1 Rookie
•
31 Posts
1
2198
September 4th, 2021 00:00
Auto Brightness driver issues
I bought this 9700 recently new, and have had a few surprising issues with it, which on further investigation are quite common.
Left speaker stopping working, requiring BIOS fiddling.
Battery drain when on AC, requiring specific Thermal and Battery settings.
But the worst one has been Auto Brightness (AB) when on Battery.
It just keeps on activating, regardless of the Windows and Intel Graphics Command Centre (IGCC) settings.
And it's not just big adjustments, it's lots of constant tiny micro adjustments. Impossible to use.
I explored all of the solutions thoroughly and on my travels discovered that I am missing loads of advanced power settings. Very frustrating not be able to set this in the power plan.
Further more I noticed that the IGCC toggle for AB is linked to and drives the windows setting for AB, but not the other way round, so you can end up with a state where one is on and one is off. This leads me to suspect that it is possible with enough toggling of both to end up with a state where they are both off, but AB is still on.
Anyway the driver implementation is obviously with it's issues.
I then tried to find the service to deactivate but no luck what so ever. (Any input on this welcome).
Lastly I tried disabling a sensor in Device Manager. Success!!! Who wants their screen randomly changing brightness anyway????
So now the control disappears from windows display settings (RMB desktop, Display Settings) which is encouraging.
But note the setting stays (as would be expected) in the IGCC.
Now what is telling is that when you turn on AB in the IGCC you don't get any obvious large brightness changes associated with this functionality, but you get the horrific micro adjustments. So it looks like it's the IGCC software which is relentlessly causing this issue. It looks like it is sending some odd un required voltages to the screen.
You may not notice this if your eyes are not tuned into such fluctuations, or indeed if this is a unique driver flaw (can't see that happening) but to me it's remarkably obvious.
Anyway it was driving me mad and I think someone else might benefit from my hacky solution.
Jim Me
1 Rookie
•
31 Posts
0
September 18th, 2021 13:00
Well they came back... don't you hate intermittent behavior !!
I think I have eventually found a solution for this.
dpst-control on github... (I don't think dell forums will let me post the link)
https://github.com/orev/dpst-control
I have virus checked these but I would recommend you do extensively virus test anything you download.
I no longer have the micro fluctuations. It is odd that Intel's own instructions on how to disable Intel® Display Power Saving Technology (DPST) simply did not work, and indeed some of the toggles are not explicitly or well tied to windows hand this.
It seems there are number of components to DPST that aren't initially clear. You have an auto-brightness feature which whilst poorly implemented is at least obvious (there should be transition options, with user time curves so it isn't so... terrible). And then you have another layer of display power saving when you change power source i.e. AC or Battery, where power to the screen cycles up and down and then settles at where it thinks is good. It is highly likely this latter process is meant to be visible at all, and to most it probably isn't because they are looking at the big picture, not tiny image details.
Fingers crossed that's it. I've tested it for a couple of hours so am sure it is sorted.
That was driving me totally mad !!!
Jim Me
1 Rookie
•
31 Posts
0
September 4th, 2021 16:00
Furthermore after installing Photoshop, with advanced GPU enabled with every mouse press with the brush tool (and likely others) the screen dims.... whilst the mouse is pressed and is moving...
Very sad to see so many display problems as it is the primary source of interaction.
Advanced GPU switched off, no problem (apart from the lack of functionality)
Jim Me
1 Rookie
•
31 Posts
0
September 5th, 2021 05:00
The micro adjustments are randomly back. I think it's the Intel software power management on battery causing this issue.
When I toggle a change, for example refresh rate, the micro brightness changes stop it seems.
I tried reporting this to Intel but they said it's a Dell issue. Who do I contact to get it resolved?
Jim Me
1 Rookie
•
31 Posts
0
September 6th, 2021 01:00
Ok so still going with this issue.
The micro fluctuations came back last night, both on battery and on power (the battery wasn't charging at the time).
They stopped when I toggled the power mode (down near notification area).
They started again when I unplugged or plugged in the power, seemingly triggering some weird screen power stuff.
So I went to App Settings (RMB menu on start menu shortcut) and there was a toggle "Run at Start" for Intel Graphic Command Centre. I turned it off. Rebooted and IGCC hadn't started, but has completely disappeared from the start menu, and cannot be found in Settings/ Apps or in Programs and Features. But the service is running.
After disabling the Run at Start (and it seemingly uninstalling itself) I haven't seen one single brightness flicker. I hope this isn't me speaking too soon.
I read somewhere that it is possible that 2 versions can get accidentally installed, one from Windows Store and on pushed through Windows Update and this can cause conflicts. I am not sure if this is the case here.