Vista Brightness problem

[Kernow]

I have just finished installing Vista Ultimate (64 bit) on my new Mac Pro, and the screen is really dark, and I can't seem to get it any brighter.

My graphics card is the Nvidia 8800gt, I am using an old 23" ACD through the ADC/DVI adaptor.

The screen was nice and bright all throughout the installation, but after I installed the boot camp drivers from the Apple install disc, the screen became really dim. If I open the Nvidia control panel and try and change the brightness from there, the screen stays dim, but just gets really washed out.

The weird thing is, it translates back onto the OS X side. When I restart after being in Vista, the display is still very dim - I have to go in the Displays system preferences and manually change the brightness back up from minimum. Conversely, when I boot into Vista having been in OS X, the screen is initially bright through all the login screens, but then switches back to being dark as soon as I have logged in.

There is probably a really simple solution to this, but as I am completely unfamiliar with Vista, I'm stuffed if I can work it out. Any advice is gratefully received.

 

[chscag]

I have just finished installing Vista Ultimate (64 bit) on my new Mac Pro, and the screen is really dark, and I can't seem to get it any brighter.

My graphics card is the Nvidia 8800gt, I am using an old 23" ACD through the ADC/DVI adaptor.

The screen was nice and bright all throughout the installation, but after I installed the boot camp drivers from the Apple install disc, the screen became really dim. If I open the Nvidia control panel and try and change the brightness from there, the screen stays dim, but just gets really washed out.

The weird thing is, it translates back onto the OS X side. When I restart after being in Vista, the display is still very dim - I have to go in the Displays system preferences and manually change the brightness back up from minimum. Conversely, when I boot into Vista having been in OS X, the screen is initially bright through all the login screens, but then switches back to being dark as soon as I have logged in.

There is probably a really simple solution to this, but as I am completely unfamiliar with Vista, I'm stuffed if I can work it out. Any advice is gratefully received.

Same problem I had with WinXP on my external monitor attached to my MacBook. Only worse, I couldn't even get the correct resolution to display. The solution was to go to the graphics card makers web site (in my situation - Intel) and download the latest drivers for your card. I installed the new drivers (from within XP) and all was well after a reboot. The drivers provided on the Leopard disk may not be the latest.

nVidia is usually real good about providing the latest drivers. Just be sure you download the newest Vista drivers for your card.

Let us know if that resolves it.

Regards.

 

[sash]

Here is the driver you need:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_169.25_whql.html

 

[Kernow]

Thanks for the suggestions, but unfortunately this does not seem to have fixed it.

What I'm finding confusing is that the darkness 'sticks' and is the same on the OS X side until I manually change it back.

Also, the screen is nice and bright on the log in page for Vista if I've set the brightness in OS X first - it is only when you actually do log in as a user that the screen dims. I wondered if this was user account related, so I created a new account, but the problem remained.

Vista is obviously capable of displaying the brightness, it just doesn't seem to want to

 

[folp02]

howdy -

did you ever find a solution to this? i just had it start happening to me as well. it's kinda irritating...

thanks,

mike

 

[RockAndRollBot]

This is most likely an issue with the display adapter software. The manufacturer usually likes to include some stuff that tweaks the settings and it causes issues. I have an HP laptop (sorry, not a Mac) and I run Vista x64. Sometimes at random when I dock, my external display will be dim, but the mouse cursor is still bright. I open the control panel of the display adapter and it comes back up like normal.

You might try tweaking the settings in there rather than just the windows settings, or uninstall the software, or finding a newer or older version. As well as reporting the problem to the vendor.