screen dimming in OS X... a feature, a bug.. or?

sobelizzardsobelizzard
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hey all, I have been annoyed by this happening on my computer for awhile, and finally I have decided to see if it can (or SHOULD) be fixed. Here's my situation:

700 Mhz G4 iMac, combo drive etc.

currently i'm running 10.2 (c115) but this happened in 10.1.5 and (i THINK) 10.1.4



What happens is that after 30 seconds of inactivity on my part, the screen will drop to the lowest brightness level. As soon as i touch the mouse or a key etc, it snaps back to normal. I can't find anywhere to fix this in the energy saver panel. the screen isn't sleeping (ie. not turning black...just dropping the brightness way down), this is particularly bothersome when reading documents without scrolling. I haven't heard other people complaining about it, so I am starting to wonder if its just me. IS this a feature ( i could see how this could maybe prolong the life of my flat panel) or is it a bug? Anyone know how to fix it? any suggestions would be key. thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    dsnideydsnidey Posts: 2member
    Feature. It's designed (as you guessed) to prolong the life of the screen's backlight .
  • Reply 2 of 2
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Mine does it, but it's definitely not 30 seconds (that would be SO annoying). Mine seems to do it maybe five minutes before my screen saver kicks in.



    Perhaps it's automatically tied to your screensaver and/or sleep settings? Isn't something you can control directly, but is perhaps triggered to kick in 5 minutes before your screen saver does?



    Something like that maybe?



    The way I have mine set up is for the screensaver to kick in after 20 minutes (currently using the forest one), then at 45 minutes, everything goes to sleep.



    If I leave my computer but come back in, say 10 or 15 minutes, I notice the screen has dimmed.



    The 30 seconds thing would drive me nuts for sure.
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