XPS 13 brightness has completely stopped working

Does someone know why the video driver is no longer available for download from Dell support site?

Thanks

I have had this problem for a number of months now, and have monitored closely the discussions online. Let us be honest here: there is NO solution to this problem to date. I have followed Dell's advice to update everything; BIOS, drivers, ran hardware diagnostics (all passed), the last time being two days ago. Surely the brightness control does come back after all this, only to fail again *apparently* after the machine goes to sleep more than once. 

For those who work sometimes into the night, such control is crucial. If the latest update clearly does not work (to anyone), then Dell released an update that was not tested properly and should stop telling customers to update their drivers, BIOS, etc. Worse yet, you can find online recent advice from Dell to "roll back" the drivers. What is this? It equates to saying "here is the latest, it's been automatically installed on  your machine, but don't use it". 

Dell, please solve the problem. As of now, your product does not work and is impacting the work of those who need is as their main tool. It equates to being a hammer without a handle.

I've had this issue for a while now and it's very frustrating. How does Dell not have a fix for this yet?

Thank you for your message. I will be glad to escalate & assist you further.

What is the present BIOS & graphic version installed? Which older version works?

Have you tried updating the graphics driver from the manufacturer site & does the issue persist?

For my reference, please click on the message tab next to your avatar– click “New Message” & search for my Dell username (Sreejith R) & send a private message with the service tag, registered name & email address.      

How to locate the service tag

In reply to Sreejit,

Thank you for your message. 

>> What is the present BIOS & graphic version installed? Which older version works?

Present BIOS is the latest, and graphic version WAS the latest. Graphic version now is of May 2017. This was chosen very much at random from a list of "options" dating back to 2017 fortunately available at the Dell site. It seems to be working since yesterday, after having the machine sleep a number of times and reset once.

>> Have you tried updating the graphics driver from the manufacturer site & does the issue persist?

Before posting yesterday, I had everything updated from all possible directions (Dell and Intel) and had the latest of everything. I also ran diagnostics (Support Assist) which came as pass. This is the history as of April 2. Video/graphics was already the latest so there was no recommended action.

- Intel Chipset Device Software Driver - A07 - 11 MB - Recommended - Installed

- Realtek High Definition Audio Driver - A14 - 398 MB - Recommended - Installed

- Intel Management Engine Components Installer - A02 - 109 MB - Recommended - Installed

- Dell XPS 13 9360 System BIOS - 2.10.0 - 10 MB - Urgent - Installed

After all this, the brightness control *appears* to be functional until the machine sleeps (not sure if once or twice). Control is no longer possible after the machine sleeps and is awaken. Reset and power down does NOT fix the problem. It appears that whatever setting you had at sleep time is stuck. In my case, it was stuck at the lowest, so I couldn't see **bleep**. Night light control was not affected.

Thank you for the confirmation. What is the exact system model in the XPS 13 series?

Set video brightness to factory default in BIOS & to check if that helps? Since most of this system will be out of warranty, we will have limitations in escalating the issue.

I observe the exact same problem on my XPS 9360 purchased about 2 months ago and manfuactured about half a year ago. It is not and will not be out of warranty any time soon. Only solution to "wake up" brightness control after sleep is to reinstall older drivers. Then, even without restart, the brightess starts working. It works until sleep cycle and then it can't be resurrected. Clean up to date Win 10 Home, all latest drivers by Dell. FHD 1080 matte non-touch screen, i7 8550U CPU, latest BIOS.

It really drives me crazy and makes the laptop barely usable. Please do something. Good to write - the issue was not present initially, it was introduced either by Windows update (stable branch) or by newer drivers by Dell.

I had The same problem since January 2018 and just gave up. I rolled back the update 6 months ago and no longer do any updates. Which is pathetic after I've spend thousands of dollars on my touch screen mega XPS 13 wanting the latest things for my laptop but here we are a year later and Dell can't recognize the problem. 

We will not stop bumping this thread until we get a proper fix. Again, we paid a lot of money for this so called "premium laptop". This is not an issue of warranty. Dell have to ask themselves who they want to be: Just another low end computer supplier or a decent manufacturer with real support. Apart from that, we bought a laptop with brightness control, now this feature has been taken AWAY from us. Please work on a fix or give us part of our hard earned money back.

how did you roll back? to which update exactly?

Please try these steps.

Step 1

Go to settings > System> Display> Turn the “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes” to Off. > Apply

Click on "Graphics Properties" you should have a section that says "Power". If this is the case, then please go ahead and select that option. Right after that, please look for an option that says " Intel ® Power Saving Technology", there should be an option to either uncheck a box or else a "disable" option, go ahead and disable it. Make sure to apply the changes right after and then reboot the computer.

Step2:

Go to the Services.msc and disable the Sensor Monitoring Service and check if makes any changes.

If the above step doesn’t help Uninstall the Video driver completely and use the basic driver and check if the issue persists.

You can also try this registry fix.

1. press Win+r
2. type regedit and press Enter
3. navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Intel\Display\igfxcui\profiles\media\Brighten Movie and change ProcAmpBrightness to 0
4. Also, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Intel\Display\igfxcui\profiles\media\Darken Movie and change ProcAmpBrightness to 0

After a month of trying many things, spending hours on the phone with support, and sending my new 9360 in for repair, this actually seems to be working...THANKS!!!

I went through everything with support, DELL drivers, windows reset, new windows install then had to send it in for repair. I got my laptop back from repair Thursday, they replaced the screen??? No help, I forced this driver with the zip file and all seems well now, a few days should tell for sure. Thank you  for posting.