New Win7 install... how do I get my Fn keys to work?

[Muse]

This is my T60, I was running XP on a 60GB HD since 2006. Over the weekend I installed 180GB SSD and Windows 7 32 bit. I did the TVSU thing, but there's evidently a lot of stuff it doesn't do. For instance, I don't have any Fn key support right now AFAIK, can't dim the display using Fn + Home, etc. What do I need to do to get that? What other stuff can I download and install? This machine came with lots of stuff preinstalled, right now it's awfully basic. TIA for suggestions/info.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

From my head: you need the Hotkey Utility and perhaps also the Onscreen Display Utility.

EDIT:
Should be this page:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS014985

Apparently they removed the word "Utility", and the Onscreen Display Utility is now integrated in that one package.

Funny thing: Windows XP on my T61 gives an installation date of September 27, 2008; that's when I dumped the super slow 120GB 5400 rpm drive that it came with and installed the fastest notebook HDD of that time ( ): the 2-platter, 4-head Western Digital WD3200BEKT

[Muse]

Well, I installed it. The Hotkeys Utility is installed, however for the life of me I can't find it. It's not under Lenovo in the Programs, it's not by itself, I see no icons. Control Panel can't find it. I still have AFAIK no way to change the brightness of the external monitor (connected by HDMI, the T60 is in a mini-dock), other than to maybe dig into some properties. How the devil do I access it?

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Brightness of external monitors is never controlled by the Thinkpad hotkeys...

[Muse]

Doh! What was I thinking? Well, I have the hotkeys utility installed. Isn't it configurable? Is there a way to access options for it? On my T61 I reset at least one of the options, I can hit Fn+F3 to turn off the display instead of bringing up the power management utility IIRC.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Yes, there is a setting for that in the power manager. Or even when you hit Fn+F3. It shows the list with power plans and below that there should be an option to "change behavior of Fn+F3", or something similar.

[Muse]

Yes, there is a setting for that in the power manager. Or even when you hit Fn+F3. It shows the list with power plans and below that there should be an option to "change behavior of Fn+F3", or something similar.

Well, I didn't see a way in Power Manager to change the behavior of Fn+F3, but there's a checkbox to enable dimming the monitor with Shift+Esc, which is nearly the same, so I did that! It really makes a difference with the monitor I'm using with the laptop (an Acer 23") because it takes 15 seconds from the time you hit the power button on the monitor until it displays the screen. I've just been living with that inconvenience, but dimming is the way to go.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Unless they changed the way the backlight is controlled... that actually won't save any energy. Dimming the display on a Thinkpad means dimming the backlight, saving energy in the process. On an external monitor you would have the decrease the brightness in the menu of the monitor. If you just dim the brightness in the video settings, you won't save any energy.

I do sometimes use that on my desktop though, since my Dell 3007WFP-HC uses CCFL's that have, like all CCFL's, a rather small range between minimum and maximum. And unfortunately, the maximum is very high (to my taste), so even minimum brightness is often too bright. It would be one of the reasons to buy a U3014... next to the displayport input.

[Muse]

Unless they changed the way the backlight is controlled... that actually won't save any energy. Dimming the display on a Thinkpad means dimming the backlight, saving energy in the process. On an external monitor you would have the decrease the brightness in the menu of the monitor. If you just dim the brightness in the video settings, you won't save any energy.

I do sometimes use that on my desktop though, since my Dell 3007WFP-HC uses CCFL's that have, like all CCFL's, a rather small range between minimum and maximum. And unfortunately, the maximum is very high (to my taste), so even minimum brightness is often too bright. It would be one of the reasons to buy a U3014... next to the displayport input.

Over 10 years ago I bought a NEC FP2141SB monitor, CRT, pretty nice monitor. There was a free download for it that I continue to use sometimes with some of my displays: http://download.cnet.com/NEC-Brightness ... 36768.html

You may find it useful. I'd think it would definitely be something to check out if your maximum dimness isn't dim enough for you. This utility should let you diminish that.

Now, today I'm looking for something that will disable this T60 with Win7 from waking when I nudge the mouse. I know I'll find it, but in the mean time I've been checking out some other things. Turns out that Shift+Esc was no longer dimming the 23" external HDMI connected display (through mini-dock). I tried that to test the power draw when dimmed ("turned off" is, I think, what they said) with Shift+Esc, a setting I enabled from the Power Manager brought up with Fn+F3. My Kill-a-Watt reports the display uses 15-16 watts, but zero when turned off with Shift+Esc, so I'm good with that. The display wakens with a mouse nudge in under 3 seconds, sure beats the 15 seconds from when I turn off the display with it's power button (darned Acer). Other than that the display is mostly pretty great, I think. Got to figure out a way to make the Shift+Esc behavior persist. Or, get Fn+F3 to do the same thing, I think that's probably there somewhere.

I miss the integrated Lenovo Thinkvantage control center that I had on this T60 with the preinstall. A clean install of Windows 7 and I don't have that. Maybe something like that is downloadable from Lenovo, but I haven't found it yet.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

So it just kills the signal and sends the monitor in standby.

Software controls for monitor brightness either fiddle with your video output settings or they must have a (USB) interface with your monitor to do it the proper way. No way I'm gonna install a software tools that messes with my brightness settings. Actually, it doesn't solve or add anything either. The problem with CCFL monitors and minimum brightness is a hardware problem that can't be solved by software. That's why that Dell U3014 looks so tempting: it's minium brightness is less than half of the 3007WFP-HC minimum.

[Muse]

I prefer my large monitors to run relatively dim as well, in fact generally at the minimum and sometimes I wish they were dimmer, it's true. My ambient lighting tends to be not very bright, that's a big part of it. In fact on the 23" Acer monitor I'm looking at right now the brightness is set to zero, the contrast around 70%. It's arguably too bright.