What's happened to my screen's display?

[squidgster]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1370 that is about 5 months old. Today the screen settings appear odd. When the laptop is first switched on, the screen is darker than usual, but everything on it (all the text) looks 'sharper'. When I 'wake it up' after it has been in sleep mode, it's as if the brightness has been cranked up as high as it will go. It stays like that until it is switched off completely, when it will then come back on dark.

The screen display/brightness settings have not been changed. If I go to where I can change the brightness settings, moving the little bar up and down has no effect whatsoever. You bascially can't change the brightness at all, but are stuck with it either darker than normal or ultra bright. Plus there is the fact everything is extremely sharp.

Has anyone got any ideas at all what has gone wrong?

Thank you!