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My Acer laptop running Windows 10 has a very annoying feature: when running on battery, the LCD backlight dims gradually when displaying a dark screen and brightens gradually when displaying light screen.

This is especially annoying when switching between my IDE (which is dark and pleasant to the eyes) and a webpage.

I've figured out that this is happening only on battery, and no matter the display brightness, it happens unless I plug it in. I've checked if there's some setting in the Windows power settings, but nothing popped out at me (my laptop for instance doesn't have adaptive screen brightness).

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  • I consider many things in Windows annoying, but not this one. Switching instantly from a dark screen to a light screen was really bad for my eyes
    – golimar
    Feb 6 at 14:20

7 Answers 7

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An obscure forum post pointed me in the right direction:

  1. Search Windows for 'Intel'
  2. Select 'Intel HD Graphics Control Panel'
  3. Click the 'Power' square button
  4. Click 'On Battery' tab
  5. Disable 'Display Power Saving Technology' (I see it as the last option)

Here's the option in Intel's HD Graphics Control Panel:

Intel HD Graphics Control Panel: Display Power Saving Technology

Save your eyes and turn off "Display Power Saving Technology".

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  • 3
    Another way to open Intel HD Graphics Control Panel is to right click on your desktop and select Intel Graphics Settings. I'm glad I found this answer. I couldn't stand the strain this has caused my eyes a few months.
    – hemantv
    Dec 17, 2017 at 17:02
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    It's been driving me barmy, thanks for that tip. They changed the Intel app now, it is now under the "System" menu - or a set of four squares in a square. Feb 14, 2021 at 18:10
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Such annoying feature in Philips BDM4065 monitor was caused by its "SmartContrast" setting turned on. Turning it off resolved the problem completely.

(This is not an advice for built-in laptop screens, but plenty of people looks here and part of them searches for the info pertaining to attached monitors.)

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  • 2
    On the Samsung monitor we had it was called MagicBright, and it was set to Dynamic Contract. Annoying. Nov 26, 2019 at 18:16
  • You saved me. I was all biased & certain it was caused by Intel, but I was wrong. Couldn't believe it's the external monitor. Mine is Philips (not sure with the model). Dem. Thanks a lot.
    – duduwe
    Dec 21, 2020 at 13:48
  • Fujicom here they call it DCR (Dynamic Contrast Ratio), at least the name is descriptive
    – montss
    Feb 22, 2021 at 12:41
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For anyone who doesn't have the Power Saving Technology option in Intel Graphics Control Panel (I only had a Panel Self-Refresh Enable/Disable option) follow the instructions in the first answer, from AMART53, in this forum, https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D50P0000490XXpSAM/disable-intel-display-power-saving-technology-in-plugged-in-mode?language=en_US.

I have copied the answer below.

AMART53:

"launch regedit

go to :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]

(for me it was 0001 at the end. Full path was Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001)

find the value FeatureTestControl

Open the calculator in programmor mode, go in HEX and write the value written, look at the binary, it give you for example:

HEX : c200

BIN : 110000100000000

change the 5th bit from the end to 1:

1100001000010000

Put in on calculator in programming mode/BIN and get the HEX value

BIN : 1100001000010000

HEX : c210

modify the register with regedit and put the new HEX value in FeatureTestControl

Restart your computer"

This worked for me although it seems insane.

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  • For anyone who aren't familiar with bit operation, you can just "add 10" in hex mode to change the 5th bit from the end to 1. For example: hex c200 + hex 10 becomes hex c210. hex abcd + hex 10 = hex abdd.
    – Zhwt
    Jul 21, 2021 at 1:15
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This was by far the most annoying feature in my laptop. I also managed to disabled it from Intel Graphics Control Panel, however, I had to disable both "Display Power Saving Technology" and "Extended battery life for gaming" features.

PS: if, like me, your laptop didn't have Intel Graphics Control Panel pre-installed, you can find it on Windows Store (it's an app now).

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I had a very similar problem using a ThinkPad T460s and a NEC MultiSync EA273WMi monitor. Using dark themes in my IDE the screen dimmed after a few seconds.

My problem was resolved by changing the "DV Mode" on the screen from "Dynamic" to "Standard".

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I had this problem, tried all the suggestions but without success. I was using a widescreen TV as a second VDU for my laptop and always had the lid closed on my laptop. The dimming of the screen was particularly annoying when using VLC. Then by chance I had the lid open and noticed the laptop screen was OK with VLC. The problem was with the TV. The backlight option was set to AUTO. Once this was changed no further problem.

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It is called Vari-Bright on AMD RADEON Graphics (tested on Thinkpad series laptop with Windows 10 and 10.20 version software).

To disable it:

  1. Launch AMD RADEON SOFTWARE app
  2. Go to Settings -> Display tab
  3. Disable Vari-bright setting or adjust according to your needs.

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