Screen Dim but Pointer Bright

i have been running vista home premium 32 bit on my dell inspiron fro
day one (spring 2007) with no problems other than the general vist
gripes

3 days ago, i reformatted, putting everything back the way it was
installing all the most recent updates, and generally fooling with m
settings

now, the problem: yesterday i restarted and noticed after the deskto
was up, suddenly the screen dimmed. the settings for brightness are al
set to full, and the laptop is plugged in. the mouse pointer is a
normal brightness, but the whole screen is otherwise the dimness on
would expect on a setting for battery usage. i am unable to manuall
make the screen brighter and the settings show i should be on maximu
brightness

if anyone has advice, please share! this can't be a hardware problem
since the pointer is at normal brightness

there are old threads on this subject w/ no real resolution..

thank you

vistaforno

--
vistafornow

Did you reinstall all of the latest Dell drivers and utilities for your
laptop?

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience



"vistafornow" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> i have been running vista home premium 32 bit on my dell inspiron from
> day one (spring 2007) with no problems other than the general vista
> gripes.
>
> 3 days ago, i reformatted, putting everything back the way it was,
> installing all the most recent updates, and generally fooling with my
> settings.
>
> now, the problem: yesterday i restarted and noticed after the desktop
> was up, suddenly the screen dimmed. the settings for brightness are all
> set to full, and the laptop is plugged in. the mouse pointer is at
> normal brightness, but the whole screen is otherwise the dimness one
> would expect on a setting for battery usage. i am unable to manually
> make the screen brighter and the settings show i should be on maximum
> brightness.
>
> if anyone has advice, please share! this can't be a hardware problem,
> since the pointer is at normal brightness.
>
> there are old threads on this subject w/ no real resolution...
>
> thank you,
>
> vistafornow
>
>
> --
> vistafornow

grrr..... i had just installed all updated drivers and run updates when
i reformatted on sunday, but it did work to uninstall and reinstall my
ATI video driver from Dell. so now the problem is fixed.

is it too much to ask how this could happen?

thanks richard!

vistafornow


--
vistafornow

I had done the same thing on my Inspiron, and did a complete install of the
video drivers/updates and it fixed it.

My guess is that the sequence of installing the drivers is important
(crucial). The installations look at the version and/or timestamps.

"vistafornow" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> grrr..... i had just installed all updated drivers and run updates when
> i reformatted on sunday, but it did work to uninstall and reinstall my
> ATI video driver from Dell. so now the problem is fixed.
>
> is it too much to ask how this could happen?
>
> thanks richard!
>
> vistafornow
>
>
> --
> vistafornow