VA721/Windows 2000 - contrast/brightness settings grayed out

The contrast setting controls the relation between the light and black areas of the screen. If the light areas are too bright and are losing details, press the CVOL button; if the picture is gray and lacks contrast, press the VOLB button

The brightness setting controls the overall amount of light in the picture. If the picture is too bright, press the CVOL button; if the picture is too dark, press the VOL B button

The color setting controls the intensity of color.

Curtis Mathes CM19102 Owner Manual Returning To The Factory Settings...

From this web site:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000594.htm
How do I adjust my brightness or contrast on my laptop? Every laptop is different, so adjusting the brightness or contrast on your laptop may vary from the steps provided on this page. However, understanding the process of how to adjust the brightness or contrast will help you change your settings.
Most laptops adjust their brightness and other settings using the function key in conjunction with another key. For example, pressing and holding the function key (abbreviated as "Fn") and pressing the up or down arrow keys as shown in the picture below, increases and decreases the brightness.

Other examples also shown in the above picture include pressing Fn and F1 and F2 or F7 and F8 to increase and decrease the brightness. If none of the above examples resemble your keyboard look for keys on the keyboard that have pictures of a sun or a half moon to identify the correct key to adjust the brightness.
How can I adjust the laptop contrast? Laptops only allow users to adjust the brightness of their screen. Contrast settings are not adjustable on a laptop display.
How do I save the new adjusted settings? After adjusting your laptops brightness it will retain the new settings.
Laptop brightness is still not enough or screen is black If after following the above steps your brightness is still not enough, plug your laptop into the wall to make sure it is not a power setting that is decreasing the brightness. If the laptop is plugged in but still is not bright enough, try the suggestions on the below link.

• My laptop computer screen is black.

Try adjusting the contrast and brightness settings when you scan. If the contrast is set wrong it will pick up the shade of the white paper.

Hi,

Dear User...

You can adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor to improve the readability of text and to make digital pictures appear more like they'll look when printed.

To improve the results when adjusting the brightness and contrast settings for your display, use Display Color Calibration. (Display Color Calibration helps you adjust these color settings and others.) For more information about calibrating your display color in Windows, see Calibrate your display.

The way you adjust brightness and contrast varies and depends on your specific display.

• Brightness and contrast buttons on the front of the monitor. Some monitors have brightness and contrast controls on the front and use the standard symbols shown in the following image.

• On-screen menu. You can change the brightness and contrast settings for some displays by using an on-screen menu, and then setting the brightness and contrast in the resulting menu. Many times, you can view the on-screen menu by pressing a button-possibly labeled Menu-on the front of the monitor.

Thanks....

laptop ot desktop monitor ?

Adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast

You can adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor to improve the readability of text and to make digital pictures appear more like they'll look when printed.

To improve the results when adjusting the brightness and contrast settings for your display, use Display Color Calibration. (Display Color Calibration helps you adjust these color settings and others.)

The way you adjust brightness and contrast varies and depends on your specific display.

Brightness and contrast buttons on the front of the monitor.

Some monitors have brightness and contrast controls on the front and use the standard symbols shown in the following image.

Brightness and contrast symbols

On-screen menu. You can change the brightness and contrast settings for some displays by using an on-screen menu, and then setting the brightness and contrast in the resulting menu. Many times, you can view the on-screen menu by pressing a button-possibly labeled Menu-on the front of the monitor.

Laptop display. Laptop displays don't have brightness or contrast buttons on the front.

For a majority of laptops, there isn't a control for setting the contrast.

However, you can set the brightness of many laptops by pressing and holding the Fn key, and then pressing a function key to decrease brightness ( ) or increase brightness ( ).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Calibrate-your-display#

When using Display Color Calibration on a laptop, set the display to the maximum brightness setting.

Adjusting brightness automatically using adaptive brightness

Adaptive brightness is a feature in Windows that uses a light sensor to automatically adjust the display brightness to match the lighting conditions in your computer's surroundings.

To use adaptive brightness, you must have light sensors installed and enabled on your computer.

To determine if your laptop or computer monitor supports adaptive brightness, look for the Enable adaptive brightness setting in Power Options (mentioned in the following procedure) or check the information that came with your computer.

To turn adaptive brightness on or off

Open Power Options by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, and then clicking Power Options.

Under any plan, click Change plan settings.

Click Change advanced power settings.

In the list, expand Display, and then expand Enable adaptive brightness.

To turn adaptive brightness on or off when your computer is running on battery power, click On battery, and then, in the list, click On or Off.

To turn adaptive brightness on or off when your computer is plugged into an outlet, click Plugged in, and then, in the list, click On or Off.

Click Apply. Click OK.

hope this helps

Brightness can be adjusted by the hotkeys or within windows (system settings - backlight).
contrast can be adjusted with a potentiometer at the mainboard.
normally contrast does not change over the lifetime (my oldest 3090 is used 8h/day for 7 years)

some of the old 3090 have a CCFL backlight which dramatically losing brightness when getting old. you have to replace the tube or display unit.

Bootup your computer and display your Windows Desktop. Make sure yourmonitor stays on for at least half an hour before you begin, so that itis properly warmed up.


Seta pure black image on the monitor so you can adjust the brightness. Toget a pure black image, do the following: Choose Start, then ControlPanel, then Display. This will open the Display Properties dialog box.Click the down arrow next to the representation of the desktop color inthe Color field. Choose black from the color palette, then click OK.


Maximizethe Brightness control on your monitor, then slowly reduce it until theblack of the image perfectly matches the black at the edge of thephysical screen. This puts the brightness at the proper setting.


Open a screen with a plain white background soyou can adjust the contrast. One of the best ways to do this is to open aword-processing document without any text in it. Gradually reduce the contrastsetting of your monitor until the white area of the screen begins to lookslightly gray or off-white. Then gradually increase the contrast until thewhite area on your monitor is pure white. This will give you the proper whitebalance. Now you've got your monitor ready for peak performance.

Hope this may help you solve your problem.

From p.29 of the manual

"Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color, and Tint are only available for adjustments
if you select User in Picture Mode.
Press / on the remote control or VOL+/ VOL- on the control panel to adjust these settings."

mmm look you have a setting problem reset the screen to it's defulat if it didn't solve the problem you will have to change the press bottoms and you will need some who know electronics to help you with the board but first try to rest it to the defulat settings

What is the reason without me pushing any button or anything the contrast/brightness menu comes up on the screen?