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February 14th, 2017 22:00
Cannot disable Dynamic Contrast on my Dell Precision M6500
I cannot disable Dynamic Contrast on this laptop, be I running on DC or AC power:
Dell Precision M6500
Intel Dual Core i7 M620 2.67GHz
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2800M.
8GB RAM
500GB HD
Windows 7 x64 Professional SP1
Dynamic Contrast: the backlight on the monitor changes brightness based on the graphics shown on-screen; lots of dark pixels lead to backlight dimming, lots of bright pixels lead to backlight brightening. This happens continuously, when switching windows or applications, when manipulating CAD models, when scrolling through web pages, etc.
(This is not to be confused with Adaptive Brightness, which changes the backlight brightness based on the brightness of the external environment of the laptop, i.e., dark room vs. high noon outside. I have successfully disabled Adaptive Brightness.)
Demonstration: I'm displaying a mostly black web page, maximized. I have a large white Notepad window that I can drag around to add lots of white pixels to the screen. To not let my phone's auto brightness/contrast muddy the perceived behavior, I have zoomed into the top left corner & I am dragging the Notepad window up & down to essentially turn the right half of the monitor white. When Notepad is up & the monitor is half white, the backlight brightness increases dramatically, distractingly changing the dark pixels because of pixels on the other side of the screen changing brightness.
My myriad failed efforts to disable Dynamic Contrast have included (by memory & some notes--I probably tried other tactics too--I'll update if applicable):
1 - BIOS: disable Adaptive Brightness.
2 - Control Panel/Power Options/Edit plan settings/Dim the display: Never for all plans.
3 - Control Panel/Power Options/Edit plan settings/Change Advanced Power Settings/Display:
- Dim display after: 0 minutes for On battery & Plugged in
- Display brightness & Dimmed display brightness: percentages set to all be the same for On Battery & Plugged in
- Display/Enable Adaptive Brightness/On battery: Off
- Display/Enable Adaptive Brightness/Plugged in: Off
4 - Trying 4 different revs of NVIDIA drivers:
- 9.18.13.2702 8/29/2013 (what I thought was the newest rev, as downloaded through Control Panel/Device Manager/NVIDIA Quadro FX2800M Properties/Driver Tab/Update Driver)
- 8.17.12.5729 5/22/2010 (recommended by SolidWorks Rx 17, last recommended/confirmed driver)
- 21.21.13.4200 10/18/2016 (per NVIDIA support, version 342.00 of the download is the latest driver that supports this card)
- 189.21, A03 03/05/2014 (from Dell)
5 - Control Panel/NVIDIA Control Panel/Video/Adjust video color settings/2 - With the NVIDIA settings/Advance Tab/ Dynamic range: Full (0-255) & uncheck Dynamic contrast enhancement. This checkbox was not present in all revs described above (but it didn't work anyway.)
6 - Control Panel/Device Manager/NVIDIA Quadro FX2800M Properties/Disable. Laptop showed VGA resolution but Dynamic Contrast remained.
7 - Uninstalling all NVIDIA drivers altogether. Same as 6 above.
8 - Services.msc/Adaptive Brightness: disabled.
9 - Services.msc/NVIDIA Display Driver Service: disabled.
10 - Services.msc/NVIDIA Update Service Daemon: disabled. (On one earlier driver installation effort, I had added more NVIDIA components to my installation, resulting in 2 more NVIDIA services listed here--I don't recall their names, but disabling them did not change Dynamic Contrast.) These NVIDIA-related tests suggest that the NVIDIA driver may be innocent.
11 - Learning that Control Panel/Intel HD Graphics has settings (Intel HD Graphics Control Panel/Power/On Battery/Display Power Saving Technology: disable) that can disable Dynamic Contrast. My multiple attempts to download the right software version were for naught--upon launching the installers, they informed me that my system did not support the software (or vice versa). Out there somewhere may be the right Intel HD Graphics control panel download for me.
- Here's where I found downloads, but no luck on finding the right one:
downloadcenter.intel.com/.../Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-10-15-40-6th-Gen-
12 - Seeking out (but not finding installed) Dell Intelligent Display power management software pre-installed on some Dells, which should have power-related settings. While looking into downloading this from Dell, I was turned off by the verbiage suggesting that it would insinuate itself into the system & other adverse/irritating effects seemed likely. If it is installed, this elusive bit of software is supposedly conjured up as such (I failed).
- Boot & hit F2 when the Dell logo comes up.
- Go to the "Boot" tab and disable Secure Boot. [I don't have this option.]
- Save and exit and continue with the reboot.
- When it's up and running, go to your desktop, right click on the battery icon and select "Power Options."
- On the left side of the Power Options window, click on "Dell Extended Battery Life Options." [I don't have this option.]
- In the first tab of the new window, you should now see the "Dell Intelligent Display" option which can be disabled.
13 - Seeking out (but not finding installed) Dell Extended Battery Life power management options available through the battery icon in the system tray, sometimes when going from DC to AC power. It seems that my OS is a "clean" installation, with no Dell items in it.
14 - Booting on AC power & switching to DC power.
15 - Registry edits:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000 add DCUserPreferencePolicy & ACUserPreference Policy dwords, both set to 00000000.
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001 add DCUserPreferencePolicy & ACUserPreference Policy dwords, both set to 00000000.
16 - Uninstall Power4Gear hybrid software [which I don't have, so I could not remove it]. Suggestion found on an ASUS forum. May be inapplicable to my Dell.
17 - Uninstall Splendid power4gear hybrid software [which I don't have, so I could not remove it.]. Suggestion found on an ASUS forum. May be inapplicable to my Dell.
18 - Hook up an external flat screen monitor using the VGA connection, duplicating laptop screen: no Dynamic Contrast on external monitor, but Dynamic Contrast remains on laptop screen.
19 - Hook up a different external flat screen monitor using the HDMI connection, duplicating laptop screen: no Dynamic Contrast on external monitor, but Dynamic Contrast remains on laptop screen. Could the issue be at some low fundamental level within this laptop display?
20 - Some searches revealed users who defeated Dynamic Contrast by using their external monitor menu buttons to turn off some power-saving or brightness control features. Naturally, my laptop's integrated screen has no such menu buttons.
What's next?
Thank you,
-Jason
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