x301 - Power Manager: Dynamic Brightness Control

[techflavor]

I have a x301 with a fresh install of Windows XP SP3 after using Vista for quite sometime. I installed all the latest versions of the drivers and ThinkVantage applications.

When I installed the latest version of Power Manager, I noticed there were some new settings under Global options that allowed the screen brightness to be lowered based on certain actions (Dynamic Brightness Control). I saw that it was checked for lowering the screen brightness on Shutdown / Startup so I left it checked to check out the new feature.

When the computer rebooted, the x301's screen was completely bright through entire POST but when Windows started loading, the screen brightness was immediately lowered (and by lowered, I mean ALL the way down). I logged into Windows even with the screen dark and Windows completely loaded but the screen brightness was never increased.

I also attempted to raise the screen brightness by using FN + Home but the onscreen display showed the screen brightness was at the max.

After doing many things including unchecking the settings, uninstalling Power Manager, reinstalling Power Manager, etc. I still have not been able to get the computer to act as it did before the Power Manager update.

To make things even more complicated, I booted from a Windows XP disk to see if the screen brightness would stay up the entire time but it did not--the screen went dark when the Welcome screen loaded. I also tried a Linux boot disk and the screen also went dark during loading.

I'm sure I'm going to be forced into sending it in for Warranty repair or something (I have next business day ThinkPlus) but was curious if anyone experienced similar problems with the new Power Manager Dynamic Brightness Control features..

[LenovoGringo]

I've use the dynamic brightness control as you have before.... Except that I used it on a X200 tablet and that it worked as it was supposed to.... IMHO, it's a pretty useless feature. I disabled mine and everything went back to normal. I don't know what is wrong with your setup.

Have you tried reinstalling the latest graphic drivers?

EDIT: It seems that this is a greater problem among XP users.