Screen Brightness control disappeared after upgrading to 10.9 Cinema ADC

[BrandoDrumont]

Hi,

I've just upgraded to 10.9, and now I can't adjust the brightness of my screen anymore (Apple Cinema HD ADC). I rebooted my mac mini zapped the PRAM and nothing.
I rebooted again from my external drive with Mountain Lion and works fine.

Any ideas? its a bug?

Thanks

 

[tygrubb]

I have the exact same issue with the same set-up: loss of screen brightness control of external ADC Cinema Display. It worked perfectly under ML.

Methinks I will file a bug report with Apple.com/feedback.

 

[BrandoDrumont]

It's good to know Im not alone. Bug reported.

 

[bloomfeld]

Hi,

I have the same problem. Mac Pro 3,1 with EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition, 30''-ACD plays fine including brightness control, but 2nd screen (old 23''-ACD via ADC_DVI-Adapter) shows no brightness control. Has been all ok under Mountain Lion before.

Bug report sent to Apple.

 

[Mactryx]

No longer supported

Apple no longer supports a number of legacy monitors with the release of Mac OS X.9. See the following article.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5198?viewlocale=en_US

 

[BrandoDrumont]

Im very angry and disappointed ·$$/%(&/()()%/&%%/&$%Q"·$!"·!"·$·$"·
I can't believe it!
Now I need to downgrade to mountain lion.

 

[BrandoDrumont]

SOLUTION! (I did it and works perfect)

A member of Apple Support Communities solve the problem.
I'ts very funny when apple said "These displays were designed to work with older hardware that is incompatible with OS X Mavericks" what a crap.



I was able to solve this problem.

I got the following .kext files from a computer running mountain lion.

AppleBackligt.kext
AppleBacklightExpert.kext
AppleUSBDisplays.kext

The files are placed in /System/Extensions

Then i placed the kextfiles on the desktop, and ran a tool called "KextBeast". This app installs every kext file on the desktop. Then i rebooted and voilá..

1. Get kext files
2. Run KextBeast
3. Reboot

//ap

 

[MBHockey]

Very strange that they kept compatibility with the 30" ADC. External keyboard brightness controls still work for me.

 

[abgafi806]

Confirmed! Thank you!

SOLUTION! (I did it and works perfect)

A member of Apple Support Communities solve the problem.
I'ts very funny when apple said "These displays were designed to work with older hardware that is incompatible with OS X Mavericks" what a crap.



I was able to solve this problem.

I got the following .kext files from a computer running mountain lion.

AppleBackligt.kext
AppleBacklightExpert.kext
AppleUSBDisplays.kext

The files are placed in /System/Extensions

Then i placed the kextfiles on the desktop, and ran a tool called "KextBeast". This app installs every kext file on the desktop. Then i rebooted and voilá..

1. Get kext files
2. Run KextBeast
3. Reboot

//ap

I have been having the same brightness issue with my 23" Apple Cinema HD Display, perfect condition but after the Mavericks update I lost control over the brightness setting and my display was very dim. Now after these steps it works perfect again! THANK YOU!!

 

[Intell]

Very strange that they kept compatibility with the 30" ADC. External keyboard brightness controls still work for me.

Not that strange. The 30" is of the newer form that came out with the G5 PowerMac line. The models that Apple discontinued support for are mostly for their rather obsolete Apple Display Connector type that came out with the G4 PowerMac line. Apple is still supporting and will likely continue to support the G5 era aluminum displays as they connect with a standard DVI and USB/FireWire cable.

 

[bloomfeld]

I have been having the same brightness issue with my 23" Apple Cinema HD Display, perfect condition but after the Mavericks update I lost control over the brightness setting and my display was very dim. Now after these steps it works perfect again! THANK YOU!!

The following is a crosspost from the Apple Forum - just in case someone like me did the trick, losing both brightness sliders due to cache and PRAM:

I can confirm that this solution brought back the missing functionality - thanks a lot for sharing this information. To whom it may concern: the first time I tried this hack, BOTH monitors lacked the brightness slider, even after copying back the original 10.9 ktext files! It turned out that I had to delete the boot caches (used the "Onyx"-software for this) and the PRAM to get it going.

Now lets hope that we don't need to repeat this fix every minor update.

 

[JoeG4]

I know those screens have been around over 10 years and some of you guys are being pretty smug and calling them legacy screens, but the 23" ones are still better monitors than a lot of the 1920x1080 eIPS garbage on the market.

The most amusing part is that a very popular Windows program for controlling Apple display brightness (http://www.holstschumacher.dk/p/brightness-controller.html) takes up about 1mb. And that's a freestanding windows program with a GUI, hotkey controls, everything. The program just got updated to support 20"ers a few months ago too.

Curiously, the resale value of DVI to ADC adapters is still really good on ebay, too. Perhaps because the ADC cinema displays are really cool looking, unlike the current stuff?

I get the idea someone at Apple really wants these in a landfill, and that's too bad.

 

[Alrescha]

I moved the current AppleUSBDisplays.kext to the trash, replaced it with the one from the 10.8.5 Combo update with Pacifist, rebooted and all was well. Comments in the Apple support forum thread indicate that this was the only file changed. Worked for me.

A.

 

[NOTNlCE]

Thank you for this. Applying the fix now, just saved me from buying a new display.

EDIT:

Any chance someone can upload the kexts for me? Otherwise I will need to download, install, and update Mountain Lion again. I do not have systems still running the OS. If not, I will just extract from the App when I get home from work. Thanks again.

 

[Intell]

The kexts are Apple copyrighted code. They cannot be shared outside of a download hosted by Apple and Apple alone.

 

[NOTNlCE]

The kexts are Apple copyrighted code. They cannot be shared outside of a download hosted by Apple and Apple alone.

Understood - thanks, will re-download and extract myself then.

 

[drewturk]

what about 10.6?

I have snow leopard, can I use these kext files?

 

[Alrescha]

I have snow leopard, can I use these kext files?

You should not need them. This thread refers to a feature that was removed in Mavericks.

If by chance you are referring to using Snow Leopard kexts in Mavericks, that seems risky given the age differential - especially when more recent kexts are freely available.

Personal note, various updates to Mavericks have undone my changes. Since I have my brightness where I want it, I have not tried to re-install the old kexts.

A.

 

[grjj]

"New" solution

With the release of 10.10 Yosemite the kext re-install hack seems to have ended, when I try my system works much more slowly and has random crash issues.
I have found another workaround that requires a Windows virtual machine to be installed on the computer. I know it works with Parallels but may work with others.

http://www.holstschumacher.dk/p/brightness-controller.html

Maybe, just maybe if we start asking the dev, he'll work to create a Mac version or work with a Mac developer to create one.

I don't know the guy, I just found the app and donated $20 to him for his efforts.

 

[Antoni Nygaard]

With the release of 10.10 Yosemite the kext re-install hack seems to have ended, when I try my system works much more slowly and has random crash issues.
I have found another workaround that requires a Windows virtual machine to be installed on the computer. I know it works with Parallels but may work with others.

http://www.holstschumacher.dk/p/brightness-controller.html

Maybe, just maybe if we start asking the dev, he'll work to create a Mac version or work with a Mac developer to create one.

I don't know the guy, I just found the app and donated $20 to him for his efforts.

The kext hack works fine for me with my Mac Pro 2,1 with Yosemite 10.10.3 and AMD 6870 1GB. The Display Preference pane is a bit slow and sometimes hang a few seconds when the display is connected but nothing else then that. I have never tried the display kext hack on Mavericks so i can't compare it to that.

 

[Marx55]

Apple should bring back such functionality.

 

[ETBrown]

It may be the obvious solution (as well as the only one -- which worked for me, though not convenient for everyone): I connected my old Apple Cinema Display to my old Mac running a pre-10.9 system, which allowed me to successfully turn up the brightness to the maximum level. Then I connected the display back to my new Mac mini, installed an App called 'Shades' (there seems to be alternatives available, all for free or next to no cost), which allows me to dim the brightness to my desired level, and subsequently adjust it as desired.

 

[Intell]

Shades works by overlaying a black filter over what is displayed on the screen. It does not dim the backlight.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

"New" solution

With the release of 10.10 Yosemite the kext re-install hack seems to have ended, when I try my system works much more slowly and has random crash issues.
I have found another workaround that requires a Windows virtual machine to be installed on the computer. I know it works with Parallels but may work with others.

http://www.holstschumacher.dk/p/brightness-controller.html

Maybe, just maybe if we start asking the dev, he'll work to create a Mac version or work with a Mac developer to create one.

I don't know the guy, I just found the app and donated $20 to him for his efforts.

Sorry to respond to an old thread, but I might run into this same issue once I get the adapter for my 23" [acrylic] HD Cinema Display. Can you confirm that this software will work in a virtual machine and have its effects last even once the virtual machine has been closed?

Because, I'd rather just try this method over installing pre-10.9 on a separate disk and adjusting the monitor's brightness that way. The former would be easiest.

 

[venom_snake]

The following is a crosspost from the Apple Forum - just in case someone like me did the trick, losing both brightness sliders due to cache and PRAM:

I can confirm that this solution brought back the missing functionality - thanks a lot for sharing this information. To whom it may concern: the first time I tried this hack, BOTH monitors lacked the brightness slider, even after copying back the original 10.9 ktext files! It turned out that I had to delete the boot caches (used the "Onyx"-software for this) and the PRAM to get it going.

Now lets hope that we don't need to repeat this fix every minor update.

Im running OSX Yosemite and followed the kext. download instructions but still no slider for my ADC/DVI monitor. I reset the PRAM and still nothing.
You mentioned you had to delete the boot caches? What is that and how do I go about doing that?