Screen brigntness won't change after sleep

[coliin]

I have a new Sony Vaio Pro that has a problem with the brightness control. If I close the lid of the computer (provided it has been started at least a few minutes) and then open it again then the screen is significantly dimmed and the brightness cannot be changed - the slider moves but nothing else happens. The windows brightness control doesn't work and neither does the ambient light sensor. It only starts working again after a reboot.

The problem happens whether the computer is on mains or battery power. If the computer is put to sleep with the power button and then woken immediately then there is no problem - but if it is left for a period of time (I'm not sure exactly how long - but probably about 20 minutes) then it does still cause the brightness problem.

Does anyone else have this problem? I notice reports of similar problems on the US site following the latest version of the Sony care software - and a note that the engineers are looking into it. Is this known to Sony UK at all? I am trying to contact Sony support about the issue.

Regards,

Colin.

[coliin]

Although I have not yet had a response from Sony support regarding this problem, a Sony moderator on the US site has confirmed that they have been able to replicate the problem and are working on a fix:

http://community.sony.com/t5/VAIO-Software-Other-Operating/Brightness-does-not-work-after-waking-lap...

If I am able to get in touch with Sony UK support then I will try to get confirmation of this and an idea of likely timescales.

[mervany]

I have the same issue and it is so annoying... almost want to throw this laptop throught the window.

I've had other problems with recovery media usb drive not working but no answers there also. 

hopefully this case about the brightness will be resolved for svtxxx models.

[coliin]

@mervany

Do you mind me asking when you purchased your vaio and when the problem occurred? Was it shipped with the brightness problem, or did it occur later e.g. when installing sony care updates?

Regards,

Colin.

[mervany]

it's the model 

SVT1313S1E and i bought it in around april.

I am not really sure when the problems with the brightness started but it happened some days into the use of the computer so I factory reset it (reinstalled completely) and after that it happened again. Maybe not instantly..don't know if it has anything to do with the vaio care software?

It functions everytime i shutdown the computer with the ac-adapter and restart the pc. And as soon as it "sleeps" it will not work. so frustrating.

[coliin]

I spoke to Sony support on the telephone today (they didn't respond to my earlier emails). They said that they had not been informed of any known problem with the SVP models as mentioned by the US group moderator, but suggested reinstalling the graphics driver as this usually fixed brightness control problems. I have now done this but unfortunately has made no difference for me. I will speak to them again tomorrow.

You say that you own an SVT model, however - so the situation may be different. The person who started the US group thread also owns an SVT model and says that he has tried both factory resets and driver reinstallations too. The moderator said that they have been unable to replicate the problem with SVT machines. Sorry I don't have better news.

http://community.sony.com/t5/VAIO-Software-Other-Operating/Brightness-does-not-work-after-waking-lap...

[mervany]

This is so bad, this product is flawd in that case. I can also try to reinstall the graphic drivers but dunno if that would work. please keep me posted I appreicate it.

[coliin · Accepted solution]

Here's an update:

I eventually got a confirmation of my emailed request for support. They said that they hadn't heard of any such problem but would check with their technical department. I concluded that UK email support was a bit of a waste of time. In contrast, the telephone support seems to be quite good - although they had not heard of the problem either - despite me pointing them to the US moderator's comments. As expected, they asked me to perform a factory reset.

Before I got round to this, the US moderator contacted me and offered to apply a work-around (with the caveat that it had only be tested on a US spec machine). I agreed and the fix did indeed cure my problem. It involved stopping one of the sony softare services and deleting a file.

I then made the mistake of trying to install windows 8.1 which gave me a couple of other serious problems. I ended up performing a factory reset to take me back to windows 8. This time, I had no problems even after updating windows and sony care. I suspect that the problem was caused by sony care update and that they withdrew the update when they found it was causing problems with SVP machines.

I tried installing windows 8.1 a second time (after taking a drive image) and found that the problems are repeatable. I'll post a description on the US forum in the hope that it will bring it to the attention of sony technical.

[mervany]

Yeah and i did recently do a factory reset. And now with 8.1 it is hardly working.

The brightness button and the rest of the gui for the functions such as volume does not have the blue color instead of the grey one. Do you think I could do that workaround in 8.1 instead?

[mervany]

I seem to get it to work temporarily by re-installing the hd 4000 graphic card. 

It works inconsistently...stops working after windows update or when i close the lid on the laptop.

re-installing the driver is a workaround that is not good enough.