[mike one]

ALS- or automatic ambient light sensing is not working anymore after updating to 10.3.6.
if i carry my computer from a pitch black room into a light room and place it directly under a lamp the keyboard backlight and display brightness do not change.

I have attempted to set the screen and keyboard brightness in a light room and a dark room and whatever settings i last enact- those are the permenant ones that do not change as a function of room lighting. i have all the appropriate checkboxes checked (in keyboard and in display pref panes).

I have followed all the instructions and relevant apple documents, and i have found no other documentation of this problem. i was wondering if any of you had some suggestions (pref file somewhere to delete? :/ )

this is pretty annoying, since the featured worked perfectly in 10.3.3.

pbook 15, 1.5, 128v

[wuzup101]

It doesn't seem to work on my 15" either... dammit! (same specs as yours).

[Ruahrc]

It works fine for me.

PB 15" 1.33GHz, 64MB VRAM

Just a stab in the dark but what about like a reset of the PMU? Or some other kind of logic board reset? Maybe the apple hardware test cd will pick something up?

Ruahrc

[mike one]

Originally posted by Ruahrc:
It works fine for me.

PB 15" 1.33GHz, 64MB VRAM

Just a stab in the dark but what about like a reset of the PMU? Or some other kind of logic board reset? Maybe the apple hardware test cd will pick something up?

Ruahrc

pram, nvram resets did nothing.
this isn't a hardware problem. it worked 5 minutes before i 'upgraded' to 10.3.6.

wish i had had the HD space to clone my drive before updating. stupid apple updates... *grumble*

[MrForgetable]

works for me. same specs as ruah .

[Ryan1524]

works here.

Pb 15" Rev B loaded.

[glowingcactus]

Out of interest is your sleep indicator permanently on bright when backlighting does not work?

If so this has resulted in some people getting replacement motherboards.

See sleep light activity threads.

[mike one]

Originally posted by glowingcactus:
Out of interest is your sleep indicator permanently on bright when backlighting does not work?

If so this has resulted in some people getting replacement motherboards.

See sleep light activity threads.

i haven't seen those threads, but if you mean that is my white light flashing or on when it isn't supposed to be, well no, it is working fine.

also after waking computer from sleep, the backlit keyboard will not work no matter what...

[tooki]

Works fine on my 1.25GHz AlBook.

tooki

[mike one]

i now know of at least 2 other people with this exact same problem. i don't think i can go back to 10.3.3 because i am starting my thesis right now, and have no time to deal with any headaches which might arise.

though, quick ?: if i do an archive and install, will that allow me to use all my current apps or will they need to be reinstalled as well? sorry i should know the answer...

my 90 days of apple care is up, can i still call them to find out/let them know about this problem. i posted over there which is a complete waste of time, the threads there are so damn useless.

[slffl]

This problem has been around for quite a while. I still havn't heard of a fix for it.

[tavilach]

Works for me....15 1.5 128

[mattsgotredhair]

mine is working just the same as always

15" 1.33GHz 1G

[Scooterboy]

And mine.

[MRTrauffer]

Just updated mine yesterday. No problems yet. Same specs.

I didn't use software update or the combo updater for the OS update.

I repaired permissions, installed 10.3.5, repaired permissions, installed 10.3.6, repaired permissions, installed every other update I could, repaired permissions.

[Fusion]

Mike -

Before you go crazy and do an archive and install or something drastic, there are a couple things that you can try.

The fact that you can go to a dark room and adjust the brightness settings shows that it is working somewhat. In a light room, it shouldn't let you change the keyboard light at all, i.e. when you try to turn it up, it will just give you a null symbol. Does it still do this when you are in a completely light room? If not, it would seem that it is stuck in 'dark' mode and is not sensing when light becomes available.

The second thing to try, open up System Preferences > Accounts and create a new account with default settings. Log out of your account and log into the new one and see if it works there. When new accounts are created, they are given the default settings for power efficiency, brightness settings, etc... If this works, my guess is there is just some preference file somewhere that is preventing it or something.

I messed around a lot with mine and it did stop working like it should a month or so ago. However, I was reformatting my computer anyway due to some bad software that really screwed some stuff up (my fault) and after a fresh format it worked like a charm again and still does. This leads me to think that there is some preference file that controls it that can get corrupted easily.

Let us know the progress.

[hldan]

Originally posted by mike one:
ALS- or automatic ambient light sensing is not working anymore after updating to 10.3.6.
if i carry my computer from a pitch black room into a light room and place it directly under a lamp the keyboard backlight and display brightness do not change.

I have attempted to set the screen and keyboard brightness in a light room and a dark room and whatever settings i last enact- those are the permenant ones that do not change as a function of room lighting. i have all the appropriate checkboxes checked (in keyboard and in display pref panes).

I have followed all the instructions and relevant apple documents, and i have found no other documentation of this problem. i was wondering if any of you had some suggestions (pref file somewhere to delete? :/ )

this is pretty annoying, since the featured worked perfectly in 10.3.3.

pbook 15, 1.5, 128v

It sounds like the Power Management Unit may need resetting. First go to System Preferences and select "Keyboard & Mouse". Select the Keyboard tab and make sure that the button is checked for keyboard illumination.
Then shut down the computer and make sure it's plugged in before the next step.
With your left hand press this combo of buttons "Shift-Ctrl-Option" and with your right hand press the power button. This button combo must all be pressed at the same time. If done correctly you may see the power plug change color from green to orange but not always.

After pressing this button combo instantly let go and then restart the computer after 5 seconds. Your computer's clock may be out of sync but it won't if you have it set to pick up network time.
Hope this helps.

[Andrman]

The preference file that controls the ALS is com.apple.BezelServices.plist

There's one in your user Library and system Library. I'm really annoyed that mine go bad pretty much every time I set a custom screen brightness, but deleting the files and logging out and back in seems to always fix it.

[mike one]

Originally posted by hldan:
It sounds like the Power Management Unit may need resetting. First go to System Preferences and select "Keyboard & Mouse". Select the Keyboard tab and make sure that the button is checked for keyboard illumination.
Then shut down the computer and make sure it's plugged in before the next step.
With your left hand press this combo of buttons "Shift-Ctrl-Option" and with your right hand press the power button. This button combo must all be pressed at the same time. If done correctly you may see the power plug change color from green to orange but not always.

After pressing this button combo instantly let go and then restart the computer after 5 seconds. Your computer's clock may be out of sync but it won't if you have it set to pick up network time.
Hope this helps.

didn't work... thx though

[mike one]

Originally posted by Andrman:
The preference file that controls the ALS is com.apple.BezelServices.plist

There's one in your user Library and system Library. I'm really annoyed that mine go bad pretty much every time I set a custom screen brightness, but deleting the files and logging out and back in seems to always fix it.

nadda, hope they fix this in 10.3.>6

whenever i wake from sleep the keyboard no longer lights up at all. logouts don't even correct this problem.... only a restart. what is the point of having this keyboard now....blah!

[godylan]

Having same problems here too...

Still no resolution found for it though? can we bother apple about it maybe? there has to be some whizz out there that knows whats happening?...