# Brightness/Contrast of Mac desktop extremely dark, please help!



## slacker21688

Hi,

I have a MacBook OSX and yesterday while playing a DVD, I noticed that the screen dims after the computer hasn't been touched for a while. So, I went ahead and went to System Preferences and to Energy Saver and unclicked setting for Power Adapter mode to "Automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep." Also, under Battery mode I unchecked "Reduce the brightness of the built-in display when using this power source." So, everything was fine after that.

Later on, I restarted my computer and the desktop itself was very dark. I had a display picture on the background and the somewhat darker parts of the image where now fully black. I tried to mess around with the brightness on the F1 and F2 but nothing works, it's as bright as it gets. I went online and even pictures show up three times as dark as they used to be. I tried to mess around with the System Prefrences Energy Saver, but nothing seems to work.

I really would appreciate some help on this. The screen itself is bright, but the desktop and everything that's open and displaying is completely darker then it was before.

Please help. Thank you for reading!!


----------



## FredT

Try going to System Preferences -> Displays -> Color -> Calibrate

When the Calibrate screen opens, make sure the "Expert Mode" button is checked.

Fool around with the options in there and see if that helps.

Not sure if this is where the problem lies, but you can try it. Let me know!


----------



## slacker21688

Hi, thank you for replying.

I tried to do it, but it still doesn't work. Only the brightness goes up to the point its too bright while the background still stays extremely dark. It's so odd. I am not sure what to do at all.


----------



## FredT

Are your scroll bars orange instead of blue?

Sounds random... but you may be in "reverse mode"...


----------



## FredT

Also, sys preferences > universal access

you can adjust contrast there


----------



## slacker21688

Wow, that worked. Thank you SO much! I just had no idea where to change the constrast.

Thank you again for your help! I appreciate it.


----------



## FredT

You're welcome


----------

