Laptop brightness setting

[Boss Llama]

Howdy all - I've got a situation that I can't sort out - which is pretty unusual for me as far as basic computer stuff goes - so I'd love to hear if anybody here as any experience with (or solutions to) this problem.

I can't get my laptop's brightness setting to hold.

Pretty ridiculous, eh? Of all the things that could go wrong, I simply can't get my screen to stay the brightness I want it. What I desire is for my brightness to remain at 50% while plugged in, and not to dim the screen for any reason. What's happening is that the system constantly resets to an incredibly low brightness (between 2% and 5%) when in use. When I say "constantly" I mean it - when I adjust the slider to where I want it, it sets itself back down within anywhere from 2 hours down to a split second. On multiple occasions I haven't even closed the dialogue box yet before it resets itself to ultra-dim settings. On countless other occasions it has changed back within 10-15 seconds. It isn't just dimming the screen for lack of activity - it is actually changing my system settings dozens of times a day to show a preference for incredible dimness. It actually just did it while typing that sentence.

So far, in an effort to prevent this, I have set every single option on every single power plan to use 50% brightness, and to never dim under any condition, whether plugged in or on battery. I have changed the advanced settings that tell it that if it should dim for some reason, the setting to dim to is also 50% brightness. I am on the administrator account, and I am plugged in (though that shouldn't really matter based on the settings I've given it). I have run virus and spyware checks, with negative findings. The system is running Windows 8, with StarDock's Start8 handling the GUI (it has no settings related to display, but figured I'd mention it).

All I want is for the brightness to remain where I set it. I'm having to reset it 20-50 times in a single work day. The setting it drops to is completely unusable (can barely even see the mouse cursor), and it drops to the same approximate level no matter what brightness I set it to and save it as. Any ideas?

[Mortis462]

Push the Vaio button, then go to "Display Quality" and turn off automatic brightness control, should solve your problem.

[tsmitho]

I don't see you mention a brand for the laptop? maybe Mortis knows but yes, my guess would be a utility made by the manufacturer ie. tohiba, lenovo, sony.

[Boss Llama]

Indeed, I do have a Vaio.

Push the Vaio button, then go to "Display Quality" and turn off automatic brightness control, should solve your problem.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU