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Screen auto-dimming when displaying dark backgrounds - HD 4600, Win 8.1 64bit

MI1
Novice
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Hello,

I have this extremely annoying issue on my laptop: my screen automatically dims when displaying dark backgrounds. This is visible in all scenarios, and can be easily tested if I open two tabs in any Internet browser, one with a white background and one with a black background. I cannot find any way to disable it, and I am pretty sure it's an Intel driver 'feature'. The adaptive brightness setting in Windows Power management has no impact on this behavior.

I'm using the latest Intel driver at the moment (10.18.14.4264), but the behavior has been the same for the past 3 drivers. Please help - I need a way to get rid of this, as the constant change in brightness is very disturbing.

Thank you.

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MI1
Novice
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One more detail: this happens when the laptop is plugged-in as well as on battery.

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Allan_J_Intel1
Employee
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The latest video drivers for Intel® HD Graphics 4600 would be 4294. Please try: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25425/Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-15-36- Download Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows 7/8.1* [15.36]

Allan.

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MI1
Novice
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Allan, thanks for pointing the new driver to me. I've installed it, but unfortunately the problem is still there. Any other suggestions?

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Allan_J_Intel1
Employee
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If you connect an external monitor, does it dim the screen?

How does it look in BIOS? if you are getting same issue, it might be the LCD screen.

Allan.

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MI1
Novice
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Allan,

Thank you for following up on this issue.

I am using two external screens, usually connected to a DisplayLink USB dock, so they are using their display adapter. I made a test and hooked one of the monitors directly to my laptop's HDMI port. In both cases (external monitor through DisplayLink and external monitor through laptop HDMI port) the external displays don't dim. If the external monitor replicates the contents of the laptop monitor and I make the test, the laptop monitor dims and the external one doesn't.

The BIOS screens don't have any settings related to display.

Also, it doesn't look like a screen malfunction. The dimming is not random or spotty, or sudden. There is transition between the two states (bright and dim) which takes approximately 3 seconds to complete. And it's totally repeatable. This is why I think it is a 'feature' of a sort.

So you're saying that the Intel drivers/adapters don't have any functionality that may cause this behavior, and it's related to another cause/component?

Thank you

Marius

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Allan_J_Intel1
Employee
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Indeed, when you are using video adapters, this may cause problems with the functionality of the video controller and the video port. At this stage, I recommend using straight video cables.

Allan.

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gbhj
New Contributor I
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inside the tool dispdiag there is an option to debug the brightness level that the GPU is setting the display backlighting to. the options available can be seen with -h

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MI1
Novice
1,888 Views

Allan,

Please read my post again: this does not happen when using the external docking station, or with the external monitor hooked to the laptop hdmi port. So video cables have nothing to do with the problema at hand.

zeqzy - thanks for pointing out the tool. I tried enabling brightness logging, but I can't seem to find the location of the log file. Would you happen to know where it saves it? As far as I can see, the switch toggles verbose logging on and off, but specifiying an '-out' parameter doesn't seem to help

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MI1
Novice
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While searching for a solution to this problem, I came across the term "Intel Display Power Saving Technology". As far as I understand, there was an option to enable or disable this option in older driver versions. However, I cannot find any reference to this in the current driver version.

Does anyone know if this feature still exists in the current drivers, and if yes, how it can be turned off?

Thank you

Edit: The fix described here appears to be working : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3046889 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3046889 . This means that the problem is caused by the Intel DPST indeed. I'm sure there is a way to disable it: a patch, a registry hack, anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ilibe1
Beginner
1,888 Views

It is indeed an intel issue. After I tried everything suggested with no results, I solved the problem by running regedit and changing these values to zero:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Intel\Display\igfxcui\profiles\media\Brighten Movie

change ProcAmpBrightness to 0

change ProcAmpContrasts to 0

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Intel\Display\igfxcui\profiles\media\Darken Movie

change ProcAmpBrightness to 0

change ProcAmpContrasts to 0

 

I own Asus laptop with intel HD graphics 4600 (and geforce gtx 850M) on windows 8.1

After 2 years of efforts I can finally edit my pictures (photoshop) without having the intel drivers changing the contrast/brightness of my screen and leaving me wondering if the picture needed editing or it just was the screen playing games.

 

 

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