This has been troubling me for a while now, and it just occurred to me that someone here might have advice.
I have a 19" Gateway monitor (I’m not at home right now, so I’m unsure of the model number, if it matters), the kind that has a control wheel for brightness, sizing, etc. behind a little drop-down door.
I have the brightness turned all of the way up, but my monitor is still too dark. Is there anything that I can do to reset this, so that I have a greater brightness range?
How old is it? Is it still under warranty. Getting it fixed under warranty is the best approach.
Note: Double check the contrast setting, sometimes having the contrast set way off causes people to set the brightness wrong.
Temporarily fixing it is probably a trivial matter for a qualified tech. I do this all the time. But I also know which parts inside can kill me. (I am not kidding. Some parts have kilovolts coming out of them. You don’t even have to touch them to get shocked.) So this is definitely something you must not try to do yourself. Again it is only a temporary fix. In a few months it would have to be done again, etc. until whatever aging part that is causing it goes completely bad. Then it is a much more costly repair. (Maybe a 10 cent part, but the tech’s time is costly.)
Ask around your geekier friends to see if one of them has a lot experience doing this and is willing to do it for little $. Again, this is not for amateurs to try.
I’m not sure if it’s still under warranty, I’d have to check…I think that at the time I bought it, Gateway was including a 3 year warranty, but I don’t recall the details (I’ve had the system for about 2.5 years). This is the way the monitor’s always been, though…not something that’s developed recently. I thought that there might be a way to tweak the settings to reset the allotted brightness range.
I’ve tried adjusting the contrast too, btw. That doesn’t help either.
Could it be a driver problem, or is it most likely the physical unit itself?
If you have a wheel to adject your contrast, then chances are the monitor is an older model. Nearly all new monitors built these days have digital on-screen oncrolls for those type of adjustments.
If you have a wheel to adjucts your contrast, then chances are the monitor is an older model. Nearly all new monitors built these days have digital on-screen controlls for those type of adjustments.
I apologize for not being clear…you have to push the wheel once to bring up the on-screen display, then rotate the wheel to pick which of the various controls you want to adjust (horizontal sizing, vertical sizing, brightness, contrast, etc.), push again to enter the menu to adjust that specific control, etc. As I said, the monitor is about 2.5 years old.
i have a gateway of about the same age and configuration at work…it is also kinda dark. I shift the gamma on video settings to look at some graphics files that are otherwise too dark to view.
Check out the display settings within Control panel. Many video drivers provide a screen that allows one to vary parameters such as contrast, brightness, gamma and RGB levels. Changing the gamma may weel be the answer to your problem.
I recently used this method when I changed monitors.
Look at the back of the monitor, there is a manf date, what is it? Plus the model.
I don’t suggest you do so, but there is a brightness adjustment on the back of all monitors that I have looked at (not lcds), some out in the open, some behind a little door & others you have to take the back off. But I always find them in the back somewhere. Its dangerous to take the back off, so see if they have an adjustment in the back with the top on. It should have two, one brightness & one focus.