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

[MFitz1]

Attn: Intel,

After upgrading my computer system from Windows XP to Windows 10, seven months ago, I too have been experiencing severe eye strain, eye fatigue, and eye pain that starts within minutes of viewing my screen. The eye strain, fatigue, and pain worsens the longer I view my screen. The results of the pain lasts for hours to days. It is very limiting and painful to be on my computer and accomplish all I need to do. I continue to be in pain as I haven't found an adequate computer solution. I'm concerned about this pain, not being able to use my computer in visual comfort, and long-term eye damage.

I have been searching for a solution for seven months. I constantly adjust my monitor's brightness and contrast, which I never needed to do prior to updating the computer. I find the screen seems brighter and hurts my eyes worse the longer I view the screen, so I constantly lower the brightness and contrast, and my eyes continue to hurt. When I come back to the screen, later, or the next day, I have to increase the brightness and contrast to see the screen, and then, the cycle begins again, as I need to reduce it constantly because it's too bright..

Getting away from the computer screen is the only resolution to reduce the eye strain, pain, and fatigue, yet it takes many hours to days to fully recover. All of this pain is very painful to experience each time I need to use the computer, which is mostly daily.

The only change that has occurred is upgrading from Win XP to Win 10 with a new Dell tower. I have the same monitor which is a Dell LCD. I never had to constantly adjust the brightness or contrast to try and achieve visual comfort on my monitor. I know the monitor isn't the issue. At first I thought it was Win 10, and I made a few minor display changes, like darkening the background color and darkening tabs in MS Office, yet all the pain continues.

My display driver is Intel (R) HD Graphics 4400, version: 20.19.15.4331

Others mention changing the driver, yet I'm not clear how to do that. Can you please expedite this issue and offer tips on how to resolve it.

I also have a new Lenova Yoga 3 laptop that has Intel (R) HD Graphics 5300, version: 20.19.15.4331, which I've barely used with concern of more severe eye strain. It too has Windows 10 and I find it too bright, after making display adjustments.

[DKour]

Fitzgerald75 This is a very good description of my own experience as well. I hope Ronald_Intel and his colleagues will be able to resolve the issue before our computers at work get upgraded to windows 10 because the only solution I have found at home is to just not use computers at all unless I really have to.

[MFitz1]

Thank you for validating what I've been experiencing for months. It's very helpful to know that others are having the same problem as me. I have spent countless hours/months searching for answers to resolve this problem, experiencing horrible eye strain/pain in the process. Before finding this forum, I was researching computer filters and computer glasses which may help overall computer use, but I have a small filter I use already, and never had eye strain using it prior to the Windows 10 upgrade. I've adjusted display settings on my monitor and in Windows 10, which help inconsistently. These adjustments are like trying to put a band-aid on a gushing wound.

The display driver being the issue and changing it would be a simple solution. Reading all the posts, it appears driver 4279 was helpful, or unstalling the driver 4331 completely resolved the problem, then relying on a default, but then you can't control brightness. My stuckness is not being clear on what to install in place of my current driver and not really understanding how the driver works. Others mention differing, flickering, and PWM. I can understand these concepts and know how to install and uninstall a program, however, I'm not super techy. I know there are alternative drivers, Intel and other brands, but I'm not clear on how to proceed. Is it as simple as uninstalling the driver I have and then installing another one, and testing it out?

[SMohd2]

@Ronald_Intel

"I would like to provide you all with an update on this issue. Since I haven't been able to experience eye strain with several different drivers and equipment here, neither some of my coworkers, I elevated this issue to our debugging team. This is filed under bug ID 1405242774.

What does this mean? Well, it is a whole new set of eyes testing this issue, along with different Hardware. I cannot promise you a fix is coming anytime soon, since we have seen, even in this thread alone, how subjective this issue really is. But rest assured that we haven't dismissed this problem, and we are actively working on it."

Hi. I am not surprised that you or your coworkers could not experience the eye strain - you (and your coworkers) have normal eye sights! 🙂 This issue affects those with sensitive eyes, especially to flickering or other unknown factors (that exists in Intel drivers which are yet to be identified).

I am guessing that you have already re-created the issue at your lab. The problem is that non of your team members or your coworkers felt the eye strain because all of you have normal eye sights, or have eyes that are not sensitive to flickering or whatever it is that is causing the eye strain. So if no one in your team can feel or experience the eye strain, how can a solution be found, because the problem cannot even be felt by the investigating team.

That's why I have said before, Intel need to have a member (who is working on this issue) who also suffers from eye strain to work on this problem. Only then you can have (at least) one member in the team who can tell whether a particular driver version causes eye strain or not. If all intel team who work on this issue are from the 95% or 90% of the population i.e. who has no problems with eye strain from PWM or intel drivers, then it would be virtually impossible to find a solution, because the problem cannot be felt/detected by the intel team.

If intel could not find a coworker who are already suffering from these eye strain like we do, the next best thing is to use us, get some of us here in this thread to help out. We can be the "tester" to determine if a driver version causes eye strain or not. The challenge is the starting point, especially to recreate it at the intel lab (where the intel team members cannot feel the eye strain themselves). The only way I can see how to get a good starting point is for one of us here to send you our laptop which we know for sure is causing us eye strain. At least you will have one hardware (and software/driver inside) that is confirmed to cause eye strain. And you can go from there. Some of us here has already stated that they are willing to send their hardware/laptops to intel for investigation, if you ware willing to accept it or to go this route.

[idata]

My laptop is Asus X555LAB. Maybe Asus did some custom things to get it to work or maybe used a different display or chipset for something and is working properly.I have also tried this driver https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25150/Intel-Iris-Iris-Pro-and-HD-Graphics-Production-Driver-for-Windows-10-64-bit?product=86210 Download Intel® Iris™, Iris™ Pro, and HD Graphics Production Driver for Windows® 10 64-bit and is working good even if is the oldest driver avaible.Right now I'm using the latest Beta drivers 64 bit and is also working.

[DGeor3]

Hello guys,

My name is Daniel. I'm the creator of one software for eye protection called Iris ( http://iristech.co)

Currently I'm trying to fix this issue with the Intel video cards which are just bad and I have reverse engineered some things, but I need somebody to help me test them on actual PC with Intel HD video card.

I have prepared one achive GetPWMFrequency_Intel_HD_Graphics.zip

http://iristech.co/download/1487/ http://iristech.co/download/1487/

What this does is it tries to query your video card driver to get your actual PWM frequency. The PWM thing is really low on most Intel video cards.

So I'm asking someone with Intel Graphics card to start one of the files in the achive

If you get Message box with "PWM Frequency" please take me a picture or send me the actual value of this. If this works I will be able to help you all with your problem

If you get Assertion failed, I have used the wrong code and will try to fix it. This is a really tough and important problem to solve and I am not sure Intel care about it enought. If it's already fixed please forgive me

Thanks

[idata]

I get assertion failed on both version I have x64.Also they show up as a virus.

[DGeor3]

Maybe they have changed the driver. Can you tell me your graphics card and driver version?

Some antivirus detect even Iris as virus. It's normal this code is making requests to the drivers

[SMohd2]

Hi Daniel. I have tried your software, and I get "Assertion Failed!" error too. I am using the Lenovo T450 laptop, with Intel HD 5500 graphics, driver version 10.18.15.4279.

Just curious, how exactly will your software help us? The software is just to detect the PWM frequency of a particular laptop. Say you know the PWM frequency, what can you do with this info to help solve this problem?

In my case, even though my laptop has PWM, I am using a workaround solution to eliminate PWM, which is to increase the brightness to 100%. This eliminates PWM, so if I get your software to work, the PWM Frequency should say zero (although it would be good if your software can confirm this), then how will you use this info to solve this? I still suffer from eye strain due to Intel graphics driver. So I am not sure how your software will help me, I mean I hope you will find a way to solve this issue, but I am just curious to see how this can be done.

[DKour]

Actually I would like to contribute a little correction. I have no problem with my eyes on OSX after all. It seems that when I thought I did, I was still under the effect of the Windows 10 system (with the intel HD driver) which I had installed on the same machine, with bootcamp. It has been some time that I have removed Windows 10 now and, using OSX exclusively, everything is fine. It's true that I have never experienced this sort of problem with Windows 7 (which we use at work) so maybe it is a combination of the intel driver and Windows 10 or even 8 that is causing it? I'm just saying...

[DGeor3]

Hi Kray_62,

I have already fixed PWM flickering with Iris, but with Intel HD graphics there is private API, which can actually increase the flicker rate over the maximum which is at 100% brightness.

There is always flicker. Even at 100%. When you use your hardware brightness at 20% the flicker rate is just lower and you get headaches and big eye strain. I was asking here, because I don't have the money to buy laptop with Intel HD graphics and test it myself. What I have done with this .exe is trying to access the private API of Intel which can control the PWM frequency. If I am able to get it, I am able to set it

So basically if this worked I can set highter frequency than the maximum and you can control your monitor brightness with Iris to low it.

Iris brightness use inovative technology which doesn't use the PWM to control the brightness and it already works on all monitors and OS.

Here is a video for more better view of what I talk about

Since Iris is free only for 4 hours per day at the moment, last week I finished completely free version of Iris called Iris mini

http://irismini.com/ http://irismini.com

It's completely free and automatic and if you want try it. It will help you I'm sure.

If you are a little more technical, there is also free command line version of Iris called Iris micro

http://irismicro.com/ http://irismicro.com

With which you can set your brightness level as low as 10% without PWM

So in conclusion

I wanted to set the PWM frequency of Intel HD Graphics over the maximum which is at 100% brightness, but it seems they have changed the driver code.

After this by using Iris you can set your monitor brightness to really low level without changing the high PWM frequency already in place which is good for the eyes.

You can use Iris now and it will work. Set your hardware brightness to the max and control it with Iris and your eyes will benefit from both low brightness and no PWM.

[idata]

If PWM is the problem then the laptop screen should flicker right?To those that have eye strain issue could you please record your laptop screen with a phone or camera on different brightness level?

[DGeor3]

That's right

Here is a video of how someone can test for PWM flicker

[SMohd2]

Hi Daniel_Georgiev,

Your IRIS software looks very interesting, and I would love to give it a go.

Unfortunately, I just had to return the loaner laptop which I normally use to test and try out eye strain related potential solutions. I only have my old Lenovo T420s laptop now, which is my main laptop that I use for my office work. Because of this, I am a bit hesitant to install and try out new software that might change the display settings of this laptop, as I do not want to take the risk of making this laptop unusable for me. This is the only laptop that I can use without any eye strain whatsover.

I am very interested in your IRIS software though. Have some questions:

You mentioned that "So basically if this worked I can set highter frequency than the maximum and you can control your monitor brightness with Iris to low it." 1. "...if this works" - Does this mean you are not sure if the software can change the PWM frequency or not?

2. "...I can set higher frequency than the maximum..." - The software can only set the frequency to be "higher" only if it knows what is the current maximum frequency of that laptop. Can your software tell what is the maximum PWM of a particular laptop? If yes, I assume the user then can enter the desired PWM frequency, or if user cant do this, would the software determine and set the PWM frequency by itself?

3. Once we changed the PWM frequency, can we change it back to the original if nothing happens or if it did not work as expected?

[DGeor3]

Iris works on all laptops and don't use PWM to control brightness already.

I just wanted to research something for the Intel drivers.

It does not change any of your configurations and if you don't like the program you can just delete it and everything will be back to normal.

There is no danger in breaking down your monitor or laptop or anything, don't worry.

It's actually prety cool.

I was talking about something completely different here. The PWM can be changed on some monitors and I research if I can somehow increase this frequency. This is not part of Iris, because I have not found good solution at the moment.

[YZHAO27]

My eyes are uncomfortable when using Retina Macbook Pro(Intel Iris Graphics 6100) and I think it is also due to the driver version. However, for mac, it is not easy to uninstall and install the driver (maybe just I don't know the way). Can anybody tell me any solution? ( I noticed many people have the similar problems with Retina screen but most of them just blame the glossy screen)

[TBart4]

I have the same with MacBook Pro Retina last model, it's 100% some thing wrong with intel driver because MBPr 15' with amd card cause no strain if only and is used.

[DKour]

tomekbartczak Thanks for mentioning this. It's good to know. I've had no problem on my older macbook so I just assumed, wrongly I guess, that there is no problem with macs in general, even if they carry intel HD graphics.

[JGrah4]

I read through almost every comment since I have the same issue and was hoping for a solution. I got a new job with a new Dell laptop with an Intel HD Graphics 5500 adapter. Used the laptop for 2 months no problem. Got my docking station and lcd monitor. Hooked it up and by the end of the day major headache. After a week I made appointment with eye doctor. Got some reading glasses. Didn't help. Researched online and read about yellow tinted glasses that help with blue light from monitor. Went to Walmart and bought some $6 yellow safety glasses and instantly fixed my issue. I ended up purchasing a pair of computer glasses off of Amazon and for the most part has solved my problem. I still once in a while get an ocular migraine, never happened before getting this new job. I have tried 2 different monitors and the only thing that allows me to work are these yellow tinted glasses. You people may want to look into them. If I look at my monitor for 10 seconds without them it hurts my eyes. This could be something totally different they what everyone else is experiencing but this solved my problem for the most part.

[TZohr]

Hi everyone:),

Three weeks ago I changed my work place and instead of Z440 desktop machines which had Nvidia graphic card in my previous work place I got HP Elitebook Folio 9480m notebook with an Intel HD 4400 graphic card and from 3rd day started having eye strain,dizziness and headache. Went to check eyes and the results were excellent.

Just finished reading all the previous posts and got a little bit relief that its not me going crazy. I really hope that Intel gonna find the solution.

By the way is there any news Intel ?