I am wanting to know how to adjust the screen brightness on a compaq presario 1620 laptop. I just bought it from an auction and all seems to work ok except the screen. I believe the screen is going bad, but if I could darken it up some it would make the screen better.

You could d/l everest home, find out what the video drivers are on your laptop and update them. I had an old HP laptop that had the same problem, after I updated the video drivers all was well again. Hope that helps Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

I'd be amazed if it was a driver issue Depending on the graphics adapter, there's a variety of software that can allow more control over the display, such as PowerStrip - the old version (2.78) is free I believe Saying that XP is the most stable MS OS is like saying that asparagus is the most articulate vegetable

- sorry, I guess it's not free - but there are others, like DarkAdapted Saying that XP is the most stable MS OS is like saying that asparagus is the most articulate vegetable

Laptops normally have a backlight. If the backlight is dying, that would cause the display to appear dimmer. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

It is extremely unlikely this has anything to do with video drivers. You could make sure the right ones are loaded, but I doubt it would make any difference. Make sure the screen is close to perpendicular to your line of sight when you are viewing it - it will appear too bright if you are trying to view it outside of that range. An LCD screen that is too bright can be compensated for by using the proper keyboard keys. Search the HP web site(it's actually for both HP and Compaq) for the operating or users manual for your Compaq Presaario 1620 - it will tell you which keys will lessen the brightness - it's often the special Fn key in combo with another key (you hold down Fn, tap the other key). An LCD screen that is too dark either has a faulty or dead voltage invertor supplying voltage to it, which can be fixed relatively inexpensively, or the backlight is dying or is dead, which is expensive to have fixed, relatively inexpensive but tricky to do yourself, or you replace the display screen assembly with a new or refurbished one, which is expensive.