Brightness Not Working on Windows? Here’s How to Fix It!

Tired of staring at a screen that’s either too dim or searingly bright? When your Windows brightness control stops working, it’s incredibly frustrating. Fortunately, the problem is often easily fixed. This guide will walk you through various troubleshooting steps to get your screen brightness back under your control.

Why is My Brightness Not Working?

Several factors can cause brightness controls to fail in Windows:

  • Outdated or corrupted display drivers: This is the most common culprit.
  • Generic PnP Monitor driver: Windows might be using a generic driver instead of the manufacturer’s specific one.
  • Incorrect power settings: Power-saving settings might be interfering with brightness control.
  • Display adapter issues: Problems with your graphics card can prevent brightness adjustment.
  • Windows updates: Occasionally, updates can introduce driver conflicts or bugs.
  • Hardware issues: In rare cases, the monitor itself might be failing.

Troubleshooting Steps: Getting Your Brightness Back

Here’s a step-by-step guide to diagnose and resolve the brightness control issue:

1. Restart Your Computer

It might sound simple, but restarting your computer is always a good first step. It can resolve temporary software glitches that might be affecting the brightness control.

2. Check the Action Center

The Action Center (notification area) is the easiest way to adjust brightness. If the brightness slider is missing or unresponsive:

  • Click the Action Center icon in the taskbar (it looks like a speech bubble).
  • Look for the Brightness tile. If it’s there, try adjusting the slider. If it’s missing, proceed to the next steps.

3. Update Your Display Driver

Outdated or corrupted display drivers are a primary cause of brightness problems. Here’s how to update them:

  1. Open Device Manager: Press Windows Key + X and select Device Manager from the menu.
  2. Expand Display adapters: Find your graphics card (e.g., NVIDIA GeForce, AMD Radeon, Intel UHD Graphics) and expand the category.
  3. Update Driver: Right-click on your graphics card and select Update driver.
  4. Search automatically for drivers: Choose the option to let Windows search automatically for updated drivers. Windows will search online for the latest compatible driver. Follow any on-screen instructions to install it.
  5. Restart your computer: After the driver is installed, restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

If Windows doesn’t find a new driver, you can also try updating the driver manually by downloading it from the manufacturer’s website (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel).

4. Roll Back Your Display Driver

If the brightness issue started after a recent driver update, rolling back to the previous driver version might fix the problem:

  1. Open Device Manager: (as described above)
  2. Expand Display adapters: (as described above)
  3. Properties: Right-click on your graphics card and select Properties.
  4. Driver Tab: Go to the Driver tab.
  5. Roll Back Driver: If the “Roll Back Driver” button is enabled, click it. Follow the on-screen prompts. If the button is greyed out, a previous driver isn’t available.
  6. Restart your computer: Restart your computer after the rollback is complete.

5. Disable Adaptive Brightness

Windows has a feature called Adaptive Brightness that automatically adjusts brightness based on ambient light. Sometimes, this feature can interfere with manual brightness control. To disable it:

  1. Open Control Panel: Search for “Control Panel” in the Start menu and open it.
  2. Hardware and Sound: Click on Hardware and Sound.
  3. Power Options: Click on Power Options.
  4. Change Plan Settings: Click on Change plan settings next to your current power plan.
  5. Change advanced power settings: Click on Change advanced power settings.
  6. Display: Expand the Display section, then expand Enable adaptive brightness.
  7. Setting: Set both “On battery” and “Plugged in” to Off.
  8. Apply and OK: Click Apply and then OK to save the changes.

6. Check the Generic PnP Monitor Driver

Sometimes, Windows uses a generic PnP Monitor driver instead of the specific driver for your monitor. This can limit brightness control. To resolve this:

  1. Open Device Manager: (as described above)
  2. Expand Monitors: Expand the Monitors category.
  3. Update Driver: Right-click on “Generic PnP Monitor” (or similar) and select Update driver.
  4. Browse my computer for drivers: Choose the option to Browse my computer for drivers.
  5. Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer: Select this option.
  6. Select your monitor’s driver: If your monitor’s specific driver is listed, select it and click Next. If not, uncheck “Show compatible hardware” and see if it appears. Warning: Installing an incompatible driver can cause problems. Only proceed if you are sure you have the correct driver for your monitor.
  7. Install the driver: Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver.
  8. Restart your computer: Restart your computer after the driver is installed.

7. Modify the Registry (Advanced Users)

Warning: Incorrectly modifying the registry can cause serious problems. Back up your registry before proceeding.

  1. Open Registry Editor: Press Windows Key + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
  2. Navigate to the BrightnessControl key: Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e96e-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\000[x] (where [x] is a number, usually 0000 or 0001. Check both folders.)
  3. FeatureTestControl: Look for a DWORD value named FeatureTestControl. If it exists, double-click it.
  4. Change Value data: Change the Value data to ffff. If the key doesn’t exist, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named FeatureTestControl and set its value to ffff.
  5. Restart your computer: Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

8. Check for Windows Updates

Make sure your Windows installation is up to date. Updates often include bug fixes and driver updates that can resolve compatibility issues.

  1. Open Settings: Press Windows Key + I to open the Settings app.
  2. Update & Security: Click on Update & Security.
  3. Check for updates: Click the Check for updates button.
  4. Install updates: Install any available updates and restart your computer.

9. Hardware Problems

If none of the above steps work, the problem might be with your monitor itself. Test your monitor with another computer to rule out a hardware issue. If the brightness controls still don’t work, the monitor may need to be repaired or replaced.

By following these troubleshooting steps, you should be able to resolve most brightness control issues in Windows and get your screen looking just right.