G5 SE 5505, Brightness bar ghosted

I am writing this to save other Dell G5 SE (Ryzen Edition) owners from the year of frustration I just went through. If you have done a fresh install of Windows and found that your brightness slider is "ghosted" (it moves but does nothing), you aren't crazy—and your hardware isn't broken.

The problem is actually the official Dell Support website.

1. The "Official Driver" Trap

For over a year, I tried everything to fix my brightness control. I reinstalled Windows, flashed the BIOS, and dutifully downloaded the recommended "AMD Graphics Driver" from the Dell support page for my Service Tag.

Here is the massive oversight: Dell is pushing the "AMD Enterprise/Pro" driver for a Gaming Laptop.

The Dell G5 SE 5505 is a gaming machine with a 120Hz/144Hz screen. However, the driver on Dell's site forces the "Pro" workstation profile. This profile does not understand the specific "SmartShift" power link between the Ryzen CPU and the screen, causing the brightness controls to die completely.

Windows Update makes it worse by seeing this "Pro" driver as a priority and overwriting any manual fix you try to apply. The only solution that finally worked was going completely offline, nuking the drivers with AMD Cleanup Utility, and forcefully installing the AMD Adrenalin (Gaming) 23.5.2 driver.

When I tried to report this critical driver mismatch to Dell Support, I hit a wall caused by poor physical design.

Dell prints the Express Service Code on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Naturally, after months of use, friction from desks and laps completely erased the code. It is now unreadable.

This is where the experience became infuriating. I contacted support not to claim a warranty repair, but to essentially do them a favor: to report that their website is hosting broken drivers that are hurting customers.

Their response? "We cannot help you without an Express Service Code."

I explained that the code had rubbed off (a design flaw) and that I just wanted to report a website bug. They refused to listen by saying “ic you don’t have the service code go to the service station “ and kept on saying that .

I was blocked from helping them fix their own product because a sticker they placed in a high-friction area faded away.

If your brightness is broken, stop trusting the Dell site. Go offline, use DDU/AMD Cleanup, and install the standard Adrenalin 23.5.2 drivers.