Screen dims after a minute or so

System Preferences / Energy Saver

Dislay sleep setting is the lower slider there, Options will also reveal another that impacts - Automatically reduce brightness of the display before sleep.

Another that can impact is System Preferences / Display
Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes

And ... your Screen Saver timings will impact of course 🙂

I was wondering the same exact thing. In the Energy Saver area, I have "Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for:" set to Never, "Put the display to sleep when the computer is inactive for:" set to 1.5 hours, and "Automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep" unchecked. I also have "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes" unchecked in the Display settings.

Even with all these settings, the screen goes dim after about 1 minute of inactivity. Can't seem to figure out what would cause it.

That's what's weird. I have "Put the display to sleep when the computer is inactive for:" set to 1.5 hours. I have no idea why the screen dims after 1 minute, when it has 1 hour and 29 more minutes until it goes to sleep.

This could be a very good case for resetting the PMU. That would be the first thing I'd try when a power-related setting doesn't stick.

Open Applications > System Preferences. Click on Energy Saver. There are preset periods for actions such as dimming the screen after a period of time. You may modify those settings, if you wish.

I have been wondering about this as well. The second slider mentions controls the sleep time for the screen. I set it to 5 minutes but the screen still dims after a minute or so. Under options, I disabled the dim option prior to sleep and still have the same effect. No biggie but strange.

That's what's weird. I have "Put the display to sleep when the computer is inactive for:" set to 1.5 hours. I have no idea why the screen dims after 1 minute, when it has 1 hour and 29 more minutes until it goes to sleep.

Another thing I noticed is that once the screensaver does come on, even it is dimmed. I'm using the RSS feed screensaver, and the screen is almost too dark to read.

That to can be fixed in system preferences by moving the slider how long you want to scree to wait before going to sleep. It will dim a few minutes before sleep.

I'm also having weird stuff with Energy Saver ignoring my options and deciding to go completely to sleep after the default 30 minutes or so.

What week is your machine? Mine's 27.

Mines a week 12'er.

That seems to have fixed it. Thanks Rachel!

Excellent! Glad it worked, and thanks for letting us all know - it might help someone else with a similar problem searching these forums. 🙂