Why does the brightness setting on my Mac always change?

[bicentennial_baby]

Like when I'm not using it for a few seconds to several minutes...Very often when it comes back to life, the brightness is waaay lower than it should be. Why is this?

:)

[Deja Q]

1. The backlight tube needs to warm up again.

Same thing happens to my LCD monitor.

Shouldn't take more than ~30 seconds; if it takes minutes, the backlight may be starting to wear out.

How many years have you had the monitor? The tubes used as backlights typically last ~5 years.

[bicentennial_baby]

3. It's a laptop...

MacBook, only about 4 months since I bought it. Problem?

[Deja Q]

7. Not necessarily... or not yet, anyway.

I'd keep an eye on things. If the backlight starts to take minutes to warm back up fully, consistently when popping out of powersave, I'd have it checked out.

It might take longer to warm back up when running on batteries, when compared to AC power. That might be a reason for the discrepancy too.

Did you buy an extended warranty? If not, you'll be limited by Apple's default warranty.

Also see #2, Ocelot's response. She specializes in Macs and probably the laptop variants as well. :thumbsup:

[bicentennial_baby]

9. You may be on to something...

It does seem to only happen when I'm on battery power. And I'm too impatient to let it warm up, I think. I'll try that. Thank you :)

[Deja Q]

12. No problem.

:)

I did not know at first it was a laptop, but that does make sense it'd take longer on battery power. And, per Ocelot's comment, on battery power the laptop may not even light up the screen to 100% (I too would advise against changing that, to save on battery life...)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Go to System Preferences and see how your energy saver is set up.

That might be what's doing it.

[bicentennial_baby]

4. What should I look for?

:)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. There are a bunch of settings.

You can adjust for when the screen sleeps and when it wakes up, and how much it dims before it goes to sleep. You can also set it up differently for when you are on battery power vs. when it's plugged in. There is a settling that makes the screen dimmer when using the battery. Also, you can brighten or dim your screen manually using the F1 and F2 keys.

[bicentennial_baby]

13. Thank you so much!

I'm still such a Mac newbie :)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. You'll love it.

I've used Macs since 1987, and in all that time I've had to call tech support exactly twice. I'm on Mac #6 now.

[ZombieNixon]

5. Check you System Preferences.

Go to Energy Saver. Click Options. Some of those settings control it. I'm not sure which ones exactly. I set it once and then I forgot. :P

[johnnie]

6. Oh oh oh oh

Get a pc


B-)

[bicentennial_baby]

8. Heehee....

good opportunity, i know... :D

[Deja Q]

10. .

:wow:





:spray:



Couldn't resist...

Nothing wrong with Macs; a brand is a brand and a tool is a tool. (and yes, I've knocked all the brands in the past. And even I would go Apple before Dell...)

[Awsi Dooger]

15. The processor setting might be set to Reduced on Battery

I have it set that way on my iBook since I prioritize battery life when I'm moving around all day. But I've noticed it does eventually reduce the brightness compared to when I'm using it at home on power.

You can go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and monkey with Optimize Energy Settings, and Options. Both of those have drop tabs where you can switch to Highest Performance and Processor Performance = Highest. Make sure you switch the related tab to Battery from Power Adaptor, otherwise you're just changing the preferences when it's plugged in.

This assumes you need highest performance and not long battery life. If it's in between you could try Automatic, or some customized options.