CentOS 5 :: X Windows Extremely Dim Screen On Laptop After 5.5 X64 Install

I've got the latest CENTOS v5.5 (disk 1 of 2) x86_64 that I've fully installed on a brand new Dell Inspiron 1749 laptop (less than 30 days old). I specifically tested the media at the beginning of the install, and it was good. I'd also verified the md5sum before burning it to disc. During installation from the DVD the X Windows GUI won't appear brightly lit and easliy viewable, the screen remains (seemingly -- more on this in a moment) blank. I experienced this when hitting enter at the install boot prompt. After a subsequent text-based install (which went fine), from runlevel 3, I ensured the X Windows group was fully installed, and tried "startx". Same blank (dim!) screen behavior.

Now the seemingly blank screen has a weird twist. In changing the light in my work room (for other reasons) I noticed that there was a dim, barely visible X desktop on the screen. It is extremely faint, most definitely unusable, cannot see anything clearly enough to make out setting or try to change anything. Unable to see any mouse movement, etc... Suprisingly, a flashlight helps to make out bits and pieces, though nowhere near enough to be usable. Killing X by any method doesn't bring back the brightness, though the console is usable again as such (i.e. reboot works). I've tried the <Ctrl><Alt><F2> and the like as part of the troubleshooting, it works funcionally, but doesn't return the (normal?) screen brightness along the way.

The system came from Dell with Micro$loth Windoze 7 x64 bit and operated normal (well, as normal as Windoze can). When system-config-display is ran from the commandline, the screen clears and brings up that utility. I can point a flashlight at the screen and see some elements of what looks like a functional/working utility. I cannot visually discern the mouse to try and select anything. I've floated around the screen a lot, but haven't seen anything I can leverage to make a change to the screen/monitor being used. I believe the video is an integrated (into the CPU) graphics chip/card/whatever.

P.S. System specific details are below.

lspci gives the following output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02 )
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)

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