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advancingu / XPS13Linux

Public collection of issues with running Linux on a Dell XPS 13 (2015 edition)
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Screen contrast is controlled by firmware #2

Open advancingu opened 9 years ago

advancingu commented 9 years ago

The screen brightness is controlled by firmware and correlates with the brightness of content on screen.

This means the screen automatically dims when dark content is shown and brightens when bright content is shown.

There is no known method to turn this mechanism off.

sojusnik commented 9 years ago

There's also an online test regarding this issue:

http://tylerwatt12.com/dc/

advancingu commented 9 years ago

Yes, definitely fading in for me, i.e. my laptop is affected. Is there anything that can be done to stop this? It's highly annoying.

advancingu commented 9 years ago

I spoke with Dell business support yesterday and was told there is an engineering team currently looking into this together with the display panel vendor, as apparently the brightness adjustment is done in the display firmware. They were now trying to expose an on/off switch in the BIOS to allow the user to toggle the behavior, however the support person was not able to tell me when or even if there would be a BIOS update.

gaborkr commented 9 years ago

The funny thing about this "feature" is that it is supposed to work the other way around: increase brightness with a dark background, and decrease it on a bright background - this would be useful.

volo1st commented 9 years ago

Definitely, it's not a feature, it's a BUG.

Imagine that when you are hacking something with a dark themed editor/IDE, and then switch to your browser, this stupid adaptive brightness thing will burn you eyes.

I have to installed redshift to the system to reduce the bluish tint which make the screen even more glare, and another plugin in Chrome to make all white background grey to avoid my eyes been burnt, heck.

advancingu commented 9 years ago

I checked with Dell business support again yesterday and unfortunately there is still no ETA for a fix.

utack commented 9 years ago

Customer support as of today had no clue when the feature is going to be ready..

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Any updates about this issue? I'm still looking for a solution, like a lot of us, I guess

uncon commented 9 years ago

I used to noticed this, but some time back I stopped seeing this behavior. I have completed the linked test several times, and I cannot reproduce this dynamic change in brightness at all. Unfortunately, I can't correlate this to anything that changed, but I don't believe I've seen this since A04. (I have a QHD display.)

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Hey, uncon. I have an FHD screen and I'm definitely seeing this even after I've updated to A04.

mattkrems commented 9 years ago

My FHD screen ordered from Dell's website (256 GB, 8 GB ram options) definitely has this problem. With no clear timeframe for a fix, I think I have to return. Thanks for letting me down Dell!

advancingu commented 9 years ago

@AndrewBogdanov @mkrems If you haven't yet done so, I suggest you contact Dell support and ask them about the issue and when it will be fixed. I've heard that they do listen to support to some degree, so the more negative feedback they get about this issue, the more likely they are going to be implementing a fix.

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

@advancingu will definitely do that today

mattkrems commented 9 years ago

@advancingu Yeah, I talk to tech support a few days ago, and they took me through a process of reinstalling driver and firmware. I tried to tell him this was a known problem, and they really need to fix this as lots of people are upset and returning their laptops, but I don't think the message got through:(

advancingu commented 9 years ago

If you have the official developer edition, it should be eligible for so called "ProSupport". Supposedly support personnel there is held to a higher quality standard than regular support. If you use chat to communicate with them you can also send them a link to this report.

antonyh commented 9 years ago

I'm lucky that I don't have this problem, so it may depend on the hardware.

dmesg reports: Dell Inc. XPS 13 9343/0310JH, BIOS A04 05/15/2015 ELAN Touchscreen.

Xorg.0.log indicates: intel(0): EDID vendor "SHP", prod id 5153

get-edid confirms SHP panel, unknown model.

Could Dell have changed components, or fixed it in A04, or different SHP model/firmware?

advancingu commented 9 years ago

Perhaps the touchscreen panel is not affected. Mine is the matte non-touch with 1920x1080 resolution and it suffers from this issue. Xorg.0.log contains:

intel(0): EDID vendor "SHP", prod id 5152
AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

I also have a matte non-touch version FHD. How can I check those logs that you provided?

advancingu commented 9 years ago

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EDID

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Is it a cmd command? Will it work on Windows?

advancingu commented 9 years ago

This command works on Linux only. To determine if your model is affected, follow the link provided here.

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Yeah, I tried that link and my screen shows logo via fading for 3 seconds or so.

advancingu commented 9 years ago

Then please contact Dell support and tell them that you dislike this "feature" and ask them to provide an option to turn it off. This is the only chance to ever get rid of this behavior.

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

So, I've conacted Dell Support Agent yesterday and he was working with my machine remotely for 3 hours or so, trying defferent things like updating bios, drivers etc. The bottom line: this is a hardware issue of integrated video card. So I will be sending request for warranty mother board replacement. I will update on this topic when it will be replaced to the new one.

advancingu commented 9 years ago

@AndrewBogdanov Good luck and thanks for posting an update.

tmadhavan commented 9 years ago

Such a shame that this issue hasn't been (officially) addressed. I've been hoping to get an XPS 13 but currently it's unusable for photography.

Having said that - my housemate just bought a (FHD) XPS 13, and doesn't seem to have the brightness bug. I will try to find out what BIOS rev. he has and report back.

(Also on Windows 10, though this is irrelevant if it's firmware, I know.)

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

I think this bug might be happening for a limited range of devices. For example my video card also have some issue when running simple surface test, so it can be some kind of bug in hardware itself. I will be able to tell for sure only when my motherboard will be replaced. But the guy from support told me that this issue will go away with a new motherboard.

tmadhavan commented 9 years ago

I don't think it's a bug as far as Dell is concerned, unfortunately - they clearly market it as a feature. Ridiculous that it cannot be disabled, though.

utack commented 9 years ago

In this case I want a documented way to intentionally produce a bug that breaks this "feature" please...

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

I don't believe it's a feature in any way. Where did you see they've been market that?

tmadhavan commented 9 years ago

It's their "Content-Adaptive Backlight Control", mentioned in most reviews etc. of this laptop. There is a reasonably long thread about it here (which links back here, incidentally).

advancingu commented 9 years ago

It lets them claim a higher screen contrast than the screen actually has in their marketing material. The way this "feature" behaves it can in no way have been a bug that slipped in.

utack commented 9 years ago

It is a feature. It is meant to make dark unreadable and white burn out your eyes at night, and to destroy battery. But you can fool some people into thinking it has good contrast, as @advancingu said.

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

It could be a real feature if it worked in reverse direction, lighter on dark/darker on light, then I'd even think about not turning it off. Curently it's a BUG!

mattkrems commented 9 years ago

I can confirm that this issue no longer occurs on my FHD version after installing the free Windows 10 upgrade. Finally!

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Don't know about you but I still have it even after I've updated to win10. I should say that it's maybe not so prominant, but it's still there.

tmadhavan commented 9 years ago

Nooooo! Out of curiosity, could you guys say what bios revision you have? My friend's laptop that does not have the issue has rev. A05 and Windows 10.

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Huh! So they pushed out new bios revision? I thought that A04 is the latest.

tmadhavan commented 9 years ago

It seems that A04 is the latest on Dell's site, but A05 appears to be on new laptops (judging from my sample size of 1). Now, I'm not sure that's what fixes the issue (perhaps new laptops have new screens?), but it is possible.

I'm hoping so, as I've managed to snag a bargain on one of the many returned/refurbished (so presumably slightly older) XPS 13s, and I'm just crossing my fingers that I can "fix" the problem, if indeed it is present.

tmadhavan commented 9 years ago

Oh! Here it is: released 28 July :-D http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=YMRTD

advancingu commented 9 years ago

I just updated to A05 and there has not been any change in behavior. The screen still dims on dark content and the online test from this comment still shows the fading logo.

@tmadhavan Please double-check that your friend is running this test correctly in fullscreen mode.

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Yup, I've also tested latest bios update and it brought no changes to my system whatsoever.

tmadhavan commented 9 years ago

Damn, that sucks. I'll double check my (awaiting collection) machine, as well as my friend's, when I get back from work.

Sorry this didn't fix things for you guys.

AndrewBogdanov commented 9 years ago

Maybe they've added some setting to the latest BIOS that can turn it off? I haven't entered the bios setting yet. Just went with defaults.

advancingu commented 9 years ago

Nothing obviously new in the BIOS, I already checked.

mattkrems commented 9 years ago

UPDATE: The brightness issue on the laptop display did seemed to be fixed immediately after installing Windows 10 (I was also hooked up to an external 4k display at the time). However, it now appears to be back. I have tested it while plugged in, while on battery, as well as while hooked up the external display, and it appears to still occur on the laptop display in all instances. So it does seem like the monitor is at least capable of not having this issue. This issue really needs to be fixed!

utack commented 9 years ago

@mkrems please tell it to Dell, everyone here already knows that it needs to be fixed.

mattkrems commented 9 years ago

Note I was testing this using this website: http://tylerwatt12.com/dc/

I promise that the Dell logo immediately appeared on the laptop display immediately after installing Windows 10. I check it several times. So strange!

mattkrems commented 9 years ago

@utack I have told Dell several times now, and they insist that this is an isolated problem. All signs point to this being a problem with ALL or at least most XPS 13 models correct?

utack commented 9 years ago

@mkrems maybe some drivers missing directly after fresh install, so the display did not go to 100% brightness for the test?