Intel DPST / Active contrast issue - Page 2

AMill15 · ‎03-14-2018

Description

Intel Active Contrast (DPST) driving me nuts.

Hopefully anyone running across my issue is already semi familiar with the term. DPST (Display Power Saving Technology) or called Active Contrast by some is a power saving technology Intel has been implementing / continuing to improve since before 2007 in laptop displays to save power. (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~mobile/elec518/readings/display/intel07.pdf http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~mobile/elec518/readings/display/intel07.pdf , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Display_Power_Saving_Technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Display_Power_Saving_Technology)

My brand spankin' new Dell Inspiron 7370 laptop that I just purchased in January has had this annoying problem since day 1. Due to a bad charge controller on the motherboard, I ended up getting a 2nd 7370, so I've also now had two machines, that both did / do the exact same thing.

If you're still not familiar with what DPST does, it's a little hard to explain. The best I can do to summarize, is that its "color sensitive brightness control" based on screen content. So, if you've got more dark colors of your window / desktop whatever you're looking at, the display dims. If you've got lighter colors, it brightens. It's actually sort of the opposite of what you'd think, because it ends up blinding the user when you get a nice white page like google search landing page, and the whole screen lights up; to squinting when you hit bing's search page, which almost always has a really good looking photo of some trees or water, both of which are darker, causing the entire screen to dim, and text to get really hard to see until your eyes adjust.

And yes, I've worked with Dell for over a month, we've tried every single thing through Windows you can to turn off any power saving, auto-dimming or auto brightness, or adaptive brightness, etc that there is at least three times. Dell says they've escalated it to their engineering (read, development) department, but I'm not convinced they know what is going on, either. I also made a video of my duplicating the problem (Dell tech support India called it "strobe lights / club on a computer") which you can watch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vC4tREV1z4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vC4tREV1z4

I specifically focus on the clock/address in the tray / notification area because to me, I cannot see any reason why that should change based on what is happening with regards to screen colors. You'll see me fairly rapidly alt-tabbing between a light full-screen window, and a dark one. Notice how long it takes my iphone to adjust to the light difference!

I'm not the first to have this problem, its gone on for ages. Different laptops, different people. They've all eventually done one of two things. A) Done something to get the option to show up in the intel graphics control panel to "turn off adaptive" or "full performance" instead of "balanced" for display, or B) a registry modification. I'm looking for B, because I've done A, and it hasn't helped. Heres some more articles on others that have had the problem, and what they did to fix it (I've also attempted to do everything they have, which is why I included the links)

Please place an X to the right of the option showing how often you see this issue using specific steps. (Ex: 'Every few times a game is started it flickers.' <- This would be "Often")<p>

Always (100%): X

Often (51-99%):

Sporadic (20-50%):

Very Sporadic (<20%):

Hardware (HW)

Brand and Model of the system.

Dell Inspiron 7370

Hybrid or switchable graphics system?

ie Does it have AMD or NV graphics too?

No, native Intel UHD 620 Graphics adapter

Make and model of any Displays that are used to see the issue (see note2 below).

LFP = Local Flat Panel (Laptop panel) N/A

EFP = External Flat Panel (Monitor you plug in) N/A

How much memory [RAM] in the system (see note2 below). 16GB

Provide any other hardware needed to replicate the issue.

ie: Cables&brand, cable type [vga, hdmi, DP, etc], dock, dongles/adapters, etc N/A

Hardware Stepping (see note1 below). N/A

Software (SW)

Operating System version (see note2 below). Windows 10 Pro v10.0.16299 Build 16299

<...

ZGhan · ‎04-28-2018

Hey Guys,

I'm having the exact same issue like you guys. Thought I'd post here, feels like a therapy session

I have Dell Inspiron 7370 as well which I bought late last year.

Thanks bigbro6 for detailing everything in this post.

JSchu23 · ‎05-15-2018

I've bought an Asus Vivobook X510UR-BQ209T and I have the same problem.

Since I've heard about this problem from different manufacturers, it's likely that the problem is rather on Windows or Intel.

It's really annoying. @Intel,intel_corp , can you please release a new driver and totally disable the DPST? At least until you fix it. And by the way, seems that no one but you likes it...

DSimk2 · ‎05-31-2018

Same issue on Surface Book 2. When watching a movie with subtitles, the subtitles make the whole picture brighten and so it switches brightness as subtitles flash on and off.

This happens when plugged in AND on battery. I downloaded the Intel control panel and disabled DPST and other options. Rebooted. Made no difference. I changed FeatureTestControl

values in regestry, made no difference.

Dear Intel: PLEASE FIX THIS. It is plain dumb.

FGail · ‎06-16-2018

I observe this issue on a Dell 7373 bought just some weeks ago. AC is fine, BAT is not. Tried changing energy options, different display drivers (where is this "Display Power Saving Technology" option?) and registry patches ("FeatureTestControl" and others) - nothing seems to help.

Dear Intel: PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE OR TEAM WITH DELL TO FIND A SOLUTION. This issue is annoying.

ASeth7 · ‎06-16-2018

A proud 7373 owner here, have been talking to dell since december to fix this issue, but to no luck. They have moved from this "feature" does not exist in this laptop to, this exists but it's working as designed to we have recieved enough complaints and let's escalate to again, working as designed. What confuses me the most is, how is this a issue something worth fixing for the XPS line but not the inspiron line. And after spending good amount of money on the higher end of the 7373 line, the final advice I get is, buy a XPS

So, I do not know who is to blame here, if it's DPST, if it's CABC or Windows who is responsible for this mess, but instead of throwing blame around, I think these companies need to release the fix for this issue. And as we have reports about other manufacturer's laptop having the exact same issue, I can't help but imagine that Intel is somehow involved here.

AKuma100 · ‎06-27-2018

I have also been in contact with Dell regarding this issue on Inspiron 7570 since forever. The best I have got from them is 'the system is working as per design". I have literally tried every registry tweak suggested across online forums. I can clearly see the CABC and DPST bits in the original stock Intel Graphics Driver. I even tried to modify those values before installation but the system rejects the edited file to install it. Any help is appreciated in advance!

idata · ‎07-03-2018

The same problem for me on an ASUS K406UA-BM229T - only on battery. I use(d) a dark blue background for text editing because it is more easy for my eyes. I wished Intel, Dell, HP, Acer, ASUS, etc. were able to solve this problem. Alas, it seems so far it has been impossible to trace the requirement, design and implementation.

cras1 · ‎07-11-2018

Hey same problem obviously. For me its more complicated because i want to set this setting on about 30 laptops of various makes. So i cant just push a registry edit as it seems that different makes have different hex values in the registry key.

Intel settings are really hard to manage centrally...

My particular problem is that we are using these robots called ozobots in the classroom setting. They are programmed by holding them up to the screen and sensing coloured light pulses from a website. This totally breaks if "display power saving technology" is turned on from the intel control panel (default is sadly ON).

Now i could go around to 30 laptops and hand set this setting, but obviously that is not ideal, especially since it allegedly gets reset periodically. I can tell the users to leave the laptops plugged in, but that breaks the users workflows. I can modify the registry key but it wont work for all laptop models in one group policy.

Intel should provide a better control of this programatically. I know it is not intels strong point and so i am not optimistic that they will do anything here. I wish they could design some group policy templates for crap like this. I would LOVE to assign graphics profiles via group policy, and be able to set network card values (like the dreaded energy efficient ethernet setting)

Anyways if you all just have one machine, i dont see why just changing it via the control panel or the registry key wouldn't work for you. You might have to do it every time win10 releases a new update, but thats not that bad. just set a registry file to run on startup and silently import the key.

i have nothing useful to add, i am just replying to be notified if someone finds a fix.

NMyoM · ‎08-11-2018

hi@bigbro6 and all other Dell Inspiron users out there, I'd just updated BIOS to latest version and in the BIOS settings, there's the option to DISABLE the dynamic backlight control under 'Video' section. (just created this acc to share with u guys.....pls ignore this if u have already done so)...cheers.:)

idata · ‎08-13-2018

Hello all,

In this case, please as shared before, we strongly encourage you to follow the 2 advices from before:

-Please check your system for BIOS updates

-Contact your OEMs for issue replication (with their own systems.)

Here you will find a link with a list of OEM contacts for your convenience:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/topics/oems.html

I hope to this helps.

Regards,

Diego S.