Adjust brightness Apple Cinema HD display

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi everyone.

I have a MacPro 3,1 running El Capitan with all updates. My old monitor died last week, and I fished out my old Apple Cinema HD display 23 inch. This is one of the models from circa 2002, clear perspex case with ADC connector. I own an Apple DVI to ADC adapter, so I can connect the monitor and it works perfectly, except for 1 problem - I can't adjust the brightness.The USB cable of the display is plugged in to the computer, and I have zapped PRAM, but no dice. I can't see any way to adjust the brightness. Neither the power button on the right on the display, nor the display preferences shortcut button on the left, work. You press them and they do nothing. Also, the keyboard I use is from about the same era (early 2000's), and the F1 and F2 keys, which I believe adjust brightness, also don't work. So I have a nice display with non-adjustable brightness.

If anyone has any idea how to get adjustable brightness, I would be most appreciative.

Thanking you in advance.

 

[barbu]

There may be a brightness slider in the display preference pane. Have a look.

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi. Thanks for that reply. No, there is no slider in the display preferences panel. I borrowed a newer Apple Aluminium case display from a friend, but have now returned it. I am now back to the problem in my original post.

Thanks and apologies for my late reply. It's been a crazy few months

 

[barbu]

that sucks. Maybe beg/borrow/steal a ADC G4 to plug into and change the setting ?

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi barbu. Thanks for that. After a little digging around, I found the following Apple Tech support article :

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlp2704/mac.

At the bottom it says as follows :

You cannot adjust the brightness of some older Apple displays. In OS X 10.10 and later, the Brightness slider may no longer appear in the Display pane of Displays preferences.

So it's not my imagination or incompetence, just more arbitrary stupidity from Apple. I do have some older computers, but my issue is not about sticking to one setting, it's more about being able to change the brightness on the fly, like a normal person with a normal display.

My computer is set up in a room with a fair amount of natural light. I can work without artificial lighting for large portions of the day. As you could appreciate, natural light varies day to day and throughout each day, and this affects the visibility of the display, so having the ability to adjust brightness would be ideal. Having no adjustable brightness does not make the display unusable, but there are many times when such a bog standard, ordinary feature would be useful. I don't have options for setting up anywhere else. Since my last post, I have installed a brightness slider app, which sort of helps, but it doesn't really adjust the brightness in the proper sense. it really just applies a filter, similar to the app Shades.

I just have to suck it up I guess.

 

[barbu]

Good find, but that is pretty annoying! I wonder if anyone ever wrote a little utility to solve that.

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi again barbu. Yes, I'm not sure if anyone solved it. There would be no need to if Apple spent a pittance fixing it.

Oh well. Thanks again.

 

[barbu]

Hi again barbu. Yes, I'm not sure if anyone solved it. There would be no need to if Apple spent a pittance fixing it.

Oh well. Thanks again.

I found this:

1. Connect the monitor to an old Mac running an OSX which can manage the brightness (10.4 in my case).
2. Put the brightness at the max level.
3. Turn off and connect the monitor to the actual computer.
4. Download Screenshade and you'll manage to control the brightness.

On this page, which also talks about a brightness control utility for Mavericks.

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi barbu. Thanks for your continued interest in this issue. Yes, that's pretty much my setup now. The actual display brightness is set to maximum, and I have a small app called Brightness Slider that does exactly the same as Screenshade. As I mentioned earlier, this does not adjust the real brightness of the display - it simply puts a grey or black filter over the display. This is ok as a workaround, but it does affect things like screenshots, and the pointer and dialog boxes are still at maximum brightness. It will have to do I guess.

Thanks.