Stubborn computer with monitor brightness setting!

[FMiguelez]

Hello.
Every time I restart the computer (Intel iMac), it insists on resetting the brightness of the monitor to maximum, despite the fact that every time I turn it on I set it to minimum.

It sounds to me like it's a preferences problem. I see a lot of system-related plists in my Home Folder's Library.
I tried deleting the "com.apple.systempreferences.plsit", but it didn't work.

Does anyone have an idea of exactly which plist I should delete?
Is this a preferences problem in the first place, or am I on the wrong track?

Thanks!

[cuttime]

I'd try resetting the NVRAM (non-volatile RAM) settings:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[FMiguelez]

Thank you, Cuttime.

I tried it, and unfortunately it didn't work.
I Googled this issue and I found there are lots of people with the same problem, with no apparent solution.

This particular machine has ALWAYS been like this.

That thing is SO BRIGHT! Oh, well. Doing it with the keyboard is faster than setting the preferences, so I guess I can live with it.

If I find a solution I'll post it.

[cuttime]

mmm...sounds like it could be a faulty light sensor. Try un-checking "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes" in the display preference.

[mikehalloran]

Is it your MacBook or another?

If a Mac Pro, I'd replace the PRAM battery first.

[Michael Canavan]

mmm...sounds like it could be a faulty light sensor. Try un-checking "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes" in the display preference.

+1

[FMiguelez]

Thank you all for the suggestions.
Unfortunately they didn't work...

I tried resetting the NVRAM, unchecking the "automatically adjust brightness" thing, trashing some preferences files, but no dice

This seems to be a very common issue with them. I found a couple of complaints in Apple's forum, but none seemed to find a solution

[FMiguelez]

I guess the next step is to create a new account and try setting it there to see what happens.
I'll test this on Monday.

[FMiguelez]

Hmmmm....

Now it works!

The trick? To manually (with the keys) set the brightness to ALMOST the lowest setting. It never remembered it when it was all the way to the left, but it does if I leave a little square of brightness

Weird, huh?