VAIO Laptop Dim Screen

I recently purchased second-hand Sony VAIO computer, model is PCG-K27.
Long & short of it is the monitor is almost completely black when in XP. During the boot up process, all screen visibility (pics & text) are bright & readable.

However, the second windows starts, the screen goes almost completely black. The only way to even slightly see what's going on is by catching the screen just right in the light.

How do I adjust it back to normal visual settings?

 

Have you tried starting in safemode? Tap F8 immediately after the bios screen.

 

Yeah, I've tried booting in safe mode & also with VGA enabled. Both with the same viewing result. The VGA mode also gave me an error of some sort, but I couldn't read it.

Are there settings for this type of thing? I don't have much experience with laptops unfortunately, so I don't know if they have different screen settings.

 

This might be the keyboard combination to adjust brightness.

This random thread might give you some ideas. Same brightness on battery and AC? Latch sticking?

Sorry, best I can do.

 

There's an Fn key on those things? I'll have to look for it in the morning.

As for the brightness on the battery vs AC, it's the same. It only goes dim when windows XP starts. I don't think the latch is sticking...and I'll research that thread tomorrow as well.
Thanks!

 

Hi Rap,

During boot the system is using the CMOS BIOS video driver. When Windows starts to load it begins to use the Software Driver. First try removeing the Video driver in System Manager. It may reload OK on the next boot. Windows has the necessary reinstall info. Works for most drivers. If not you should download the correct driver from the Sony site and install that. Worth a try.

Good Luck, Jim

 

Thx Jim, I'll give that a shot. I'm hoping that's it over having to replace parts...

 

This will test all and adjust all the hardware and software for you, but its not free.

http://www.displaymate.com/