Laptop monitor backlight keeps turning off

[smidget2k4]

A bit of background first. I have a Dell Inpirion laptop and have had Kubuntu happily installed for several months. I used xscreensaver's xset properties to set my laptop backlight to turn off after 10 minutes, which it was not doing before. This was several months ago.

Now, today I turned on my laptop and it gets through BIOS, and about 15 seconds into the loading Kubuntu loading bar the backlight turns off. The screen is still on, there is still a picture, just no backlight. To get it to go back on I have to push the monitor close button and it will go back on for between 1 to 15 seconds, then turn off again.

There were no setting changes or updates since my last boot, to my knowledge. Anyone have any ideas or run into this issue before?

-Jesse

[SheeEttin]

Re: Laptop monitor backlight keeps turning off

Is it still set to ten minutes?

[smidget2k4]

Re: Laptop monitor backlight keeps turning off

Indeed it is, xset -q tells me as such.

[Snowhog]

Re: Laptop monitor backlight keeps turning off

I'm going to venture that it has nothing to do with your BIOS or settings within the OS. That you can 'get it to go back on' by pushing the monitor close button suggests that you are experiencing the same problem that I have with my older laptop. But so I'm not talking to a situation that you MAY not have: when you say you loose your backlight - do you mean that the full brightness setting goes down to very dim (you can see the image, but it is VERY light and the screen looks basically 'black' - or something else?

If you are experiencing what I think it is, it's a problem with the actual switch for the laptop lid detector, which I think is a capacitor. How old is your laptop?