Netbook screen brightness control stopped working since screen replacement

[chuser52]

Hi guys.  I have an Acer Aspire One D257 netbook that's been upgraded to 2gb of ram and a 9-cell battery.

I've always been dual-booting 'windows 7 starter x32' (same installation since I got the netbook), and Linux Mint, its been this way for a year and it's been working just fine.  Brightness control seen in both windows and Linux, brightness shortcut (FN+left/right) has also been working in both windows and Linux.

Well recently, my screen cracked and I brought my laptop over to a laptop hardware repair store, and they have replaced the screen on my unit.  When I got the laptop back, I immediately noticed two side effects.

--- The laptop screen's brightness is stuck at 100% power while it's running on AC power (when the laptop is powered off, the screen stays on at full power, showing a white screen)  This doesn't bother me as much, and I doubt this is a software issue.
---  Whenever I boot into my windows, I don't have control over the brightness.  Windows doesn't have the brightness sliders, and the FN shortcuts doesn't change the brightness either.  However when I am in the BIOS, the FN shortcuts allow me to adjust the brightness.  When I'm in my Linux, the FN brightness shortcuts work, and the brightness slider is shown and works.

So I'm focusing on the issue #2.  In the case of that issue, I immediately think of it being a driver issue, meaning I should re-install the graphics driver provided by Acer's driver download page for my model.  So I've performed the following steps.

1. I enter the Acer Driver download page: http://www.acer.ca/ac/en/CA/content/drivers
2. I put my netbooks serial number into the serial number field
3. I get to the AOD257 driver download page, operating system is "windows 7 x32"
4. I download the "Intel VGA Driver 8.14.10.2230" in the form of a .zip archive
5. I extract the .zip and run setup.exe as an administrator
6.  I get a warning that says "This computer currently contains driver version 8.14.10.2117, which is newer than the version you are about to install. || Are you sure you want to overwrite the current driver with the older version 8.14.10.2230?"
7. I press yes, then next, then yes, and next
8. The driver starts installing, showing "creating key" in the installer like normal.  I get a message saying "Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software".  I hit "install this driver software anyway"
9.  I get an error message that says "An unknown error has occurred.  Setup will exit."  I press ok and it closes.

Some things I've tried is installing in safe mode, re-downloading/extracting the archive, uninstalling (yes, the version message is the exact same when running setup.exe with it uninstalled), letting windows update install the driver, and probably just a few other things.

What am I supposed to do to fix this?

[DaveLembke]

This driver is likely part of a utility pack for the system, which should also be in the listing of available downloads from Acer.

My Toshiba Netbook has the Windows control sliders greyed out and I found that I had to adjust this using the Toshiba Utility instead which gave options for screen brightness under different battery life % and when plugged into wall etc.

My guess is that your Acer has a similar tool that has these features and that is why you cant just adjust it from Windows display interface options.

The display driver alone will not contain this tool.

The strange thing is that, how did this tool get disabled by the  cracked screen and screen replacement. This would be something intentional. Have you contacted the place that serviced your computer to see what they have to say about this issue? Maybe they can fix this for you since they may have disabled it etc.

[chuser52]

This driver is likely part of a utility pack for the system, which should also be in the listing of available downloads from Acer.

My Toshiba Netbook has the Windows control sliders greyed out and I found that I had to adjust this using the Toshiba Utility instead which gave options for screen brightness under different battery life % and when plugged into wall etc.

My guess is that your Acer has a similar tool that has these features and that is why you cant just adjust it from Windows display interface options.

The display driver alone will not contain this tool.

The strange thing is that, how did this tool get disabled by the  cracked screen and screen replacement. This would be something intentional. Have you contacted the place that serviced your computer to see what they have to say about this issue? Maybe they can fix this for you since they may have disabled it etc.

Before, when I had the older screen, I was able to access the default windows "brightness control" sliders, AND I was able to increase brightness with FN+left-arrow and decrease with FN+right-arrow.  Now, with the new screen, this control is broken in windows, but not the bios or linux.

I still have a feeling that this has to do with the video driver, but I seemenly can't re-install the driver from acer's driver website.  I've re-installed the driver from that exact page months ago and it installed and worked perfectly.  I'm pretty sure this has to do with the issue.

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]

[patio]

My guess is that your Acer has a similar tool that has these features and that is why you cant just adjust it from Windows display interface options.

The display driver alone will not contain this tool.

I agree with Dave on this ...

[chuser52]

I agree with Dave on this ...

Uhm, how about the FN+[horizontal arrow] shortcut on acer keyboards?  That's the number one method to adjusting brightness on such Acer laptops.  Also when the brightness worked, the brightness control slider in 'power properties'.  I own 2 other acer laptops in the house and my brother has one too, they all worked exactly the same way.  (in fact I've re-installed windows

Alright.  If this is going to be so hard to fix, would I be better off with spending a few hours backing my data up, re-installing windows, installing updates, and restoring data?

[DaveLembke]

There is an ePower Management Application that might be where the power management/brightness control features are. My Toshiba has a similar tool in Toshiba Tools, Power management.

When you get to drivers listing, select the Application Tab for list of applications. Then download and install ePower Management Application which is 11.0MB in size. Then navigate to this control which may be after a reboot of the system and see if there are brightness control options in power management etc. You can also try the fn+brightness control after this and see if it works.

http://www.acer.ca/ac/en/CA/content/drivers

[chuser52]

There is an ePower Management Application that might be where the power management/brightness control features are. My Toshiba has a similar tool in Toshiba Tools, Power management.

When you get to drivers listing, select the Application Tab for list of applications. Then download and install ePower Management Application which is 11.0MB in size. Then navigate to this control which may be after a reboot of the system and see if there are brightness control options in power management etc. You can also try the fn+brightness control after this and see if it works.

http://www.acer.ca/ac/en/CA/content/drivers

nope, I've performed the installation of that piece of software, it made absolutely no difference just as I expected (..except for reset all of my custom power settings to default).  Hm, would simply re-installing windows be the best option at this point?

[DaveLembke]

nope, I've performed the installation of that piece of software, it made absolutely no difference just as I expected (..except for reset all of my custom power settings to default).  Hm, would simply re-installing windows be the best option at this point?

Earlier you stated: 

(in fact I've re-installed windows

So another reinstallation I dont believe will solve anything unless the first reinstallation was corrupted some how.

With a direction to go in, if you want to give it another shot at a reinstall you can try that of Windows, but I feel you will be back where you started. Unless you were trying wrong drivers earlier and had them crash in which a clean install of Windows becomes a mine field of registry problems etc.

At this point I am starting to wonder if they installed the correct display?

Sometimes displays are available for sale that claim to work with a number of models but there are minor differences such as its possible that the dimmer control is not functional because of a wrong driver problem, yet this display states it works because sure it works... but the dimmer portion was never tested on your specific model.

 Maybe the chipset on the new display is incompatible with the original driver, yet Linux is happy with it because Linux is very good at auto detection of chipsets and setting up the correct drivers to control graphics and the dimmer circuit that is controlled through a chip on the display itself.

If this is the case, you would need to track down the utility driver that matches up to the dimmer chipset that is in this display so that it can be installed for Windows. I'd look in Linux properties and see what driver it is using for the dimmer controller. Then research the Windows equivilent for that same driver. Or find out the dimmer chipset on this display and then try to track down the driver through the original replacement display manufacturer. Support can be hit and miss for drivers if this was made by some small chinese company etc.

I have had to look up similar models that hardware was designed to work with before and then hunt down drivers off of those off models to try to fix problems like this with a slightly imperfect match. Usually for me, its when I am mixing server internal hardware components and need a driver for a card that normally isnt part of the original server, and I have to cross reference to the other server model since after all if its Server 2003 driver, it doesnt matter if the card is in a HP or Dell Server. The driver is OS specific, however HP doesnt have the Dell drivers so I had to install Dell driver on HP server. Long story with a very limited budget of a past employer to scrounge up mix-n-match piece a server together with just about no budget and taking 2 dead servers with 2 different problems and mixing together good hardware to have 1 good server from 2 dead ones, when the budget only covered the Server 2003 Standard License that we needed. 

[chuser52]

Earlier you stated: 
So another reinstallation I dont believe will solve anything unless the first reinstallation was corrupted some how.

With a direction to go in, if you want to give it another shot at a reinstall you can try that of Windows, but I feel you will be back where you started. Unless you were trying wrong drivers earlier and had them crash in which a clean install of Windows becomes a mine field of registry problems etc.

At this point I am starting to wonder if they installed the correct display?

Sometimes displays are available for sale that claim to work with a number of models but there are minor differences such as its possible that the dimmer control is not functional because of a wrong driver problem, yet this display states it works because sure it works... but the dimmer portion was never tested on your specific model.

 Maybe the chipset on the new display is incompatible with the original driver, yet Linux is happy with it because Linux is very good at auto detection of chipsets and setting up the correct drivers to control graphics and the dimmer circuit that is controlled through a chip on the display itself.

If this is the case, you would need to track down the utility driver that matches up to the dimmer chipset that is in this display so that it can be installed for Windows. I'd look in Linux properties and see what driver it is using for the dimmer controller. Then research the Windows equivilent for that same driver. Or find out the dimmer chipset on this display and then try to track down the driver through the original replacement display manufacturer. Support can be hit and miss for drivers if this was made by some small chinese company etc.

I have had to look up similar models that hardware was designed to work with before and then hunt down drivers off of those off models to try to fix problems like this with a slightly imperfect match. Usually for me, its when I am mixing server internal hardware components and need a driver for a card that normally isnt part of the original server, and I have to cross reference to the other server model since after all if its Server 2003 driver, it doesnt matter if the card is in a HP or Dell Server. The driver is OS specific, however HP doesnt have the Dell drivers so I had to install Dell driver on HP server. Long story with a very limited budget of a past employer to scrounge up mix-n-match piece a server together with just about no budget and taking 2 dead servers with 2 different problems and mixing together good hardware to have 1 good server from 2 dead ones, when the budget only covered the Server 2003 Standard License that we needed. 

Wait.. sorry, I forgot to finish the thought..  I meant to say I re-installed windows on a DIFFERENT acer laptop (7741g) a long time ago.  I found that the brightness control on it worked even before installing the video driver.  However I've YET to do a windows re-install on the netbook I'm talking about, but might be close to deciding to do the first reinstall.

Oh another thought, I JUST remembered..  When I first recieved the netbook back, my entire PC thought it was a 1024x768 display, and the bottom quarter of the screen has been cut off.  I brought it back to the store and they changed the screen again with no extra cost.  So now the resolution is normal and nothing is getting cut off, but now the backlight is stuck at full when the laptop is plugged in, AND when on battery the BIOS and linux can adjust brightness, but just not windows.

But there's 2 concerns too about bringing it in again now, its been a few months since I brought it in for screen replacement, but ALSO I'm at the time of year at school where I NEED to bring it to school every day, so I can't wait another week for it. :l