Hello blinsinftw, I have a Samsung N210 Plus laptop which developed the same problem you were having,no brightness control. This happened a few years ago. The LCD display was on full brightness all of the time, which made using it uncomfotable on my eyes. This appears to be an issue with Samsung. The problem started just after the guarantee had expired. I also tried all different ways to sort the problem out, nothing worked. I contacted Samsung and spent over half an hour on the telephone, with a technician. We got the brightness control working. Next time I switched on the laptop it had gone back to full brightness with no conrol. I stopped using the laptop until I found out about f.lux. This program auto adjusts the brightness, you can also manually adjust the brightness with ( Alt-PageUp or Alt-Page Down). Could I suggest If you problems with the brightness on your Samsung install f.lux. I'm using my laptop again since. Cheers.