Thinkpads Forum

It's simple - the T61 doing something I don't want it to. It is regulating the screen brightness somehow, so that I cannot use the full brightness capability when using battery power. I'm sure this is done intentionally to cut down on complaints about battery life, but frankly I don't care.

When I have it on battery power, I can max-out the screen-brightness meter and this appears to max out the screen brightness, but when I plug the computer back in to the wall socket, the screen gets brighter and the on-screen brightness-meter still says it is maxed out. I can then unplug the computer and the display dims, but the meter still is pegged at the max setting.

I have searched through every menu I can think of (windows menus, the thinkvantage software, the nvidia graphics controller program, etc) and I haven't been able to find something to change this (ie: a check-box enabling decreased screen brightness on battery power, etc). It seems to be something I cannot regulate.
Does anyone have this problem? Does anyone know how to solve it?

Thank you all

Go to BIOS and set it to high:

Config > Display > Brightness (High / Normal).

You may note that this option will shorten the battery life.

guess you didn't search well cuz it's been covered a few times

Since it's been answered already i wont say much other than you can change that behavior in Windows also with the Power Manager software. It probably will still require a reboot but yeah.

It's funny tho because i can't see ever wanting my screen to be that bright all the time. I tend to turn mine down 3/4 of the way.

sadly, I searched for about 4 full pages back using the term "brightness" - but didn't come up with anything. I already messed with all of the power management stuff, I know it's not that. I'll go mess with the BIOS next. I just like to run it full-blast sometimes. Thanks for the help!

Start/Programs/ThinkVantage/ThinkPad Configuration/Display/LCD/General/Brightness when running on Battery:HIGH

Paul Pavlik wrote:Start/Programs/ThinkVantage/ThinkPad Configuration/Display/LCD/General/Brightness when running on Battery:HIGH

ThinkPad Configuration has not been released for Windows Vista.

The screen brightness should be able to be controlled by the power options in control panel. To adjust this to your preference for battery and AC operation go to: Control Panel / Hardware & Sound / Power Options / Change Plan Settings (for your selected power plan). Once there, you will see two sliders for brightness level, one for battery power and one for AC power. Adjust to your preference and your problem should be resolved.