Intel HD 4400 brightness management issues

[UUSRD]

I have the following issues with my Optimus based laptop:

- Manually disabling "Display Advanced Energy Saving" with Intel Graphics CPL stops taking effect after sleep (it is ignored and enabled again). Please Intel disable this for 6-bit LCD panels as this combined with your static dithering leads to a very bad image quality.

- Changing brightness level seems to have a serious input lag leading to jumpy brightness transitions. The strange thing comes whenever I play a hardware accelerated video through a WMF enabled application; the input lag disappears and the brightness transitions became very smooth even if the video is played in a very small window. All the power management settings are set to maximum performance. I am unable to reproduce the same behaviour with DirectX, OGL or OCL instances it only happens with videos played through WMF. Also this only happens with Windows and not Linux (Fedora).

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Can you provide the DxDiag report (press Windows* key + R key, type "dxdiag", press OK and then click "Save All Information")?

What driver versions have you tested? Did you test the drivers provided by your system manufacturer? Which ones appear to be affected by this issue?

[UUSRD]

It happens with both the latest drivers provided by the manufacturer and Intel. Also previous versions have shown this behaviour.

Here is the DXDiag dump:

http://1drv.ms/1GCDe5Q http://1drv.ms/1GCDe5Q

[UUSRD]

Any news ongoing technical investigations or so?

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Issue 1: I do not see the option you mentioned above in the Intel® HD Graphics UI. I see Display Power Saving Technology, and it remains disabled after resuming from sleep.

Issue 2: I did not fully understand how to replicate it. What video application are you using?

[UUSRD]

Apparently the feature has a different name in latest driver versions, yes it is now called "Display power saving technology" in my case while the Intel CPL states it is disabled it appears that such setting is ignored by the driver after both hibernation and sleep. In order to get the driver to re-read the setting (which ignores after resume) and get this feature disabled I have to unplug and re-plug the power cord. Then it gets disabled even if I disconnect the power cord again until I sleep or hibernate the system again. It is very annoying as my 6-bit (per channel) panel relies on dithering to show 24-bit (RGB) colour depth and this feature reduces the image quality considerably as it makes all the dithers flicker constantly when it is enabled.

Respect to the other issue:

1 - Fresh boot into Windows -> Brightness levels are uneven and jumpy if changed.

2 - Windows Media Player launched and hardware accelerated video playback is started (WMF hardware accelerated codec). -> Suddenly the brightness levels are even and smooth if changed.

3 - Video file is closed or ends, WMP remains open. -> Brightness levels are uneven and jumpy if changed.

[UUSRD]

Any news/ongoing research on this issues??

[Bryce__Intel]

Hi fjtorsol

Please see Microsoft KB here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3046889 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3046889

For the other "jumpy" issue, I'm unclear what the issue is. The debug engg assigned to the case requested more information to proceed with the investigation. Could you please provide the below?

Category

Questions

Answers (N/A if not applicable)

Description

Provide description of the issue & whether it's consistent or sporadic.

Hardware (HW)

Model of the system.

Hybrid or switchable graphics system?

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

How much memory in the system (see note2 below).

Provide any other hardware needed to replicate the issue.

Hardware Stepping (see note1 below).

Software (SW)

Operating System version (see note2 below).

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[UUSRD]

Category

Questions

Answers (N/A if not applicable)

Description

Provide description of the issue & whether it's consistent or sporadic.

It is always reproducible with my current setup.

Hardware (HW)

Model of the system.

Dell Inspiron 7737

Hybrid or switchable graphics system?

Yes

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

Two displays? did I ever mentioned such thing? anyway the two GPUs are:

1- Intel(R) HD Graphics 4400

2- NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

How much memory in the system (see note2 below).

16GB PC3-12800

Provide any other hardware needed to replicate the issue.

(The OEM supplied charger)

Hardware Stepping (see note1 below).

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0A16&SUBSYS_05FC1028&REV_09

Software (SW)

Operating System version (see note2 below).

Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600) (9600.winblue_r9.150322-1500)

VBIOS (video BIOS) version. This can be found in "information page" of CUI (right click on Desktop and select "Graphics Properties".

<p a...

[Bryce__Intel]

fjtorsol,

Is this still failing for you? If so, please retest latest and provide your results. I'll provide your results to investigation team. Thanks.

[UUSRD]

The brightness level transition bug persists but can no longer be worked around with Windows Media Player.

Brightness transitions are not smooth because the driver jumps from level A to D without going trough levels B and C.

(note A, B, C and D are members of an example series to explain the issue and not necessarily match internal HEX brightness values).

The bug mentioned in Microsoft support article https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3046889 KB3046889 is apparently fixed.

Tested operating system : Windows 10 64-bit 10.0.10586.17 (Win10 TH2)

Tested driver version : 20.19.15.4300

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello, fjtorsol:

I went ahead and performed some tests from my end.

I disabled the "Display Power Saving Technology" feature in the Intel® Graphics Panel, then restarted the system and this was still enabled.

Also played some videos, changed the brightness of the display and it ran smoothly.

My configuration:

Intel® 4th gen processor

Graphics driver: 20.19.15.4326 (may change from one OEM to another)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M driver: 10.18.13.5900

Windows 10* Home 64-bit build 10586.36 version 1511

16GB RAM

My recommendation would be to check if your OEM has released a newer graphics driver.

I think this may be a hardware issue.

I look forward to your outcome.

Regards,

Esteban C

[UUSRD]

It might not be reproducible unless the same LCD panel/laptop motherboard combo is used. For the case of my laptop many display options were available at purchase time. Mine is LG Philips LP173WF1 (Dell K6PJ1) a 1080p LVDS TN panel with LED backlight.

Respect to Dell support I am quite tired of dealing with it, the last "technician" was unable properly re-assemble the computer even though the assembly manuals were public. Also he forgot screwing the DVD drive which I found one day completely out of the device. With some deep housing scratches (due to incorrect tools/open procedures used) and a loose touchpad as a final prize it is definitely not an option for me. Luckily the last piece of software I use in my workflow has been finally ported to the Mac and I will no longer have to deal with this broken ecosystem for my next laptop.

[Bryce__Intel]

Thanks for the explanation, sry to hear you went through some trouble with servicing.

We're unable to replicate what you're indicating and you're correct in that this could be unit / configuration specific.

As such, I'll mark this as a SUF 'Single Unit Failure' and close for now, unless/until someone else chimes in with a different config that can help us replicate.

[UUSRD]

The bug mentioned in Microsoft support article https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3046889 KB3046889 is not fixed sadly I was able to reproduce it today.

[UUSRD]

I was able to find the original specification for my panel.

[UUSRD]

Also the related ACPI code:

Method (_BCL, 0, NotSerialized) // _BCL: Brightness Control Levels

{

If ((AS00 == 0x40))

{

Return (Package (0x12)

{

0x64,

0x1E,

0x06,

0x0C,

0x12,

0x18,

0x1E,

0x24,

0x2A,

0x30,

0x36,

0x3C,

0x42,

0x48,

0x4E,

0x54,

0x5A,

0x64

})

}

Return (Package (0x67)

{

0x50,

0x32,

Zero,

One,

0x02,

0x03,

0x04,

0x05,

0x06,

0x07,

0x08,

0x09,

0x0A,

0x0B,

0x0C,

0x0D,

0x0E,

0x0F,

0x10,

0x11,

0x12,

0x13,

0x14,

0x15,

0x16,

0x17,

0x18,

0x19,

0x1A,

0x1B,

0x1C,

0x1D,

0x1E,

0x1F,

0x20,

0x21,

0x22,

0x23,

0x24,

0x25,

0x26,

0x27,

0x28,

0x29,

0x2A,

0x2B,

0x2C,

0x2D,

0x2E,

0x2F,

0x30,

0x31,

0x32,

0x33,

0x34,

0x35,

0x36,

0x37,

0x38,

0x39,

0x3A,

0x3B,

0x3C,

0x3D,

0x3E,

0x3F,

0x40,

0x41,

0x42,

0x43,

0x44,

0x45,

0x46,

0x47,

0x48,

0x49,

0x4A,

0x4B,

0x4C,

0x4D,

0x4E,

0x4F,

0x50,

0x51,

0x52,

0x53,

0x54,

0x55,

0x56,

0x57,

0x58,

0x59,

0x5A,

0x5B,

0x5C,

0x5D,

0x5E,

0x5F,

0x60,

0x61,

0x62,

0x63,

0x64

})

}

Method (_BCM, 1, NotSerialized) // _BCM: Brightness Control Method

{

If (((Arg0 >= Zero) && (Arg0 <= 0x64)))

{

\_SB.PCI0.GFX0.AINT (One, Arg0)

BRTL = Arg0

}

}

Method (_BQC, 0, NotSerialized) // _BQC: Brightness Query Current

{

Return (BRTL) /* \BRTL */

}

}