Yet another PC question!
 

I've got a Compaq Presairo 2500 laptop. Its working fine except that when i run it on battery the display dims slightly. When i turn the mains back on it brightens up again. Cant find any sttings in windows or in the Bios which might have anyhting to do with it and HP help line was worse than useless!!

Anyone got any ideas??

It may be built in power saving settign, check your power settings you may be able change it there

I thought that was what it might be but i cant find anything in either windows or in the BIOS to change it!

On my Sony Vaio laptop there is an icon next to the time called power mangement and I have different power settings depending on if it is plugged in or not.

There is also a second function key (Fn) that I can hold down and press one of the f-keys as second function buttons to alter the brightness then with left & right arrow keys also does other things like volume etc, saves having to open thigs and change them:D

Of course this may only be on Sonys so no use to u:(

Cheers Lee, yes i can manually turn up the brightness by pressing Fn F1 and F2. Looks like that might be the only way round it...

yep, sony vaio has function keys, but you can also set the display brightness via the power management (battery management).
You'll probalby find that the screensaver operates at different times when on battery or mains as well.

Try right clicking the desktop to change the display settings in the same area as you can change the screensaver. Somtetimes has Power management as part of the advanced setup.

To see if power management is in the startup,run "msconfig" from the Start>Run shell.

My wife's Compaq Evo Laptop does the same thing if it's any consolation to you Paul.

Hmmm, not sure that it is really!

I haven't had or looked at a Compaq laptop for years but that sort of thing is definitely a power management software thing. You will find there are different profiles for different situations for the laptop - it'll be in there, just keep digging.

Actually, the management software might not be installed - hence you not finding it. It could be the only interface to those settings and if you don't have it installed ...

My IBM does it and I can adjust the power profiles however I want - spin down the hard drive after so many seconds of inactivity etc etc ...

Cheers Tony, yes i can do the hard drive thing and turn the display off after so many minutes on battery or mains etc but non of those profiles have the option to dim the display slightly! I'll keep hunting!