9800pro Brightness problems

Mosad

Member
Oct 10, 2004
149
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My friend just purchased the card and i installed it for him. However, its too dark - easily solved right? Just go in, and turn up brightness in the control panel. Well thats exactly what he did but if he loads any sort of game the brightness resets back to dark...

How can he make brightness permanently higher?
 

hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
or maybe his computer or monitor isn't good enough (or to good) for the card...or the card is broken....

i'm alot of help....
 

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,944
475
126
Originally posted by: hans030390
or maybe his computer or monitor isn't good enough (or to good) for the card...or the card is broken....

i'm alot of help....

Yes, you suck. :)
 

Mosad

Member
Oct 10, 2004
149
0
0
ok doesnt matter what he does in game.. the card turns down the brightness and the monitor is an old crt that doesnt have controls - but his old nvidia never gave him any problems like this
 

obes2k

Junior Member
Feb 3, 2005
24
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Originally posted by: Mosad
ok doesnt matter what he does in game.. the card turns down the brightness and the monitor is an old crt that doesnt have controls - but his old nvidia never gave him any problems like this

that doesn't seem to make sense. adjusting gamma upwards should make things brighter... unless the card is shot (it happens, people DO sell junk on the internet).

Another thing, some games are really wierd in regards to brightness and gamma. While the game may even seem somewhat dark, the engine might actually have the brightness elevated well beyond that of standard brightness in windows, and may have reached a peak for the brightness level allowed with that card, or your monitor. You can test that by playing other games and seeing if it happens in ALL games, or just one or two. Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory is an example of a free downloadable game, that uses oddly high brightness for looking rather dark (until you adjust gamme even higher yet).

Hopefully you baught that at a store locally and can return for a refund or replacement, that will make your job 100x easier. Ofcoarse, there are alot of common things to try before that. Formatting and reinstalling windows is the last line, but mentioned first because if the problem still occurs after that, you know for certain it isn't a software issue. Make sure you go in control panel => add/remove programs => and remove anything that says ATI and especially NVidia, and reinstall latest catalyst drivers, get the ones with the control panel, found here.

Also, is the card 100% other than the gamma level issue? Smooth framerates on most games? No artifacts @ stock speeds? I have a 9800 pro, slightly overclocked, I run almost any game @ 1024/768, 2x aa, 2x af, v-sync enabled @ 85hz (forced 85hz timing to all 3d applications), highest detail settings in-game, with hardly any stutter, even at peak action sequences. Doom 3, and Far Cry are a couple exceptions to that rule, but games like wolfen - et, half life 2, NFSU-2, Punisher, hitman contracts, ut2k4, all run great.
 

Mosad

Member
Oct 10, 2004
149
0
0
the game in question, well games are Splinter Cell Pandorra Tomorrow and now the CHaos Theory beta... but searching online this problem isnt uncommon for 9800 pros... and when i installed his card i went directly for the newest 5.3 catalyst drivesr, skipping the disc install and everything inbetween
 

Killrose

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 1999
6,230
8
81
I bought a 9800pro used awhile back and it was dark too. I tried monitor, video card driver adjustments and still no good. I took the card out and inspected it and it appeard to have a spot of sticky residue (pop maybe), I cleaned the whole card with tuner wash and it was fixed when i put it back in. No adjustments needed.

Maybe it was not in the AGP slot. Who knows.