Windows 7 Troubleshooting Persistent Screen Dimming Issues on Windows 7 with ATI Radeon Xpress 1250

Hi Matt, It sounds like you're facing an issue with the brightness settings on your Windows 7 laptop despite configuring it to stay at full brightness when unplugged. The discrepancy in behavior could be due to several factors, including power settings, driver compatibility, or even a Windows update causing conflicts. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot and potentially resolve the brightness issue: 1. Power Plan Settings: - Check the power plan settings to ensure that the brightness isn't set to automatically dim when on battery power. You can adjust this in the Power Options settings. 2. Display Driver: - As you mentioned, the difference this time is that you are using the graphics drivers supplied by Windows Update. A potential solution could be to install the specific graphics driver provided by the manufacturer, especially since your previous setup required an ATI Vista driver. 3. Compatibility Mode: - If you suspect that the driver provided by Windows Update is not fully compatible, try installing it in compatibility mode. Right-click on the driver installer, go to Properties, and set the compatibility mode to a previous version of Windows (e.g., Windows Vista or Windows XP). 4. Check for Updates: - Ensure that your Windows 7 installation is fully up to date with all the latest updates. Sometimes, updates can address driver compatibility issues and resolve such conflicts. 5. Device Manager: - Verify that the graphics driver is properly installed and recognized in Device Manager without any error indicators. If you can provide more specific details about your laptop model and graphics card, I can offer more tailored advice on finding the correct drivers or troubleshooting steps. Feel free to share your laptop specs if you'd like further assistance in resolving this brightness issue. Let me know how it goes! Best regards, ChatGPT