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I moved my Win 10 Pro SSD to a new laptop, and then did an in-place upgrade from Win 10 Pro to Win 11 Pro. After the upgrade I am no longer able to adjust the brightness of my screen. The brightness indicator appears when I press the keys, but neither up nor down actually changes the brightness.

In looking at the driver (C:\windows\system32\drivers\monitor.sys), it is from Windows 10 and is dated from year 2006. Anyway, my suspicion is that this very old driver is causing the problem.

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When I try to update the driver, I get the message that the best driver for my device is already installed. If I tell it to use Windows Update to search for a driver, it just opens the windows update setting panel, but no driver options appear.

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I have tried disabling the device and then updating the driver. I've tried uninstalling the device and then rebooting in the hopes it would find the monitor and add the correct driver, but still no joy.

I tried to rename the monitor.sys file thinking it would see it was missing and maybe add the correct version back, but it wouldn't let me delete it. And, thinking about it more, I really don't know how windows would respond... ie would it add the right driver, or fail to boot because it could no longer find the deleted driver file.

Anyway, I'm at my wits end. If anyone knows how to fix this kind of issue and can share some tips with me, it would be greatly appreciated.

mikem
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  • What model are your monitor and integrated display adapter? Note : If your question relates to the On-Screen Display (OSD), then it's handled by the monitor's firmware and not Windows. – harrymc Dec 06 '22 at 09:20
  • It's an HP Victus laptop. It has an Nvidia GTX 1650 adapter. I don't know what model the screen is, it just comes with the laptop. It is a full-hd screen. – mikem Dec 06 '22 at 09:43
  • A point of clarification... When I moved the Win10 SSD to the new laptop, it also had trouble adjusting the brightness. I thought the upgrade to Win11 would fix it. As a test, I did a fresh install of Win10 on the laptop and brightness worked as it should. I also did a fresh install of Win11 and it worked as well. Maybe it's not the monitor.sys file, even though it is very old. Maybe there's a registry value stuck somewhere thats keeping it from correctly identifying the new monitor? I just don't know enough about windows to know where to look. – mikem Dec 06 '22 at 10:12
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    My Windows 10 monitor.sys driver dates from June 2021, so this is indeed very strange. I suggest to start by updating all graphics driver from [NVIDIA Driver Downloads](https://www.nvidia.com/download/index.aspx) and [Intel Driver & Support Assistant](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/intel-driver-support-assistant.html), then reboot. If this doesn't help, since you have also installed a fresh Windows 11, you could check its monitor.sys version and even replace yours if it's more recent (keep the 2006 one as backup). – harrymc Dec 06 '22 at 10:47
  • Thanks. How can I replace the monitor.sys file? When I try, it tells me I don't have access even though I am logged in as the administrator. – mikem Dec 06 '22 at 20:47
  • Found it. You pointed me in the right direction. I thought the laptop had an nvidia GPU, and it does, but apparently it also has an intel GPU. I installed the intel graphics driver and brightness control was enabled. The odd thing is that the monitor.sys file was unchanged. I guess monitor.sys isnt as important as the display adapter. What I don't understand is if I have two GPUs, how does it know which one to use? Anyway. Thanks for your help! – mikem Dec 07 '22 at 08:52
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    I added an answer. – harrymc Dec 07 '22 at 08:59

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The poster's problem was resolved after updating all graphics driver from NVIDIA Driver Downloads and especially the Intel Driver & Support Assistant.

The source of the problem was the unupdated Intel driver, while the old monitor.sys remained unchanged and apparently not related to the problem.

It's better to reboot after updating drivers.

harrymc
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