Brightness levels decreased after installing 10.6.2

blaeblae wrote:
My computer came with Snow Leopard (it's the 13" Macbook Pro) and after installing the upgrade from 10.6.1 to 10.6.2 I noticed that the brightness decreased dramatically. I don't think it has anything to do with gamma as I tried to adjust that and it didn't really make that big a difference. I have now increased the brightness but I still think there might be something wrong with my laptop because I don't know if the update could decrease the brightness levels as they were the default levels, I hadn't changed them... It would seem strange somehow... I did install the update when I didn't have the computer connected to a power source, could that have caused this?

yes, that was most likely it. and a bad idea it was on your part. never do that again. if the computer runs out of power in the middle of an update this can brick your system and require a reinstall.

Could installing the update again help? Or could I uninstall it somehow? This is my first Mac so I'm rather clueless about everything...

you don't need to do anything. the brightness was reduced automatically during the update to conserve energy.

you should be able to just adjust the brightness level using the brightness key on your keyboard. I thought you did that. do you mean it did not work?

I still don't think there is anything wrong with your computer. you can try resetting PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

and calibrating your monitor if you wish.

Hello,

I'm from Singapore and I just updated my OS to 10.6.2 as well. I have the same problem related to the brightness levels. My laptop was plugged in and fully charged at the time of update.

The brightness level needs to be adjusted to full to achieve a level which was previously maybe just more than half.

Is there a way that this could be fixed back to the default settings or updates could be reinstalled? I tried resetting the PRAM according to the instructions given on the link but nothing seems to have changed.

Mac newbie as well.

Thank You
Vu

Hello,

I'm from Singapore and I just updated my OS to 10.6.2 as well. I have the same problem related to the brightness levels. My laptop was plugged in and fully charged at the time of update.

The brightness level needs to be adjusted to full to achieve a level which was previously maybe just more than half.

Is there a way that this could be fixed back to the default settings or updates could be reinstalled? I tried resetting the PRAM according to the instructions given on the link but nothing seems to have changed.

Mac newbie as well.

Thank You
Vu

I don't know anything that would cause that. Looks like no one else does either, since you've gotten no reply yet. Is there an Apple Store near you? Or any other kind of computer store that sells Apple products? An Apple Store would be good: you could take the laptop in, wait to talk to someone at the Genius Bar, and see what they think. I realize there may be no such thing where you live--just trying to think of possibilities.

One possibility: go to System Preferences, click on Display, then click the Color tab. Go through the process of calibrating your color LCD and save the resulting profile under a new name, so you can choose it or abandon it. See if that makes a difference. I wouldn't expect this to make a difference, but I do think OS X 10.6 uses color profiles in a different way, so maybe something has gone wrong there.

Same problem.
Resetting the PRAM works actually, but only for a while. I observed increased screen brightness immediately after resetting the PRAM, but it was low again, as soon as the login screen appeared.

This is not a hardware issue, but a software one. To confirm that, I reinstalled OS X 10.6 (archive and install) and the screen brightness was back to normal. Then I downloaded the 10.6.2 combo update. After running the update, the screen brightness turned low again. The customer support has no clue as well.

I'm sure this happened to me too. I thought I was imagining it until I read this post.