Sudden Dim Screen on W700

[Geophyte1]

I usually use a screen other than the W700 screen for viewing but I noticed last week while booting up that the W700 screen seemed to be unusually dim. That screen/monitor is usually closed so it should not have a lot of hours on it. I can brighten it up using the Fn Brighten buttons but I noticed that on the NVDIA Control Panel the external screen is set up to use the NVDIA control panel settings as I set it up but the NVDIA choice for the W700 screen is greyed out so when I brighten the W700 screen using the Fn buttons it has no effect on the external screen. I did change the setting on the external monitor from the NVDIA controls to the "Other" choice that the W700 is using - also greyed out when the W700 monitor is chosen - and the external monitor is a lot brighter than the W700 monitor. It appears that I can no longer really sync them up to use the NVDIA montior controls but also that the W700 has lost a lot of brightness when using the native controls.
I'm using Windows 7 64 bit. The W700 screen is a ThinkPad MaxBright 1920X1200 with the small pull out screen extension which I never use.
When I right click the desktop and go to screen resolution it shows they are set up as 1|2 Multiple monitors and as duplicates. On this screen if I choose Advanced Settings and choose the W700 monitor and then the troubleshoot button the change settings button on that screen is greyed out. Not sure if that is meaningful but it doesn't look right to me because the Troubleshoot box says to click that button if your current display driver allows you to change settings in order to troubleshoot problems with your display and I can't.
So it appears to me the crux of the problem is twofold. The fact that I cannot tie these two 1920X1200 monitors together anymore through the NVDIA controls because I can't get the W700 montior to use the NVDIA control panel and the W700 has lost a good bit of brightness. I do believe this happened fairly suddenly and was not gradual.

Any ideas as to what might have caused this and how to go about doing more troubleshooting or how to repair the problem. I can see backlighting might be a normal response but what about the loss of control? Thanks.

[Geophyte1]

Could this possibly have anything to do with power settings especially screen dimming? any one have any experience with that?