Dell D630 light sensor and backlight in Windows 7

Question

Is there a way to make Windows 7 aware of the light sensor built in the laptop? Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to control the backlight of the LCD from the OS (only the Fn + Up/Down key work). Is there a workaround available?

Solution 1

Just looked on Dell.com for you and it does not look like Windows 7 is supported / drivers are not yet available.

If you look at the driver page (Vista x64) / driver page (Vista x86), you may have luck with the Vista drivers, but obviously I can't guarantee it.

I see no drivers directly saying light control, but there are a few optional packages such as what is listed as "Dell utility - Notebook system software" that may have controls in for what you want.

Solution 2

Ambient light should be automatically adjusted, there is a setting in the BIOS that will allow this. All of the D620/D630s I have came with that setting off. There is also a max brightness setting I found useful. All seem to be set quite low as a power saving measure. For me the screens seem a bit dim so I crank up that max level.

Solution 3

The ambient light sensor is disabled by default in the BIOS. Also, it is disabled when your D630 is plugged in. Only works when on battery.

Comments

[Chris Thompson]

I have a D830 with Windows 7 and the Auto mode works fine (Fn+Left arrow)

[JcMaco]

If you press START + X, do you see a place to adjust your screen brightness? I don't see this with my laptop. Perhaps the D830 uses a different method to control the brightness, like APIC.

[JcMaco]

Thanks for the links, but none of the software offered on the page resolves this issue.

[William Hilsum]

Well, I said Windows 7 is not supported yet... That page is your best bet as I am sure that when Dell start offering support for it, it will be there.

[Moab]

Dell will never offer W7 support for that model, too old. support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/…