Alienware 13 screen keeps dimming between windows

Hello everyone, Finally pulled my trigger on an Alienware laptop after 7 years!

ive searched for a couple hours and cant find anything on my exact issue....

So when I have google chrome opened like this forum for example... the background is white and very bright, as I have my brightness level on 100% but when I bring my Steam app up.. it very slowly starts to dim to maybe 40%.

it has something to do with a auto detecting sensor of some sort. I don't believe this is a power management feature.

It doesnt help that I am new to windows 10 either.

Thanks

 

deleted

 

I found an article to my exact problem. I have adjusted the settings and it still has the problem.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/542164/how_disable_auto_brightness_windows_laptop/

I am wondering if its a mechanical issue with my screen. when I ordered my 13, I did upgrade the screen to the 3200x1800 screen. I am wondering now if somehow something got messed up if they had to manually upgrade it before they shipped it out.

blah

 

It is because of the intel igpu drivers. Go to the intel control panel and disable dimming in the power settings.

 

I did that... still "was" giving me problems. I let my laptop sit on while I got my drone stuck in a tree and I came back and its not doing it anymore... was thinking because its all warmed up now? I dunno... thanks for the reply though, we'll see what happens tomorrow after its shut down and restarted for a new day.

 

I suspect it is a driver bug. Disable automatic driver updating first in Windows 10, then update the latest Intel drivers from the Alienware website. Disable the stuff in the Intel control panel with and without being plugged in. **** down and boot again. It should be gone. Sometimes I had this problem while using the laptop not plugged in and the settings for battery mode turned the automatic dimming on. While putting the laptop to sleep or hibernate mode and waking it up after while being plugged in caused the battery settings to be stuck in plugged in mode.

 

Thanks for the heads up. A driver bug does sound like a good diagnostic.

do you happen to know what the downloadable factory image of windows 10 includes? is it a bare windows 10 image? I am so new to windows 10 that I am not sure if all my drivers were Windows drivers or dell drivers included as part of the image. there was absolutly no alienware or dell software except some Candy crush game in the start menu that I saw.

 

I have no clue about that. I upgraded from Windows 8 to 10 with my Alienware.

 

It isn't a driver bug, look for my thread about this very thing. It is a lack of power. I have the 17 inch R3 and I am using a 330w power supply and no more issue like that.

If you have the 180w power supply, get the 240w and you won't have that issue anymore.

 

It is not a driver problem .
It is the firmware of the screen wich use dynamic contrast.
Look for forum of the dell Xps13 which share the same screen.
The only way to disable that is apparently to give a call to dell and they will execute a program to disable that.
Google xps13 adaptative contrast

 

It is the alienware 13 forum
It is not concern by this lack of power and it comes with a120w PSU

 

I bet you 1000 dollars it IS a lack of power. It is the IDENTICAL issue I had.

 

And i can say it cant be. I use a 240w psu with my 13 and still have it... Thats more than enough power.

Btw is it true that there is a fix for it by calling dell?

 

This has nothing to do with power shortage. I have the exact same issue on my Alienware 15.
For some reason Alienware ****ed up. There are quite some bugs in the alienware bios related to telling if you are plugged in or not, and setting the laptop to sleep mode.

So I go on the intel graphics options. even though I'm plugged in and set the power settings to maximum performance. My brightness would go down. It is an adaptive brightness thing, So the brightness adapts itself to the color that is shown. The brighter the color the higher the screen brightness; A stupid power saving thing.

So I went and also set the power options when on battery to maximum performance, and disabled the adaptive brightness and what not other power saving options. Then my issue went away. rarely it still happens. then I reboot my laptop and it is fixed in most cases.

 

It has nothing to do with power nor the issue of the XPS13. It is an issue that a lot of machines running on an Intel IGPU have. I even have it on my Windows tablet with an Intel Atom cpu.

More information
https://communities.intel.com/thread/38426?start=0&tstart=0
https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3qxjjq/surface_book_adaptive_contrast/
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?43315-Auto-contrast-is-driving-me-nuts!!/page17

Blame intel not dell. I have come across this issue on a **** ton of devices with Intel IGPUS.

 

Guys the A13 and the xps 13 are 95 % the same.
People reported that the QHD screen has a dynamic contrast which adapt to the screen content. This a feature not a bug and it is in the screen firmware.
Switching from a white google screen to a dark screen like steam interface makes it easily apparent.
There are forums discribing that and guys at some points got the feature removed by .exe via dell pro assistance.
If you don't believe me I don't care. I own the A13 and I spent already enough time looking for an answer.

 

The XPS13 is designed by a whole other part of Dell compared to the AW13 which has been designed by Compal. The specs are similar but that is just it.

 

Ok whatever

 

I had the same issue on my Alienware and I fixed it as described.

 

Going to agree with rinneh here. My m14xR2 (a 2012 laptop, mind you) had the same problems (the iGPU is the HD 3000, a 2011 iGPU). Disabling the display battery saving technology made the difference of the screen dimming and brightening. The adaptive contrast may have help, but I didn't notice the difference with it disabled.
I would assume doing the same to my 13 R2 would help as well, but I always had it's display battery savings options (all three of them; the HD 3000 only has one option) disabled because they caused flickering on my 13 R1 on battery.
However, what ufomammut is saying is partially true. It is possible that the two laptops share similarities in problems, including any screen problems. But if it was a screen firmware, then wouldn't other laptops be affected if they had the same screen?
EDIT: Given that I cannot find adaptive contrast in the newer Intel Graphics Control Panel, the fix won't work on my 13 R2. It would on my m14xR2 because the option to disable it was present.

 

ufomammut is right.
It's important to note that we are talking about the QHD+ display of the 2015 AW13 which is also used in the XPS 13. I went crazy trying find a solution, without success.

It's really annoying. Most of the time I use the laptop to work, and unfortunately I'm heavily dependent on SSH to do my job (PuTTY is the client I use in Windows). 90% of the time I use it maximized, 9% I use two PuTTY windows side by side, 1% of the time I use 4 or more windows arranged in layouts that are convenient at the moment.

Long story short, I spend several hours a day staring at a black background with white letters. If I don't know SSH, don't worry, open a Command Prompt and maximize the window, that's what I'm talking about. And every time I switch to the email client, web browser or any other software that uses a white background, the screen gets brighter, forcing me to manually adjust the brightness down, and when I come back to PuTTY I must increase the brightness manually again. Believe me, when you have to do it lots of times, specially at night or other low light conditions, you start to hate this behaviour.
I didn't knew that there is a program that Dell can use to disable this behaviour. Why it is not freely available and accessible? I'll call them later today, for now I'll just close my PuTTY sessions and go to sleep.

 

I

Was refering to that
https://m.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3uiyki/xps_13_9343_qhd_dynamic_brightness_control_fix/

And that
https://github.com/advancingu/XPS13Linux/issues/2

Maybe it is totally wrong and does not apply to the AW13.
Personally I will not try as it is not an official release and it is initially a XPS13 fix

 

I wanted to reply that I FIXED this issue from the post mentioned above.

I found it in here as mentioned above

https://github.com/advancingu/XPS13Linux/issues/2


The fix was meant for the XPS13 but it worked for my alienware 13. It was a BIOS flash for the screen and it seems to of completely turned off the adaptive brightness controller.

The link above has the fix somewhat closer to the bottom of all the replies and says this

Here you go guys, be careful:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwSnIxxl4kxkbXdSX2FkNE5OR1E/view
Windows QHD+ ONLY!

after you download the file.. unzip it and open this folder "DP_Rework_ToolV17 - CABC off" and click the file at the bottom named "TCON_DP_REWORK_TOOL.exe"

 

I am waiting for the 1000 dollars.....

 

By the way thanks for the info.
I wasn't brave enough to try that on my 13...
Do you have an R1 or R2?

 

I have an R2.

=)

 

May I ask you also which bios version is installed on your system?

 

1.2.2

but I see on the dell support website that 1.2.7 is out

I may just update that too right now.

 

the 1.2.7 says it updates this...

Fixes & Enhancements
[BIOS]
-Modify firmware device GUID
-Update NVIDIA N16EGR VBIOS
-Update MCU 0x74 for 406E3/506E3 CPU

 

oh geeze I just installed a hardware monitor and this laptop gets to almost 190 degrees F while gaming!

 

So you giving me the 1000 dollars? Moron.....

 

He cannot read...

 

You are correct. As I said in my previous reply, when I quoted you, the 2015 AW13 and 2015 XPS13 share the same QHD+ panel and your answer about what is the problem (dynamic contrast) and the possible solution (panel fw update) was totally right.

However, I thought that the firmware to fix the problem wasn't availabe. Thank you for pointing out that, and for the links. Finally I got rid of this annoying problem.

You owe him $1000. Did you read the OP? It is pretty clear that this topic is related to the dynamic contrast issue found in the 13" QHD+ panel used in the AW13 and in the XPS13. And it has nothing to do with lack of power. Do you have a QHD+ AW13 (your signature says you have a AW17)?
Maybe you own or owned an AW13 that had the problem described by you (lack of power), but if you read the first post carefully you will understand that this topic is about the dynamic contrast issue that affects the 13" QHD+ panels. Period.

Your replies to this topic can be misleading to other users that could benefit of the solution. You are so convinced you are right that you betted $ 1000 on it, even if it could be misleading to others. That's why I think you must honor what you say and pay the $ 1000,00 that now you owe to him, but I'm sure that you won't.

I'm appalled with the fact that you wrote what I quoted above *after* afronumeric (you know that he is the creator of the topic, don't you?) posted that he solved the problem by following the instructions found in the links provided by ufomammut (afronumeric also posted the link to the firmware).

Now what? You're going to call me a moron too?

 

freakin A. on my laptop before bed and the problem is still here, though... it doesn't seem to be as bad????

 

i want a steady 100% brightness is that too much to ask for

 

I did not accept to bet anything with this dude. he does not own me anything, it was just sarcastic...he probably took my post seriously.
He did a nice repasting tutorial for the 17 r2, very usefull.

"Finally I got rid of this annoying problem."
Did you tried that fix? Again, I was just pointing that it could be a similar problem between the AW13 and the XPS13. I would not try to execute a bios mod initially designed for the XPS on the AW.
Apparently the guys fought like crazy to obtain this mod from DELL. They got it by the DELLPRO support.

 

I know, I never thought it was a serious bet... I was being ironic. Now, some time after I wrote that, I readed my own post and I think I kinda overreacted.

Yes! Finally it's fixed!
I used the "TCON_DP_REWORK_TOOL.exe" utility from the "DP_Rework_ToolV17 - CABC off" folder.
The utility recognized my panel and it's current ROM version, which was 0.27. After the update, the version is 0.28.
It's perfect now!!!

 

Didn't work for you? Mine is perfect now!
If you run the utility again, what is the version number reported? I was on 0.27 before, and now I'm on 0.28.

One thing thing I noticed was that Windows didn't asked my permission to run TCON_DP_REWORK_TOOL.exe (UAC), so I closed the program and opened it again using "Run as administrator".
Maybe it's not necessary, but when it comes to firmware upgrades, I feel more confortable by running them with a privileged account. Also, I always disable my antivirus during this kind of procedure (fw upgrade).

Another thing I remembered now is that just by opening the program (admin or not), screen brightness jumped to 100% and can't be adjusted anymore. After upgrading the panel fw to 0.28 I did a power cycle (not a reboot, I powered off normally using windows then I powered it on again). Since then I never saw the dinamyc contrast acting again.

 

Wow amazing!
Thank you for all these comments.

I am not sure to understand the last posts of the OP.
He was referering to high temp but he did not say if it was a correlated with the installation of the fix.
Did you mention something regarding temp?

 

Well, I tried.
I works for real. It is crazy of this adaptative contrast **** ruined the screen...
It just like a huge kick in in luminosity for dark pages like my gmail or steam interfaces.

I check temperatures (Wprime + valley) before and after and I cannot see a difference. So no problem with that so far.
I cannot do a 3Dmark as I am in office and would need to connect to steam....

Very happy, it improves the panel a lot for me.

EDIT: the touchscreen seems to work properly as well
EDIT2: Firestrike stock clock: before fix 3554 after 3579
So no negative impact.

 

The way these guys from github forum obtained this fix is just epic.
Dell asking them again and again to send video captures of the screen as they cannot reproduce the problem
Escalate, escalate, going to pro support..
Dell rep unable to install the fix
The person who put online the fix had to recover it by ctrl+Z as the rep wanted to delete it from his laptop.

It reminds me the problem of fan table and CPU throttle on my 17r2. It might be fixable but they are just too lazy to do it.

 

I didn't noticed any temperature change, but I don't have any temp reading before the update to compare. Anyway, we are flashing the screen ROM, it's very improbable that it would affect any other component.

But I think it can cause some impact on battery life, but I'm not sure. After the update, not only I got rid of that anoying dynamic contrast, but also I feel that at 100% brightness the screen is brighter than it was before.

 

Epic.
I can't find a better word too...
Hats off to them.

 

I still have the problem its just not that notice able but its still dimming the screen lower then 100% which is not good while gaming!!!

rant - its okay once the 1 year of owner ship comes up.. i'll be calling dell and complaining. This is the 2nd dell product that ive bought with problems. first it was an Dell inspiron 9100 back in early 2000s dell installed a desktop chip with 2mb cache which ran 50 degrees hotter then the 1mb cache version and my laptop died 1 month after the 1 year warranty. I am not letting that happen twice!

 

afronumeric, there's a few options in the Intel HD Graphics that may be affecting you. Open the Intel control panel and look for the energy related options. Even if you already had changed those options in the past, you may want to look if they were not reset to the defaults by a driver update or something else.