Acer 1410 screen flicker

After doing some searching on the net, I found a couple other reviews where people said they had a noticeable (more so on dimmer settings, for me) screen flicker with their timelines. I have the 1410 with su2300 proc. Anyone else noticing this problem? It's enough to distract me, which can be annoying, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the visuals.

Krista

 

I just did a search to see if anyone else's screen flickers on their 1410, and I found your post. I hadn't thought it might have something to do with the brightness dimmed really low, which is what I prefer.

Turning up the brightness a couple of notches seems to fix it.

 

It could be the LCD inverter.

 

doubt that, led backlight does not require an inverter. I would say check for an updated bios. there was a similar issue on the older aspire one 8.9 inch model, the display would flicker on certain lcd's.

it could always be a bad cable or panel as well.

 

I have the same issue... not sure what to make of this

 

Same exactly with mine, except I got the Core2 solo version. Interestingly, it came with Vista installed and the screen was 100% fine. The problem started after the Win7 upgrade. Tried various driver/BIOS versions, now I have v1.33 BIOS from Acer website & latest Intel drivers for the 4500M directly from Intel website -- the problem persists. Hardly noticeable, but unbelievably annoying. Any of you talked to the Acer support about it? I may just return this cute little retard, mine is only 2 weeks old...

 

Is it a consistent flicker rather than an erratic flicker?
Adjust the brightness to maximum -- does the flicker stop?
Dim the backlight -- does the flicker increase?
If so, it's the LED PWM dimming circuit -- LED backlights use pulsewidth modulation for dimming. Basically, many LED dimming circuits flicker the LED's for dimming, for high-efficiency dimming.

On the Acer Aspire 1810T, the LED PWM runs at approximately 480 Hz or thereabouts (estimate), but if the PWM is at less than 120 Hz, the flicker would start to become objectionable when the backlight is dimmed. This might be an issue specifically with the 1410.

Unfortunately, annoyingly low-frequency PWM is very temperamental -- much like some people can see 'rainbows' on DLP's, and some other people can't see rainbows. Some people get bothered even by 120 Hz 'flicker', for example, while others can't see it.

In theory, it might be adjustable via a potentiometer, but if it's 100% digitally driven PWM, it might be fixable by a BIOS upgrade (if it was designed to be flexible to that). Try that first. If not, then it might be a flaw inherent to 1410 having a low PWM frequency for the LED's backlight dimming.

 

It is not erratic, it's like a constant vibration of the brightness. It completely disappears if I increase the brightness. I thought it was simply less visible, but your explanation does make a lot of sense.

Well, not quite. I didn't have this problem under Vista, that much is absolutely clear. The explanation you are offering, though, doesn't relate to the OS. Now, the thing that I also changed (following the Acer upgrade disk advice, pretty smart of me) was the BIOS. I currently have the
v1.33 BIOS, which is the latest on the Acer website, and I don't remember the version that was there initially.
Can anyone WITHOUT the problem quote their BIOS version, please?

 

Food for thought: to isolate the PWM issue from any driver/OS problems, I ran the Linux Mint live CD. The flicker is gone for all brightness levels.
The Win7 driver version I have now is 8.15.10.1855 (from the Acer website). Is there absolutely anything in Win7 power management that could cause this?

 

It sounds like the dimming PWM of the backlight brightness is adjustable and possibly controlled by a driver, try upgrading/downgrading your Intel graphics driver. And/or delete the driver (temporarily use a different driver such as VGA) then reinstall.

Any difference if you do that?

 

Well, I already tried the latest driver posted on Acer website (1885), as well as the 2021 version directly from Intel. Flickers for both... Some people running Win7 said they are running 1885 without flicker, so I'm not sure... I'll try calling Acer support, hope they can right away transfer me to someone beyond "did you try restarting?"

 

try bios 3303 if you haven't already.

 

It's currently installed. ;(

As a comic relief... Contacted the online Acer tech support. Was told to try the 1885 driver (although I said I did in my initial description of the problem). Told them I did. They asked to do the power cycle reset (which I did a bunch of times before). I asked to be transferred to a higher level of support. Was sent a copy-pasted instruction on doing a clean install of windows 7 (which is what mine was all along). So, kids. Reinstalling your system is the higher level of tech advice.

 

I was seeing the flicker in BIOS so it can't be a driver issue.

I just turned on the laptop after not using it for a week or so... and the battery was fully discharged. The flicker seems to be less noticeable... Hmm, I've cycled it through the dimming and unplugged and can still see it though.

 

This sounds about right. My flickering is consistant... it reduces when I increase to higher brightness... So this sounds like unless a lot of people complain there won't be a fix out... maybe it's one of those things that only bother some people, or only some people notice. From your description it doesn't sound like a hardware flaw that would be fixed by my sending in, like they want me to do...

How can you tell what hz the 1810 is running at?

 

Does this issue have anything to do with who makes the LCD panel?

I'm curious if everyone with flicker issues has the same LCD manufacturer.

In Windows 7:
1. Right click on desktop
2. Go to Screen resolution
3. On the right click on Advanced Settings
4. Click on Monitor tab, and click on Properties
5. Go to Details tab
6. Go through the Properties and try to find certain keywords like "LG" (LG Display) or "AUO" (AU Optronics) or "CMO" (Chi Mei Optoelectronics) or something else (Samsung?)

I have an order currently in backorder for a Gateway model and the potential issues are causing me to reconsider keeping my order in (won't ship until March).

 

No flicker whatsoever on my 1410 at any brightness, Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with the latest BIOS and drivers.

 

Mine shows as AUO205C under hardware IDs.

 

Can you try finding out who makes your LCD panel? I posted instructions right above your post. It should take less than a minute of your time.

 

Other people have said that they have the AUO on the 1810 models, and nobody has complained about flickering on those. I think this is either something few people notice or rare. Very annoying...

 

I am having the same flickering problem on my new 1410. From first start up I've noticed that there is a slight flicker which gets worse as you go farther down in brightness level. I have installed the latest BIOS, installed intel.com's latest driver and also tried Acer's latest version of the driver all of which have led me nowhere.
Acer's online support is down right ridiculous, after stating everything I've tried and have had not work they made me reinstall the 1855 driver... it's like they don't even read your initial posting!

Anyways, just got down with their latest "fix" of the full system recovery, which low and behold didn't change a thing.

Glad to see I'm not the only one with the problem though, and I did check my LCD panel details and it turns out I have a Chi Mei Optoelectronics panel (CMO1100)

 

Since we don't have the same LED monitors but we have the exact same problem, it sounds even more likely that it could be the LED PWM dimming circuit that mdrejhon talked about... at least, if that's not part of the screen. It sounds like that's the equivalent of an LCD's inverter?

I went through Acer's online support ticketing process. Finally got them to agree to an RMA I haven't finished the process. I'm worried that I'll send it in, they won't see the problem... or won't think it's really a problem, and it'll get even more messed up in the shop.

I refused to do a full system recovery once I realized the problem also happened in BIOS. It can't be a windows / driver related issue.

 

Mine is a SEC3052, a little googleing suggest it is this: http://www.blisscomputers.net/samsung-sec3052-laptop-lcd-screen-11-6-wxga-hd-led.aspx

No flicker at all at any brightness settings.

 

I am at the same point, support says it HAS to be a hardware defect after none of their lame tries at settings manipulation fixed it *slapshead. So I can RMA as well, but I think I'm going to suffer through. I don't want to send this off to have a refurbished item sent back that will most definitely have the same problem. I'm thinking of doing a quick ubuntu install to see if the problem exists in another OS.

 

Just check if it exists in the BIOS. Yes? Hardware problem. No? Driver\OS problem.

 

Doesn't exist in BIOS, even told the support guys that. I can scale all the way up and down brightness in BIOS with no flicker at all.

 

Look very closely. The BIOS is a very light gray and makes it harder to see the flicker, but the flicker exists in BIOS for me.

 

If your positive it doesn't exist in the BIOS, then obviously the hardware itself is capable of not flickering. This would mean the problem lies in how Windows addresses the display, generally a driver issue. But I doubt something like flicker at low brightness would be a hardware problem.

 

That is nonsense, I bet at BIOS screen isn't at native resolution. Assuming that "driver\OS" is the problem needs testing with another "driver\OS", not with the BIOS screen.

 

Resolution is indeed a variable, but very unlikely. I've had quite a few display problems with laptops over the years, and without fail hardware problems always displayed in the bios. Something like flickering, generally a backlight problem, is almost certainly unaffected by adjusting the resolution. And it's faster and more accurate to boot into the BIOS then to wipe the hard drive and install Linux just to check if it's a driver.

 

I agree with you that most of the time backlight problems are related to flickering, but your anecdotal evidence is not a replacement for proper testing procedures. Booting into BIOS is faster maybe, but hardly 'more accurate', and for sure you know that 'wipe the hard drive' is a completely unnecessary for installing GNU/Linux.

 

It is almost certainly more accurate in that it completely eliminates driver problems. Driver problems are far more likely then flickering issues. If you want to be able to install the latest drivers, you'll probably have to install Linux to the HDD instead of booting off of a live CD - wiping the hard drive really isn't that time consuming, just something that's generally done when your switching operating systems.

Either way, your spending an hour or two for a procedure that's quite likely less accurate then pressing 'F2' and waiting for the BIOS to appear. Not really a hard call

 

eh? 'Flicker' is the issue here. 'Driver problem' is not an alternative for 'flickering problem' but it can be the cause of the flickering. I don't understand what you are trying to say with 'completely eliminates driver problems'. Driver problem is quite vague, but BIOSes have a little generic VESA driver for display their GUI. That generic interface lacks a lot of hardware specific features, and even many ACPI features are not available to the user (for example, in my notebook I can't control brightness). Let's say that the TMDS, power saving module or a ROP unit of the graphics card is defective. Far from ‘eliminating driver problem’, you’re avoiding properly testing your hardware by using just VESA.

Well, except that is obvious that you don't need to wipe your HDD to install Linux in it. You can just partition it. Or use wubi and don't need to partition. Of course, is completely unnecesary to install GNU/Linux in a HDD in order to update it's drivers. Just download, compile, unload the old modules and load the newer ones, install the DDX driver, restart X and you're set. Or don't use X, Intel supports KMS just fine. Use perstitence and update your distribution, no need to compile anything.

Hm, you're spending maybe 15 minutes for a procedure far more accurate than pressing 'F2' and loading a VESA driver that probably doesn't trigger the faulty component of your hardware

 

Tough one.
Almost all LED screens are dimmed by high-speed flicker of the LED backlight, called PWM dimming (google link to allow people to learn more about how LED's are dimmed), most LCD TV's and computer monitors pulse their backlights at hundreds of Hz, so you can't tell at all. The Flicker frequency is usually several times higher than the refresh rate of the video signal, and flicker can go well over 1000 Hz on some displays to make it impossible to see in normal viewing.

Some people can notice flicker in backlights that go 120 Hz, especially if its flicker cycle is 90%:10% off n - which would occur when the screen is dimmed significantly. Flicker can also be indirectly noticed by head movement or eye movement. (Much like for the "rainbow effect" on DLP projectors -- some people see them, and some people do not. Different people are more sensitive to different flicker frequencies, some at 60 Hz verus 75 Hz if you remember the old CRT days where a higher refresh rate eliminated flicker. But some people could even see 120 Hz flicker back then). Unfortunately, the LED backlight PWM dimming is usully indpendent of the refresh rate, so adjusting refresh rate won't affect flicker frequency used for dimming.

- Maybe it's other components such as the chipset driver -- Try upgrading or downgrading other drivers. Try upgrading ALL drivers;
- One of them contains the backlight adjuster utility (it might be programming bad PWM values into the LCD)
- Is it a possible interference between clockrate and display (does flicker change for the same brightness level if you change power states to Full Performance / Battery Saver)? If so, tweak this. (This may also indicate a hardware issue)
- Try a BIOS downgrade too (not likely to work, but let's not keep this stone unturned)

It MAY also be a hardware problem, but the fact it disappears with other OS's, indicate it's flawed low-level software (driver or BIOS) hiding software. Or it may be a hardware problem triggered only by a Windows 7 initialization, but that's unlikely.

 

The interesting part is that it DOES trigger the faulty component on my hardware, with exactly the same symptoms, which means that I, at least do not have to worry about testing drivers (though I did go to the newest intel and did update my BIOS to newest version) 'cause it's obviously a problem that's universal across the most basic to the most new drivers.

 

Mine is most noticeable 4 notches from bottom, in brightness and below. Everyone I show it to and point the flickering out to, can see it at those levels. Would they notice if I hadn't pointed it out? Maybe not... but I can imagine they'd get the eye strain anyway...

I think mine flickers less when it's plugged in and on full performance. Of course FP pushes the brightness up. I still notice the flicker when I lower it.

My BIOS was a couple old when I got it and noticed it. I upgraded to the newest without change.

I agree that it sounds like the PWS but if so, I think it's faulty as I shouldn't be able to see the flickers from what you're saying as to how they're supposed to work.

Mine won't disappear with other OS's since I can see it in BIOS. I mean.. I could try it to be sure but it seems like a waste of time.

When Win 7 initializes, at login, I do get a sort of larger line across the screen flicker, like a TV trying tuning or something... I didn't think it was related as that's the only time it happens.

 

I don't think resolution is an issue with this. It's not a "can't get things to fit properly" type flicker. It's more the flicker of an old lightbulb... bright enough to see everything just fine, but fidgeting just a tiny bit, if that makes any sense.

 

I stopped at Microcenter last night to see if they had the 1410. They didn't, but I stared intently at all the netbooks they did have as well as some non-led netbooks. One flickered as badly as my acer... that one was a Dell, a couple others I could detect very faint flickering on...

So, perhaps this isn't what Acer would consider a hardware failure? I'm not sure... Somebody went cheap with a part, I am guessing, and maybe Dell is using it too. It's probably something that only a few of us notice or are bothered by.

 

I would definitely notice this if it was an issue on my 1410, but it's not (and I wouldn't have gotten the 1410 if it was an issue on any of the display models I saw). My screen is a Samsung part. I would guess that this is on the screen manufacturer and not the software, but that's just me.

 

Just opened my Gateway EC1454u (rebranded Acer Aspire 1410) and it does not seem to suffer from this flickering issue.

FWIW, my display manufacturer is LG Display.

 

I've got the flicker.

Output from Everest home edition

[ Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB] ]

Monitor Properties:
Monitor Name Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB]
Monitor ID LGD021C
Manufacturer LG Display
Model LP116WH1-TLA1
Manufacture Date 2009
Serial Number None
Max. Visible Display Size 26 cm x 14 cm (11.6")
Gamma 2.20
DPMS Mode Support None

 

Don't know if this is the same issue, but mine is related to the ribbon cable that attaches the screen to the main unit and wraps around the hinge. I've had it back to Acer service once, they fixed it, and now its doing the same thing.

 

We have the same display.

Sounds like poor quality control, not too surprising considering how affordable these Acers/Gateways are to begin with.

I'm more annoyed by the keyboard more than anything else so far. I can't seem to get used to the wide flat keys and there seems to be quite a bit of keyboard flex.

 

the problem with my screen is not so much the flicker, it's the overall quality of it. Terrible viewing angles, resolution is too high, and poor overall appearance.

If it wasn't for windows 7 being pretty, it would probably be unsuable.

They keyboard is crap too. Not mention I'm going to have to pay for shipping myself to get it repaired?

 

Did they replace the ribbon cable or just re-seat it?

I'm just worried about sending it in for service and getting it back more messed up than it was when I sent it. Not to mention the pain of putting all my software back on when they inevitably wipe my HD.

 

I think I'm going to have to send mine in. I have to go brighter and brighter to get to a point where I'm not seeing very noticeable flicker. I'm at 6 notches from bottom now.

 

Bringing back this thread to add that a new bios (v.3310) was posted on the Acer website with the note 'Fixes LG LCD with flickering issue'. Any reports of this fixing the issue?

Direct link: http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_3310_A_A.zip?acerid=634061228894382331&Step1=Notebook&Step2=Aspire&Step3=Aspire 1410 (11.6'')&OS=V10&LC=en&BC=Acer&SC=PA_6

 

I have a Acer ASpire 5810tz which is basically the thin one with 8 hour battery. THe screen started to get dim and turn bright is 1-3 second cycles when on battery, at low brightness. Acer support made me take the battery off, hold power button for 1 min, re install my graphix driver and chack my Bios screen for flicker (Negative - no flicker in BIOS screen or bright VGA) and finally told me I would have to reinstall my OS....If that does not work then she said I could send it in for repair. GOD DAMN. That is a lot of work and time to waste for reinstall, shipping, cost and hassle for a stupid laptop. I use to like Acer but now I no longer do. Same laptop did not do the same thing under Vista before upgrade.Why dont they take responsibility, figure out the problem and provide a recall, or a fix. ACER>>DOWNGRADED!

 

I have good news... I installed the ATI drivers for the display driver and all dimming and flickering is gone. Voila. No need to reinstall os, and put up with teh stupis Acer support. Go to acer support site and find the ATI driver. Install it instaed of the intel ones. Still ACER>>DOWN GRADED

 

Um, how can you use an ATI driver when you have an Intel gpu?