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fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 03:53 AM
ok, so my laptop is about a year and a half old and it's been great (system76). about a month ago, the screen dimmed for a moment and was then fine. i thought nothing of it. but today, it dimmed and stayed dimmed. i started a thread about it - http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=158
this is the type of thing that can give me an anurism. i hate this kind of crap. mrs. fuscia said "you know, they say when some laptop screens go bad, that's it" (yeah, thanks). i decided i would hook it up to one of our monitors in the other room, so i unplugged my laptop from all the crap it's connected to, closed it up and went into the other room. when i got in there, i opened up my laptop and it was fine. "hmm...", i thought, wondering if it might be one of the things i had plugged into it. i went back to my desk, opened up my laptop again, but before i started plugging junk back in, it went dim. "huh?!?" i silently exclaimed. after going back and forth between both rooms, with nothing different in each situation but the room itself, i finally wondered if it might be the light bulb i replaced today. i changed the old standard bulb to one of these new fangled coily power saver thingamawhacks. so, i changed it back to a regular, good old fashioned bulb and now, everything's fine. how off the fornicating wall is that?

Lostincyberspace
December 22nd, 2007, 03:56 AM
It has to deal with the spectrum of light that the bulb puts out. It must just be enough to make it seem dim. Or it is breaking the law and transmitting signals that disrupt things.

-grubby
December 22nd, 2007, 03:57 AM
man that's crazy ](*,). BTW, I thought you were a girl (the name Fuscia )

maljaros
December 22nd, 2007, 04:00 AM
Just a guess, but I reckon your laptop "reads" the ambient light level and adjusts the screen brightness to suit. It thinks the new light globe is less bright (at some level of the spectrum) than the old one and dims itself accordingly.

fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 04:12 AM
man that's crazy ](*,). BTW, I thought you were a girl (the name Fuscia )

how come you didn't think i was a color?

p_quarles
December 22nd, 2007, 04:14 AM
how come you didn't think i was a color?
That's easy. Colors don't own laptops. ;)

Lostincyberspace
December 22nd, 2007, 04:26 AM
I though you were a flower?

Tundro Walker
December 22nd, 2007, 04:33 AM
how come you didn't think i was a color?

I guess it's true what the say...people judge an online personality more by their name than their avatar.

LeetHaxorGangsta ... probably a guy (with issues).

CuteGurl246 ... probably a girl (with issues)

Fuscia ... probably a discerning lingerie (http://www.fuscia.co.uk/) shopper (with issues)

(Oh, sorry ... I just assume everyone online has issues, myself included.)

EDIT:

BTW, Fuscia, ever since you mentioned that Tabata work-out method in some long past post, it's been a pretty good means of staying in shape, cardio-wise. Thanks for that.

fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 04:35 AM
i'm a little pink flower that just happens to own a laptop. what's so odd about that?

fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 04:38 AM
BTW, Fuscia, ever since you mentioned that Tabata work-out method in some long past post, it's been a pretty good means of staying in shape, cardio-wise. Thanks for that.

what exercises are you doing with it?

p_quarles
December 22nd, 2007, 04:56 AM
i'm a little pink flower that just happens to own a laptop. what's so odd about that?
Nothing, if it's a Disney movie.

(speaking of movies, is your current avvie from 2046? if not, and/or if you haven't seen it, it's a fantastic flick)

arvevans
December 22nd, 2007, 04:58 AM
The topic of this thread seems to have wandered off into pastel land, but back to the dimming laptop problem for a second if I may...It may have something to do with the Vertical refresh rate of your video versus the 60 Hz flash rate of that gas discharge (CCFL) lamp. Color, even fuscia, may not be the problem as much as frequency and pulse duration of the video signal relative to the lamp. Turning the screen to different angles with respect to the lamp might also show some interesting results. Think of it as a feature instead of a bug!
_._

blithen
December 22nd, 2007, 04:59 AM
man that's crazy ](*,). BTW, I thought you were a girl (the name Fuscia )
Me too.
Ontopic: That is weird. It doesn't make sense to me still.

fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 05:06 AM
Think of it as a feature instead of a bug!
_._

hey, yeah! and i could think of squinting as eyelid exercises.

fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 05:08 AM
(speaking of movies, is your current avvie from 2046? if not, and/or if you haven't seen it, it's a fantastic flick)

yes, indeed. lovely movie and ms. zhang is delightful in it, as one might expect.

popch
December 22nd, 2007, 10:56 AM
i'm a little pink flower that just happens to own a laptop. what's so odd about that?

Potted flower?

The first incident (spontaneous dimming for a few seconds) kind of ruins the power saving bulb scenario, unless there are two similar but unrelated problems at the same time.

What's the brightness of your laptop in other rooms? Since it's a laptop, I presume it can be brought to and operated in other rooms as well.

Does it change when you use both the power saving bulb and the laptop in other rooms or when you do not use any electrical light at all?

Does the brightness vary depending on it running on mains or on battery power? If running with the mains plugged in, is there a current coming out of the socket in both cases?

Most LCD illumination problems are produced by frayed or broken wires connecting the body of the laptop to the lid. The hinges are the culprits. Does the brightness of the display change while you very slowly open all the way and nearly completely close the lid?

Does the laptop make any different noises depending on the dimness of the display? The room needs to be very quiet to detect this.

Are the ventilation slots entirely unobstructed in both cases?

(I have run out of things to ask. Any further observation at all might be helpful. But then, it might not)

Presto123
December 22nd, 2007, 11:02 AM
Did you cuss at your laptop before this happened? I find that laptops are especially touchy...considering their size issues. Shhh...I'm quietly typing this on my desktop.

bigken
December 22nd, 2007, 11:02 AM
it could be a sticky dip switch or a failing inverter board


if it were a damaged vga cable you would get strange colours on the screen

fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 11:24 AM
to answer all the serious questions related to the original subject, it's perfectly fine now that i have a normal light bulb.

timpino
December 22nd, 2007, 12:51 PM
i've got an idea although a very goofy one:

did you notice if your laptop began running on battery while in the room with the "save the earth bulb"? Most laptops dim their screen when the go to battery power.

If this was happening then it might be because the bulb stole all the power (somehow don't ask me how) :P leaving your powerbrick with not enough juice to power the laptop...

then again I might be out on a limb :)

fuscia
December 22nd, 2007, 04:28 PM
i've got an idea although a very goofy one:

did you notice if your laptop began running on battery while in the room with the "save the earth bulb"? Most laptops dim their screen when the go to battery power.

If this was happening then it might be because the bulb stole all the power (somehow don't ask me how) :P leaving your powerbrick with not enough juice to power the laptop...

i tried it on battery power in both locations.


then again I might be out on a limb :)

as long as you're keeping careful watch over your precious bodily fluids, you should be fine.

bobt12
December 23rd, 2007, 03:04 AM
Out of curiosity did you try to change the bulb back to the compact florescent to see if the problem reappeared?

Sunflower1970
December 23rd, 2007, 05:19 AM
I love those new squiggly bulbs. We recently changed out all the old bulbs with the new ones...and noticed the oddest thing in our bathroom. We have a shower curtain that has a flowered pattern and one of the colors in it is mauve. We also had towels that matched the mauve...or so we thought. With the old bulbs the towels and curtain matched perfectly, with the new bulbs the towels turned this ugly blue-purple. It was so noticable that the hubby asked me why I bought new towels that didn't match with anything...So it wouldn't surprise me if the bulbs make the LCD monitor look/act a bit differently.

Spike-X
December 23rd, 2007, 05:58 AM
It was so noticable that the hubby asked me why I bought new towels that didn't match with anything.

Holy crap. You have the one husband in the entire world who actually notices stuff like that!

EdThaSlayer
December 23rd, 2007, 09:27 AM
First I thought it was about the laptop backlighting but now it is all about the light bulbs you are using? I don't understand this at all. Fuscia, you are weird, in a interesting way.

ahaslam
December 23rd, 2007, 12:54 PM
Sounds like a simple case of dust within the hinge pickups. I have this problem, simply rocking the lid to n fro does the trick.