[WARNING] Latest Spring Creator's Update (1803 and 1804) Messes with Display Brightness Adjustment on X2001 Frankenpads

[madicetea]

As posted on another forum by a different user, but his story matches mine almost to the dot:

Hi guys, so I love my wee x201 and use it as my daily driver for anything that a computer science student could have thrown at him.
I've had minimal issues with it until last week, although it's kind of self-inflicted.

So Windows released the 1803 Spring Creator's Update last Tuesday and I got it fairly soon after. All was working before the update, and after the update I seemed to run into that display bug with 1803 because some programs launched with a black screen although the screen brightness still worked.

Long story short, I tried to update the display driver to fix the issue by downloading directly from Intel, it didn't fix the issue and broke the brightness settings; I rolled back to the existing drivers (or so it says) in Driver Manager and didn't get the brightness control back. All these drivers are 2012/2013 by the way so it's not like it was actually updated last week.

I've 'updated' the Display Adapters and Monitor drivers to pretty much every version available and tried a couple of registry fixes but to no avail. The Fn+Home/End just brings up the slider and moves it but doesn't actually change the brightness. I can get it working with the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter [and I cannot, unlike this lucky guy] but seeing as it had Intel HD installed before I messed around with it, I'd be happier running the Intel ones. I can still change the brightness in BIOS so it's definitely software.

Has anyone come across a similar issue? I'd love it if it were a simple fix that didn't need a Windows reinstall. Thoughts?
[I plan on testing it later today with a Fedora 28 live USB disk.]

His specs: i5 520M Intel HD Graphics planar, X200 TN LED screen, Windows 10 x64 1803
My specs: i5 470M Intel HD Graphics planar, X200 IPS LED screen, Windows 10 x64 1804

[HorstMKS]

Had the same problem, also on perfectly used x201t i7 l640 Intel Graphics. Tried the solution described at https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Windows-10 ... 3632#M6401, i.e., installing older intel driver 8.15.10.2253, thankfully provided by the guys at http://www.smartredirect.de/redir/click ... 5A4nderbar. Worked straight away, and did so again after restart.
Would seem Microsoft isn't really happy about us using these vintage tank machines.

[TPFanatic]

Sorry for unrelated, can you tell me what IPS LED screen you have for your second X200?

[madicetea]

Sorry for unrelated, can you tell me what IPS LED screen you have for your second X200?

Second? Only my first is IPS LED.

The second one on the P8700 board is regular CCFL. My younger brother only needed a computer, not a fancy screen.

[madicetea]

Had the same problem, also on perfectly used x201t i7 l640 Intel Graphics. Tried the solution described at https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Windows-10 ... 3632#M6401, i.e., installing older intel driver 8.15.10.2253, thankfully provided by the guys at http://www.smartredirect.de/redir/click ... 5A4nderbar. Worked straight away, and did so again after restart.
Would seem Microsoft isn't really happy about us using these vintage tank machines.

Thanks for the advice man! I'll give it a try later today.
Edit: It worked! Thank you very much.

[TPFanatic]

Sorry for unrelated, can you tell me what IPS LED screen you have for your second X200?

Second? Only my first is IPS LED.

The second one on the P8700 board is regular CCFL. My younger brother only needed a computer, not a fancy screen.

I said second because you wrote it second in your last two sentences.

Do you know what model panel is the IPS LED LCD? My X201 is suffering with a degraded TN and could use a high quality, preferably LED replacement.

[madicetea]

Second? Only my first is IPS LED.

The second one on the P8700 board is regular CCFL. My younger brother only needed a computer, not a fancy screen.

I said second because you wrote it second in your last two sentences.

Do you know what model panel is the IPS LED LCD? My X201 is suffering with a degraded TN and could use a high quality, preferably LED replacement.

Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Well, I bought it with the IPS panel and tested it by using the screen-color test (when the screen is put from 100-180 degrees, does the color stay the same or invert)? It stayed the same, so I was happy up until today.

That said, I have a copy of AIDA64 Extreme Engineer, so I decided to use it today to find out.
It reports my screen is model 'HV121WX4-120', whatever that means.

Hope it helps.

[TPFanatic]

That is the Boe Hydis HV121WX4-120 AFFS panel and it is a CCFL screen, yours must have been converted to LED.

[madicetea]

That is the Boe Hydis HV121WX4-120 AFFS panel, and it is a CCFL screen, yours must have been converted to LED.

That would not be surprising. There are many LED kits out here in the East Asia sphere, most originating from China.

Again, I'm happy to have it - I got it pre-built.

A bit of research tells me that the 120 panel is a lucky matte (as opposed to glossy) model.

The purchase was a very happy coincidence, as I too have this preference.