If you have a cathode ray tube monitor, that means that it's not a thin, flat screen monitor but the type of monitor that takes up a lot of desk space, like an old tv set. Correct? If it's quite a few years old it may be starting to fail. In any case, to adjust brightness, it may have some buttons on the lower front of the monitor, or you may have to go into your Control Panel and look at the Display settings, or there may be something on your keyboard in the top one or two rows that shows a brightness and a dimming pair of keys. What kind of computer do you have and how old is this monitor?

We've been happy with our Zephyr; we have the Anzio in the 30" size. This is a flattened pyramid. Lighting is nice and bright when I want it. The fan is operated by push buttons. I rarely use the high setting because it is the noisiest. For the small amount of time I use high, it is an acceptable noise level.

No--my computer is wireless, so I figure not that much can get to it--although, I did turn it off when the worst of the storm was overhead. And yes, it was a glorious storm. The sunporch in the country house is glass floor to ceiling on 3 sides. I sat out here and just enjoyed the show. They were saying on the news there was some rotation, but no problems right here--just a good soaking for the garden. Sure am glad this didn't come with frost warnings here! I think we're well past that possibility now that we're living south of the Mason Dixon line--LOL!

You don't have the brightness set to auto do you? That could be over ridding your attempt to adjust. If I am in bright sunlight I slide my display brightness all the way to max and don't have a problem. Ask at the att store to look at the ZTE phones. They can be used on regular accounts as well as pay as you go. I have a regular family plan. My sim card out of my HTC phone went right into the ZTE along with the memory card. So much better than the HTC it replaced. I just won't pay the kind of money for iPhone when my android does all I need and more. It's definitely a personal choice.