Laptop dimming display on dark backgrounds

My Acer laptop running Windows 10 has a very annoying feature: when running on battery, the LCD backlight dims gradually when displaying a dark screen and brightens gradually when displaying light screen.

This is especially annoying when switching between my IDE (which is dark and pleasant to the eyes) and a webpage.

I've figured out that this is happening only on battery, and no matter the display brightness, it happens unless I plug it in. I've checked if there's some setting in the Windows power settings, but nothing popped out at me (my laptop for instance doesn't have adaptive screen brightness).

Solution 1:

An obscure forum post pointed me in the right direction:

1. Search Windows for 'Intel'
2. Select 'Intel HD Graphics Control Panel'
3. Click the 'Power' square button
4. Click 'On Battery' tab
5. Disable 'Display Power Saving Technology' (I see it as the last option)

Here's the option in Intel's HD Graphics Control Panel:

Save your eyes and turn off "Display Power Saving Technology".

Solution 2:

Such annoying feature in Philips BDM4065 monitor was caused by its "SmartContrast" setting turned on. Turning it off resolved the problem completely.

(This is not an advice for built-in laptop screens, but plenty of people looks here and part of them searches for the info pertaining to attached monitors.)

Solution 3:

For anyone who doesn't have the Power Saving Technology option in Intel Graphics Control Panel (I only had a Panel Self-Refresh Enable/Disable option) follow the instructions in the first answer, from AMART53, in this forum, https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D50P0000490XXpSAM/disable-intel-display-power-saving-technology-in-plugged-in-mode?language=en_US.

I have copied the answer below.

AMART53:

"launch regedit

go to :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]

(for me it was 0001 at the end. Full path was Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001)

find the value FeatureTestControl

Open the calculator in programmor mode, go in HEX and write the value written, look at the binary, it give you for example:

HEX : c200

BIN : 110000100000000

change the 5th bit from the end to 1:

1100001000010000

Put in on calculator in programming mode/BIN and get the HEX value

BIN : 1100001000010000

HEX : c210

modify the register with regedit and put the new HEX value in FeatureTestControl

Restart your computer"

This worked for me although it seems insane.

Solution 4:

This was by far the most annoying feature in my laptop. I also managed to disabled it from Intel Graphics Control Panel, however, I had to disable both "Display Power Saving Technology" and "Extended battery life for gaming" features.

PS: if, like me, your laptop didn't have Intel Graphics Control Panel pre-installed, you can find it on Windows Store (it's an app now).