Thinkpads Forum

Is there a reason why the screen drops in brightness when I take out my AC adapter?

Yes. I found out that the only way i get max brightness is to modify the BIOS setting to max power even w/o AC plugged in (sory, I do not recall exactly the place in the BIOS, but t was straight forward - right at boot use F11). the windows' power scheme cannot help.

The screen dims on battery power to maximize the time the machine will run on battery. If you have the Power Manager, part of the ThinkVantage suite of tools, still installed, then the settings can be changed in there. To access Power Manager, either double click the green battery indicator in the system taskbar, or go to Start --> All Programs --> ThinkVantage --> Power Manager.

From there, under the Power Plan tab, click edit (it doesn't matter what plan is currently set, just edit it). On the first page, change the display brightness setting under the Battery settings column to whatever level you wish for battery power. Finish configuring the settings, and you should be all set. Just be sure to check how much time running you have under the new settings, because if your screen is set too bright on battery you may be significantly decreasing the running time.

My experience has been that Power Manager will not resolve this issue, no matter what settings you select. This can be reoslved in the BIOS.

Yup, BIOS is the only way to solve this.

Thanks for your help guys!

Not entirely true...

This setting (and others) can be changed from within Windows by using ThinkPad Configuration.

Neil

please enlighten (no pun intended) me on how I can make my screen as bright as it is when I have it plugged in...I cant see the screen well even when on full brightness under power setup.
If I go the bios route, does that mean I cant get any of the other energy star power plan power savings?
If i dont need to go through the bios route as the last poster suggests, how can I amp up this screen?thanks
dave

also, does anyone know how much faster this will kill my battery if I am successful in getting the screen as bright as when ac is plugged in?
dave

I have not found a way to accomplish this other than the simple BIOS setting.

You should be able to apply power schemes.

It does use more battery, obviously, but I have not tested that aspect quantitatively. I really wanted the backlight on at all times at all cost...

I just found out how to set the screen to full brightness even when on battery power:

1. Open ThinkPad Configuration from the Control Panel.

2. Select "LCD" from the Display menu.

3. Change the setting "Brightness when running on batteries" from "Normal" to "High", and click OK or Apply.

That's it. This seems to add about 2-3W to the power consumption of my X60S.