eye strain

[CNeub]

hello,

I have a Notebook with Intel Core i7 4710 - Intel Graphics 4600 and external Nvidia Gforce GTX 850M for about 2 weeks now. I connect the Notebook on two different places per HDMI with nearly three year old lg monitors. With my old Notebook (Intel Core2Duo and Nvidia Gforce 9500GT) I had not any problems with this two monitors. However when I connect one of the two monitors with my new Notebook I get eye strain and headache. Of course I use the right resolution FullHD and tried out different brigthness and contrast adjustments in intel graphic properties. OS is Windows 7 Prof x64 and the newest drivers are installed. Version:15.33.22.64.3621

Nearly two months ago I purchased an other Notebook with Intel Core i7 4700MQ - Intel Graphics 4600 and Nvidia Gforce GT755 M. I had the same problem there and so I sent it back, because I thought that the Notebook has an defect. I tried out Windows 7 and Windows 8 and had the same eye problems in the two different OS.Now I do not really know what the problem exactly is, because I have these problems with two different Notebooks on two different external LG Monitors and the integrated Displays of the Notebooks. But I thinkt the problem is the Intel HD 4600. Maybe that there is something wrong with the driver.Do you have any ideas about this? Couse I can't purchase and send back new Notebooks all the time.

Sorry for my bad english

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello, All:

Here you can find some settings you can change to get a better experience with the brightness of your monitor.

1. Enable the Adaptive Brightness Controls within windows. This is under advanced power settings.

2. DPST (Display Power-Saving Technology ) should be disabled in AC mode. Users can disable "Intel Display Power-Saving Technology" (DPST) from Intel CUI. Toggle DPST setting in CUI, see if transition affects the issue

3. This would have to be reported to your respective OEM, PWM frequency settings. After the tests performed, this is another option that could be affecting or causing the eye strain.

Adaptive Brightness Controls

Additional information:

-DPST should be off on AC and should be nearly visually neutral on battery.

-Disabling DPST should eliminate any residual impact for visually sensitive users.

-There appears to be some confusion by users about "Adaptive Brightness" (ADB based on ambient light; content independent) vs DPST (content based modulation of gamma/backlight but should be visually neutral).

I hope this can be of help for the eyestrain issues in your OEM devices.

Regards,

Esteban C

[SMohd2]

Hi EstebanC_Intel

In my Lenovo T420s laptop, the adaptive brightness setting is not there in the Power Options, and the intel DPST was already off (for on-battery, there were no options for plugged in). Here are some screenshots of my settings:

power options - display settings (no options on adaptive brightness setting)

plugged in

on battery

In the Power Options dialog box (from control panel), the Intel Graphics Power Plan has been set to Maximum Performance for both On-Battery and Plugged-in.

So I don't think the ADB and DPST this will solve the eye strain issue. It may help somewhat (to anyone who never switched these features off). How is everyone else, has this solution solved your eye strain issue?

By the way, have you found anything in the 2013 driver (9.17.10.3347 - which causes eye strain), that were not present in the 2011 driver (8.15.10.2476 - which do not cause eye strain)?

I say this again,something must be added or changed in the 2013 driver for it to cause eye strain, since everything else is the same (same laptop, same display screen, same OS, same settings, only the driver is different). Hope you are able to find it. I believe the real solution will likely require a change or tweak in coding of the driver, for it to not cause eye strain anymore.

Have you managed to recreate the issue? And are you still investigating and assessing the driver that I posted in the previous pages, or have you stopped already?

[CNeub]

hey EstebanC_Intel

The DPST option is not available in the newest driver version. At least not on my brothers new dell desktop computer. However Turning on Adaptive Brightness Controls doesn't change anything.

Moreover I once again connect to Kray_62 s opinion, There is a certain change in the mentioned driver versions which cause the eyestrain. We spend really much time and mental work to solve this problem. We wouldn't do that if our symptoms are just dry and tired eyes which can be cured with a simple brightness adaption.

Also once again this is not an OEM problem. It doesn't make any sense if I go to manufacturer A and another person to manufacturer B with the same issues. They always will say that they've never heard about this problem. The root of the problem is the intel graphics driver and you guys see in this thread that not only a few people are suffering from this issues.

I would understand the few feedback from you if Intel is only a small company, but Intel is the absolute market leader and I think it's not an overcharge if we ask you to help us with your products. You can help so many people by really taking care about this heavy issues.

[SMohd2]

Hi EstebanC_Intel

I have been using another laptop for the last few weeks, to test if I get eye strain using it or not. This laptop is the Lenovo T450 laptop, with Intel 5500 Graphics.

• Eye strain due to Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) – The T450 laptop has PWM, but the workaround solution has been tested and found to be working to address this issue - increasing the brightness to 100% eliminates the PWM flickering. So no issue here.

• Eye strain due to Intel Graphics driver – After PWM has been eliminated using the method above, I found that I can use the T450 laptop for about 20-30 minutes before I get some discomfort in the eyes, if I use longer than that, I get eye strain. I have upgraded the Intel graphics driver to the latest (2015) version, no change.

This is slightly better than my old laptop, which is the Lenovo T420s (when using the latest intel driver), because I can use the T450 longer before I get eye strain compared to the T420s. I suspect the reason for this is because of the difference in the intel graphics card used, where the T420s uses Intel 3000 graphics whereas the T450 uses Intel 5500 graphics card, which may have different intel graphics driver setup/implementation.

Here is another important point - with the Lenovo T450 laptop using the latest 2015 intel graphics driver, I get eye strain. But when I disabled the Intel Graphics and use the Standard Graphics VGA Driver, I get no eye strain at all. It is like looking at a blank wall, I feel nothing, no eye discomfort, no eye strain whatsoever. So there must be something in the Intel Graphics driver that is not present in the Standard VGA driver that might be the root cause of these eye strain.

I am attaching 2 sets of drivers:

1. Intel graphics driver 10.18.14.4206 - released in 2015. This driver causes eye strain after looking at the screen for more than 20 minutes. You can download the driver here: http://support.lenovo.com/my/ms/downloads/ds101839 http://support.lenovo.com/my/ms/downloads/ds101839
2. Standard Graphics VGA Driver - 6.1.7600.16385. Driver date 21/6/2006. This driver does not cause eye strain. I am attaching the driver in this forum for you to download.

If you can investigate what are the difference between the 2 drivers above, maybe we can identify and eliminate the things might cause eye strain. For example, does the intel 10.18.14.4206 driver has dithering? Does the Standard VGA driver has dithering? Does it has anti-aliasing? and so forth....

If I know how to read/program or decipher graphics driver, I would do it and compare these 2 drivers myself, but I have no idea how these drivers work. So we hope that there are intel engineers here who can successfully investigate and find the root cause of what is causing these eye strain when using intel graphics driver.

[SMohd2]

Here is the table:

Category

Questions

Answers (N/A if not applicable)

Description

Provide a detailed description of the issue

When using the Lenovo T450 laptop (with the latest 2015 driver), I get mild discomfort of the eyes. I can use the screen for half an hour (sometimes up to 1 hour) before the eye discomfort become eye strain and painful.

If I use the same laptop, but switch to Standard VGA driver, I get no eye strain at all. It's like looking at a blank wall, absolutely no feeling of discomfort or strain at all on my eyes. But when I use the 2015 intel driver, after 20-30 minutes, my eyes start to get really discomfort and painful.

Does it fail every single time, or only sometimes?

If you can offer a % rate please do.

Every time.

Hardware (HW)

Brand and Model of the system.

Lenovo Thinkpad T450 laptop

Hybrid or switchable graphics system?

ie Does it have AMD or NV graphics too?

Intel Graphics 5500

Nvidia Graphics M940

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

LFP = Local Flat Panel (Laptop panel) EFP = External Flat Panel (Monitor you plug in)

LFP 1600x900

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

<td style="border...

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello:

Kray_62, thank you for the information provided, I will be sending this over for review.

lucio15, in order to better perform tests for this, please provide me with the information requested in the following link:

As soon as I get an outcome with this, I will be letting you know.

Regards,

Esteban C

[SMohd2]

Hi EstebanC_Intel

Thanks. Looking forward for potential solution from Intel. We will be happy to test any solutions that Intel can come up with to confirm it can eliminate the eye strain or not.

By the way, I have amended my earlier table (Post # 49) on my other laptop, the Lenovo T420s, on how to reproduce the setup that causes eye strain, and how to reproduce the setup that does not cause eye strain. Hopefully this will make it easier for Intel engineers to replicate this issue on your side and investigate the root cause.

[CNeub]

hey EstebanC_Intel

I think you forgot about the "following link" you mentionend in your post

or what do you mean exactly?

[idata]

I responded to the 2nd post on this thread, sorry for the confusion.

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello, All:

Please let me get an update on this and I will let you know.

Regards,

Esteban C

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello, kammerer:

I would like to know what is the driver version that you are currently using in your system.

I look forward to your reply.

As an update, we are currently working with the issue to find out what is the source of the problem, so far there is no ETA but indeed it is being treated.

Regards,

Esteban C

[MBogd1]

EstebanC_Intel,

I don't have Samsung 900x notebook now, but as i remember there was default Ubuntu 15.04 drivers and i also tried last one from 01.org: same effect on both drivers.

[MSolt2]

I have Lenovo B50-70 with i3-4030u and HD4400 and the same problem with PWM. I installed old intel graphics driver v.9.18.xxx on Windows 7 and used IntelPWMControl and it works, I can set PWM to 8kHz and i dont see PWM (we can check it using phone or camera). By default in Intel drivers we have only 200hz and we see very well flickering. THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM and I think that related to Intel graphics drivers, because we can correct this with some code.

[DKour]

Hello everyone,

I am just writing to "upvote" this issue. I have been having the same problem with severe eye strain when using my Toshiba Satellite (Satellite Z30-A-130 - Toshiba) which has an Intel HD Graphics 4400 card and has been upgraded to Windows 10 and the latest Intel HD drivers. I have tried everything, font sizes, colour callibration, various driver settings, using f.lux and nothing alleviates the problem. I have had the laptop for a couple of years now and, in the beginning my eyes were fine when using it. I started having problems a few months ago (I would say that it must have been around September). I have no eye strain problems when using any other machine, be it at work or at home, regardless of their brightness and contrast settings. But looking at the Toshiba screen is so tiring that, compared to that, even working on a 6 year old netbook feels like a luxury.

I have even tried installing Linux (Debian 😎 and that did not resolve the problem either. (To my understanding, the driver used by the distribution I installed was also provided by Intel, but there is no way to check now because I have switched back to Windows)

I was about to get rid of the Toshiba laptop, thinking that the issue was due to some weird hardware malfunction, so I am very happy to have discovered this thread. I hope that we will have some news about this problem soon.

[SMohd2]

@ _dimitri_

Hi.

When you first got your Toshiba Satellite laptop a couple of years ago, you can use the laptop with no problems, no eye strain?

You mentioned you started getting eye strain a few months ago. Did you get the eye strain before or after you upgraded to Windows 10? Or before or after you upgraded the Intel Graphics driver?

If you can use your laptop before, and you only get eye strain after you upgraded your OS or intel graphics driver, maybe you can try re-installing the old OS and/or the old intel graphics driver. Toshiba website may still have old versions of the driver. Might be worth to try, while waiting for Intel to come up with a solution.

[DKour]

Hello,

I upgraded to Windows 10 long before I started getting eye strain, so I suppose it must have been a driver update. What you suggest must be a pretty good idea. I will try to find an older driver and try to install it. Hopefully that will resolve the problem for now. Thanks!

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for all your input, and for trying the different troubleshooting steps that were suggested before. I would like to let you know that we are investigating this issue.

However, we would like to set the right expectations here. As it was mentioned before "these eye strain only effect a small number of the population, maybe just 5% of the population. The rest (i.e. the 95%) will not have any issues or eye strain with the drivers." the logic on that statement certainly applies. We are working on this, but there is a fine line that we need to walk on while fixing this issue, as we do not want to cause any eye strain to the other 95% that do not experience the issue right now. Thus the perceived delay in actually coming up with a permanent fix for you.

Having said that, in order to aid in our investigation, I was wondering if any of you would volunteer in sending their hardware directly to us for investigation? Example: if you experience the issue with your laptop and no external display is involved, send only the laptop. If the eye strain occurs with your laptop connected to an external display, send both.

Let us know if you are willing to send your hardware, we need only 1 or 2 samples of affected equipment for now. We would contact a couple of volunteers via PM to coordinate the shipment process.

Regards,

[DKour]

Ronald_Intel, I understand that it is not easy to correct something that is not an issue for most people. Personally it would be hard for me to send in my laptop, unless I get completely disappointed and decide to replace it. I will report back an let you know if installing an older driver resolved the issue for me though. Maybe that would help you figure out the changes that may have caused the problem.

Thanks for trying in any case.

[DKour]

So, I've tried downgrading the driver to "Intel HD Graphics Family 15.33.14.64.3412". It was the earliest I could find. The package also installed "Intel (R) Display Audio 6.16.00.3131". The downgrade did not improve the situation. I noticed that someone posted earlier that the downgrade did not help in their case either. Maybe a change performed during the upgrade persists, even if the latest driver is removed. I could try to reinstall Windows but that will probably not do any good because the driver gets installed automatically during the Windows setup, or shortly afterwards.

[SMohd2]

_dimitri_

In my case, when I installed the newer (driver date 2013) driver, it gave me eye strain, so I downloaded and installed the oldest driver that was available in the Lenovo website (2012 driver), and it still gave me eye strain. Luckily for me, I have a copy of the original graphics driver (that came with the laptop - driver date 2011) which I extracted using a software called "Driver Extractor" before I installed the 2013 driver. When I re-installed the 2011 driver, no more eye strain, and I can use my laptop for hours without any problems whatsoever. So whatever that was causing the eye strain in the newer driver was gone when I re-installed the old driver.

Since you still get eye strain after downgrading your driver, it is possible that the (old) driver that you re-installed in your laptop already has changes that causes eye strain in them. You should try finding and installing an even older driver, if possible try find the driver version that originally came with the laptop. Third party websites like drivers.com may have a copy of the older/original driver somewhere. Hope this helps. Otherwise, we need to wait for Intel to find a solution.

[DKour]

Thanks for the tip! I'll try the site and see if I can find an older driver.