# Solved: Weird Monitor Lock...



## GoblinCleaver (Jan 18, 2008)

I realized today that the brightness of my monitor was actually hurting my eyes at work. When I hit the buttons on the monitor to manually change the settings, a padlock picture appears on my screen. Next I tried doing it through the computer itself, but that didn't help either as I didn't know what I was looking for (probably in control panel?).

I'm running Windows XP Pro on a Dell Dimension 8200 with a 17" Dell Monitor. I can't find any program on my computer that would be doing this (because I know there are ways to lock-down those buttons on the monitor through third-party software).

So how can I change the brightness?

Thanks


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## GoblinCleaver (Jan 18, 2008)

bump


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

Might be a firmware or hardware bug in the monitor. Here is a page with a method of removing the icon that works for some Dell Monitors.

http://www.paulstravelpictures.com/Dell-LCD-Monitor-Flashing-Padlock-Icon/index.htm


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## GoblinCleaver (Jan 18, 2008)

cwwozniak said:


> Might be a firmware or hardware bug in the monitor. Here is a page with a method of removing the icon that works for some Dell Monitors.
> 
> http://www.paulstravelpictures.com/Dell-LCD-Monitor-Flashing-Padlock-Icon/index.htm


Thanks Woz. I wasn't able to find any solution to this problem by google search or by going to Dell Discussion Forums. I thought the link you gave me would work after reading it, but I tried it to no avail. My padlock is continuously displayed as locked, not changing from locked to unlocked like on the site you showed me. I can't figure out what's causing it, but do you know of any other way I could go in and change it manually that you know of?

I'm getting pretty desperate (notice the bump). Nobody anywhere seems to know what this problem is. I thought it was going to be something fairly simple...

Thanks again though!


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## GoblinCleaver (Jan 18, 2008)

Solved: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1335-3-dell-1701fp-undocumented-lock-mode

Holding the menu button down for 20 seconds or so changed the icon to unlocked (Yay!)

Wow, that was simple.


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