T410 brightness changes when switching between windows

[sqldba]

Loving mynew T410, but one feature is really bugging me and I can't figure out where to change\disable it. When switching between applications my screen brightness changes. Apps with dark background cause the screen to go really dim; apps with bright backgrounds cause the screen to go bright (sometimes REALLY bright).

Anyone know what this is and where to change it?

@SQLDBA

[Colonel O'Neill]

Sounds very familiar.

This likely only happens on battery power and with the integrated graphic.

1. Start > Igfxcfg > Enter
2. Display Settings tab
3. Power Settings
4. Modify Settings
5. Choose Maximum Quality under "Intel (R) Display Power Saving Technology".

[sqldba]

1. Start > Igfxcfg > Enter

Thanks for the suggestion, but that command wasn't found. Dig some digging around though, and here's the equivalent:

1. On the desktop, right click and choose "Graphics Properties"
2. Choose "Power", then "Power Features"
3. In Graphics Power Plan Options dropdown on right, select "On battery"
4. Uncheck "Display Power Saving Technology"...OR...leave it checked and move the slider to "Maximum Quality"

Thanks for the tip and pointing me in the right direction!

@SQLDBA

[Colonel O'Neill]

Heh, oops
I assumed the command line would work on the T410 the same way as it does on the T400.

I was a bit annoyed when I first noticed this "feature" because it made things look really bad (I blamed it on the Samsung panel which I was hearing such bad things about). After turning it off, everything is now nice.

[gzlatin]

Wow, thanks...i was having the same issue and thought it was a hardware problem. I called Lenovo and they had me update the intel drivers but that didn't work. They told me that the next step would be to send the laptop in for repair (which would really suck to have to do) but hopefully this fix will take care of it. Thanks!

[the_jonny]

Yay!!! I've got a Thinkpad Edge which HAD the same problem but NO MORE!
Dunno if you guys have ever encountered problems with the trackpad being terrible, but mine was horrible when I got it. Try doing the last comments instructions on this thread, which made it infinitely better:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=98231