assembly - from the identical
> laptop - didn't work. Can't adjust brightness of the 'new' screen on
> the 'old' laptop but on the same time 'old' screen works fine on 'new'
> laptop - brightness and everything.
>
> So it looks like it's not a problem with a LCD screen at all, but
> something else. I'm puzzled - what can it be???
>
> Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
>

Since this arrived unexpectedly with no system changes, I would run
chkdsk /r from a command prompt to map out bad HD sectors and correct
errors in the file system. You will be notified that the C: disk cannot
be locked, do you want to run on the next boot, select Y, then reboot.

Q

Thanks for suggestion. I did that and though there were couple of bad
blocks indeed it didn't fox the problem.

I don't know if it's just a coincidence or not but that problem
appeared shortly after I started using external monitor with my
laptop.

On Apr 16, 8:10 pm, Quaoar <qua...@marcabfleet.com> wrote:

> Since this arrived unexpectedly with no system changes, I would run
> chkdsk /r from a command prompt to map out bad HD sectors and correct
> errors in the file system. You will be notified that the C: disk cannot
> be locked, do you want to run on the next boot, select Y, then reboot.
>
> Q

MaximDim wrote:
> Thanks for suggestion. I did that and though there were couple of bad
> blocks indeed it didn't fox the problem.
>
> I don't know if it's just a coincidence or not but that problem
> appeared shortly after I started using external monitor with my
> laptop.
>
> On Apr 16, 8:10 pm, Quaoar <qua...@marcabfleet.com> wrote:
>
>> Since this arrived unexpectedly with no system changes, I would run
>> chkdsk /r from a command prompt to map out bad HD sectors and correct
>> errors in the file system. You will be notified that the C: disk cannot
>> be locked, do you want to run on the next boot, select Y, then reboot.
>>
>> Q
>
>

A shot in the dark, but when you select display properties (right click
on desktop, select properties, settings tab) does display 1 show as your
notebook display or the external monitor?

Q

On 16 Apr 2007 19:08:54 -0700, MaximDim <maximdim@gmail.com> wrote:

>Thanks for suggestion. I did that and though there were couple of bad
>blocks indeed it didn't fox the problem.
>
>I don't know if it's just a coincidence or not but that problem
>appeared shortly after I started using external monitor with my
>laptop.

You should check the display properties in the Control Panel.
I recall from my first laptop, when I often used an external monitor,
that when I pressed the required key combination to switch from
internal to external monitor, there was an intermediary setting for
having both monitors on, which made the built in screen be
considerably darker, but still on.

Or just play around with whatever key combinations you have to toggle
between internal and external. It may have gotten stuck in a mode that
is neither this nor that.


Lars
Stockholm