Performance question

[rail24]

Hi just recently downloaded Widnows 7..

When I'm operating on battery it seems as if the battery is dying really, really quickly compared to when I had Vista.

I think one of the problems is that I can't seem to dim the brightness of the screen at all. Is there a way to do this beyond the "power saver" option?

Thanks

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi just recently downloaded Widnows 7..

When I'm operating on battery it seems as if the battery is dying really, really quickly compared to when I had Vista.

I think one of the problems is that I can't seem to dim the brightness of the screen at all. Is there a way to do this beyond the "power saver" option?

Thanks

Most laptops have a set of combo keys to raise or lower brightness. on dells it is Fn + UP ARROW. its usually labeled on the laptop keys in blue

Hope this helps

Ken

 

[Brink]

Hello Rail,

If your laptop doesn't have a key as Ken suggested, then adjusting this setting for your current Power Plan is about the only option.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/778-power-plan-settings-change.html

 

[zigzag3143]

rail

If you tell us what your compute is we can look up the key combo's


Ken

 

[rail24]

I have a Toshiba Satellite L500-00W.

My friend has the same computer and can adjust the brightness using Fn and F6 or F7 but it doesn't work for me anymore now that I have Windows 7.

 

[Brink]

Rail,

It sounds like the driver that supports that feature did not get installed. I'm not certain which one it would be though.

 

[rail24]

I almost feel like it would be easier to uninstall Windows 7 and then wait until it's actually released and get it then.. Because a lot of old features got erased and I wasn't expecting that to happen.
How would I go about that?

 

[Brink]

You might check with your friend to compare notes on what drivers you each installed to see which one you missed. It should just be a matter of installing it to regain the feature. I could not find them on Toshiba's website for this model number.

 

[rail24]

I'm just a bit technologically dim so I don't know what to do when you say check your drivers...

 

[Brink]

Sorry. Each device you have installed on your motherboard will usually require a driver (software) to be installed for the device to either work properly, or use all of its features like in your case. For example, you need to install the latest drivers for the graphics chip, sound chip, touchpad, webcam, etc.....

Since you friend has the same computer, I would recommend getting together with him or her to find out what drivers he had installed so you can as well.

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

I almost feel like it would be easier to uninstall Windows 7 and then wait until it's actually released and get it then.. Because a lot of old features got erased and I wasn't expecting that to happen.

I have to comment on this.

Unless you had Toshiba send you a copy of Windows 7 specifically for your model, with all the drivers/software it would have on Vista, you'll be stuck without them unless you manually install them.

Another option is to upgrade from Windows Vista (the version with all your features and what not) to Windows 7. That way it would preserve your drivers/features. Though I don't really advise this unless you really really need them, as in most cases (for me anyways) upgrading from Vista to 7 (or XP to Vista) causes the OS to be a bit slower then it would be on a clean install.

Just needed to add that. You could also call Toshiba Tech Support as well, see if they have a place to download the software.

 

[rail24]

My university offers it as a free download.

However when I installed it, there were two options, upgrade from vista or clean install, I chose upgrade because I wanted all my files to stay, but when I tried that it didn't work, saying the only option I could use was the clean install. So I saved my files and downloads onto a flash drive and then installed 7. I didn't know it wouldn't keep my drivers etc..

 

[thefabe]

You could also turn off Areo effect this would use less memory and possibly dimm your screen as well as speed it up some. Key word Possibly. Fabe

 

[rail24]

I don't know how to turn aero off

 

[Brink]

Rail,

You can turn it off by selecting another theme other than a Windows Aero theme.

 

[musiclover7]

Have you tried running windows update yet? You can access if via control panel.. A number of times, I have installed 7, had it come up lacking drivers for sound etc.. and a simple pass on Windows update, actually downloaded my missing drivers straight from Microsoft's website. So far, this has worked 100% of the time, but I have yet to install it on a modern laptop..