Laptop screen has started to dim

[Superstar]

I'm having a weird problem with my laptop. Out of no where yesterday, my laptop screen seemed to get like, dimmer. I didn't change any settings or anything like that, it just happened.

Is this possible? What are the causes and fixes of this?

[admin]

Generally speaking, laptop screens often go into a partial power save mode when unplugged from a wall outlet. Battery-only power is conserved as best as possible, and will dim about 25% to last as long as possible.

Was it plugged into the wall at the time?

On some keyboards, function keys will switch specific keys to dim/brighten the screen. I have a blue Fn button on my laptop, and F1-F12 have alternate modes, along with a few other keys. If you accidentally mash the right button combo, you'll brighten/dim the screen.

Did you maybe mash keys without knowing it?

[Superstar]

Yes, I always leave it plugged into the wall. Well, because of your advice with the keys, I just noticed that my F4 and F5 have pictures of sun (I think?) and a down arrow on F4, and an up arrow on F5, and that did control the dim. I moved it up all the way and it did make it brighter.

It is possible that I may of accidentally hit that. I do sometimes hit those F keys by accident. The F2 key will kick me offline if I hit it.

is that the only way to control the dim/brightening of the screen? It is noticeabley brighter, but I can't tell if it's the way it was before. I've been looking at this dimmed screen for a few days now, so I got used to that.

[admin]

Aside from the hardware controls, you can sometimes control the quality of the monitor (color, saturation, gamma, etc) from within the Windows display settings, under the control panel. Generally speaking, each hardware maker has a unique "advanced controls" type of area in there. nVidia and ATI each have custom areas, which are both branded and occupy multiple tabs in the advanced area. You'll have to look around and wing it some.

[JMP]

Windows can also control the dimming of a laptop monitor via Power Options in Control Panel. You will have to go to the advanced settings for the power plan you have selected. In Win7 you select a plan then to the right of that click "Change plan settings", then from the new window click "Change advanced power settings". A new window will pop up with a tree that has the different fold down branches. Look for the one having to deal with the dimming of the LCD/Monitor, and you should be able to adjust the dimness setting for the power plan. I wouldn't recommend changing any of the other settings however unless you know what you are doing with them.