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    XPS 12 dims with bright backgrounds. Auto/adaptive brightness already disabled.

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Ravynmagi, Jul 11, 2014.

  1. Ravynmagi

    Ravynmagi Newbie

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    I just got an XPS 12 from Dell (refurbished). And I'm noticing a weird issue with the screen brightness.

    First, I do have auto and adaptive brightness turned off. And I've downloaded and installed the latest BIOS and drivers from Dell.com.

    I noticed that sometimes the screen seems to brighten slightly and other times it dims slightly. After some testing I have found that what seems to be occurring is when I have have something open that has a lot of white in the background, like a web browser, the screen seems to darken slightly. Then went I go to my Start screen or minimize everything and see only my desktop, which has a dark wallpaper, then two or three seconds later the screen brightens slightly. And it's that 2-3 second delay after switching that makes the issue noticeable. If I switch back to the browser, then two seconds later I can see the dimming kick in.

    This seems very much like it's some sort of power saving feature kicking in. And it only happens when on battery, I can't duplicate it with AC plugged in. But I don't see anything in advanced power settings that would do this. Adaptive brightness is off, I tried changing other power settings like PCI Express Link State Power Management and the Graphics Power Plan is already on Balanced for both AC and Battery.


    I guess my primary question would be if this is normal or do I have a defect? If it's normal, is there a way to disable the behavior? I've never seen anything this odd on my other Windows laptops and tablets.
     
    Ravynmagi, Jul 11, 2014
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  2. MSGaldenzi

    MSGaldenzi Notebook Deity

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    My first suggestion was going to be to go into advanced power options and mess around with the outputs... like make them all 100%. I just tried to replicate the problem on my XPS 12 refurb that I just got in and I don't have the problem. Make sure that adaptive brightness is off via the charms/settings/change pc settings/ect... It may have reset itself after the bios update. Also are you on balanced power or high power in the power settings? I keep mine on high power all the time and usually it seems most stable.
     
    MSGaldenzi, Jul 12, 2014
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  3. Ravynmagi

    Ravynmagi Newbie

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    I finally figured it out. I had to go into the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel, Graphics Properties, Power, On Battery, and disable power saving technology here.
     
    Ravynmagi, Jul 14, 2014
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  4. MSGaldenzi

    MSGaldenzi Notebook Deity

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    Glad you figured it out. Thanks for letting us know :)
     
    MSGaldenzi, Jul 15, 2014
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