Re: Backlight off or dimmed in Squeeze after upgrade

2011-02-01 Thread Steven Rosenberg

On 01/31/2011 11:30 PM, Remco Rijnders wrote:

Hi,

Yesterday I upgraded my Samsung netbook running Squeeze. I got all
updates released for installed packages since last thursday. After this
upgrade, my desktop in X looks very dark as if the backlight is not on
or strongly dimmed. I do not recall making any changes to my setup that
would have caused this other than upgrading those packages above.

Unfortunately I have no idea where to start to fix this issue. Any
pointers on where to look or commands to try?

Thanks,

Remco


I've had the backlight fail on three laptops in the past year (I have a 
LOT of near-dead laptops; they don't last forever, that's for sure).


It was hardware every time (two LCD inverters, one bad power brick).

Are you sure it's software and not hardware failure?

If so, what happens when you try to increase the backlight brightness in 
the settings?


If you're running GNOME, you can adjust brightness via System - 
Preferences - Power Management with the Set Display Brightness to 
slider. Does that do anything?



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Re: Backlight off or dimmed in Squeeze after upgrade

2011-02-01 Thread Remco Rijnders

On Tue, Feb 01, 2011 at 01:16:30PM -0800, Steven Rosenberg wrote:

On 01/31/2011 11:30 PM, Remco Rijnders wrote:

Hi,

Yesterday I upgraded my Samsung netbook running Squeeze. I got all
updates released for installed packages since last thursday. After this
upgrade, my desktop in X looks very dark as if the backlight is not on
or strongly dimmed. I do not recall making any changes to my setup that
would have caused this other than upgrading those packages above.

Unfortunately I have no idea where to start to fix this issue. Any
pointers on where to look or commands to try?


I've had the backlight fail on three laptops in the past year (I have 
a LOT of near-dead laptops; they don't last forever, that's for 
sure).


It was hardware every time (two LCD inverters, one bad power brick).

Are you sure it's software and not hardware failure?


Hi Steven,

Thanks for responding to my call for help.

Pretty sure it's software... though it might be hardware related even when 
it's not hardware failure. The BIOS and Grub screen show in full 
brightness.


That said, the problem is fixed for now. When I installed on monday 
night, I had my netbook at home and ran it withouth the adapter plugged 
in. While the backlight was on then, some sort of energy saving must have 
kicked in that turned the backlight off when I resumed it from sleep 
yesterday morning. I see no setting to control this anywhere and having 
googled further, this seems to be a common problem with Samsung netbooks. 
Some suggestions are offered, and I'll look into these next. Shutting the 
netbook down intsead of pausing or sleeping it is what did the trick in 
the end. When I booted back on with the power plugged in, the backlight 
was on again (pheew, I wouldn't like to have it die on me after just one 
month).


If so, what happens when you try to increase the backlight brightness 
in the settings?


If you're running GNOME, you can adjust brightness via System - 
Preferences - Power Management with the Set Display Brightness to 
slider. Does that do anything?


Funny enough, I see no such slider and this might provide a clue in 
solving this issue permanently for me.


Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

Sincerely,

Remco


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Re: Backlight off or dimmed in Squeeze after upgrade

2011-02-01 Thread Steven Rosenberg

On 02/01/2011 09:56 PM, Remco Rijnders wrote:

On Tue, Feb 01, 2011 at 01:16:30PM -0800, Steven Rosenberg wrote:

On 01/31/2011 11:30 PM, Remco Rijnders wrote:

Hi,

Yesterday I upgraded my Samsung netbook running Squeeze. I got all
updates released for installed packages since last thursday. After this
upgrade, my desktop in X looks very dark as if the backlight is not on
or strongly dimmed. I do not recall making any changes to my setup that
would have caused this other than upgrading those packages above.

Unfortunately I have no idea where to start to fix this issue. Any
pointers on where to look or commands to try?


I've had the backlight fail on three laptops in the past year (I have
a LOT of near-dead laptops; they don't last forever, that's for sure).

It was hardware every time (two LCD inverters, one bad power brick).

Are you sure it's software and not hardware failure?


Hi Steven,

Thanks for responding to my call for help.

Pretty sure it's software... though it might be hardware related even
when it's not hardware failure. The BIOS and Grub screen show in full
brightness.

That said, the problem is fixed for now. When I installed on monday
night, I had my netbook at home and ran it withouth the adapter plugged
in. While the backlight was on then, some sort of energy saving must
have kicked in that turned the backlight off when I resumed it from
sleep yesterday morning. I see no setting to control this anywhere and
having googled further, this seems to be a common problem with Samsung
netbooks. Some suggestions are offered, and I'll look into these next.
Shutting the netbook down intsead of pausing or sleeping it is what did
the trick in the end. When I booted back on with the power plugged in,
the backlight was on again (pheew, I wouldn't like to have it die on me
after just one month).


If so, what happens when you try to increase the backlight brightness
in the settings?

If you're running GNOME, you can adjust brightness via System -
Preferences - Power Management with the Set Display Brightness to
slider. Does that do anything?


Funny enough, I see no such slider and this might provide a clue in
solving this issue permanently for me.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

Sincerely,

Remco


I've never had a laptop that did well enough with suspend/resume to rely 
on it in any way. I've had brightness problems with suspend/resume in 
Squeeze; I just avoid using that feature.



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Backlight off or dimmed in Squeeze after upgrade

2011-01-31 Thread Remco Rijnders

Hi,

Yesterday I upgraded my Samsung netbook running Squeeze. I got all 
updates released for installed packages since last thursday. After 
this upgrade, my desktop in X looks very dark as if the backlight is 
not on or strongly dimmed. I do not recall making any changes to my 
setup that would have caused this other than upgrading those packages 
above.


Unfortunately I have no idea where to start to fix this issue. Any 
pointers on where to look or commands to try?


Thanks,

Remco


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