Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus Notebook - Dim colours while using battery

[nuvolari7]

When I use my laptop on battery, the colours appear darker and less vibrant compared to when I use it plugged in. Both Battery and Plugged In modes are set to 50% brightness, and the auto brightness for both modes are disabled. Increasing the brightness just makes the screen brighter, the colours are still dark.

I have disabled Display Power Saving Technology in the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel but it makes no difference. The description says this feature turns down the backlight to save power.

Reinstalling the graphics driver fixes it but the problem comes back after restarting. Any ideas?

Thanks

Edit: Samsung released a patch to fix the problem

 

[Solandri]

Is Samsung still using their Eco Mode app to control power? I struggled against that with a Samsung laptop I bought in 2011. Every time I tried to color calibrate the screen, the calibrated colors would load, then a short while later Eco Mode would kick in and revert the screen to the uncalibrated colors.

I couldn't find a way to disable it, kill it, or uninstall it. I ended up giving the laptop to my mom and getting a different one. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it's altering your colors on battery to try to save power.

 

[nuvolari7]

Is Samsung still using their Eco Mode app to control power? I struggled against that with a Samsung laptop I bought in 2011. Every time I tried to color calibrate the screen, the calibrated colors would load, then a short while later Eco Mode would kick in and revert the screen to the uncalibrated colors.

I couldn't find a way to disable it, kill it, or uninstall it. I ended up giving the laptop to my mom and getting a different one. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it's altering your colors on battery to try to save power.

Thanks for your reply. Eco Mode has been disabled. I think some setting which I can't get to makes the colours dim to save power. I'm hoping future updates will give the user more control over the power saving features.

At the moment, I just reinstalled the driver and not restart or shutdown as a temporary solution. Would be pain when it comes to installing certain program or updates that requires restarting though.

 

[Riel916]

Hey guys,

The problem is probably because you need to turn off the ambient light sensor (This was my issue.).
You can access this through PC Settings -> General -> Screen
Steps can be found here:
http/support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=421959&modelname=&modelcode=NP940X3G-K01US&session_id=&from_osc=

More troubleshooting options for dim screens running on Windows 8.1 found here:
http/support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=464879&modelname=NP940X3GI&modelcode=NP940X3G-K01US&session_id=&from_osc=

 

[nuvolari7]

Hey guys,

The problem is probably because you need to turn off the ambient light sensor (This was my issue.).
You can access this through PC Settings -> General -> Screen
Steps can be found here:
http/support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=421959&modelname=&modelcode=NP940X3G-K01US&session_id=&from_osc=

More troubleshooting options for dim screens running on Windows 8.1 found here:
http/support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=464879&modelname=NP940X3GI&modelcode=NP940X3G-K01US&session_id=&from_osc=

Please read carefully before you post. I already said auto brightness is disabled.

I have tried changing the power settings awhile ago and the problem is still there.

 

[jimhoyle]

I am also very much interested in the solution, where to disable the bad quality dimming? The links above did not help (they are probably for Windows 8 and 8.1 changed a bit, however there are equivalent settings for 8.1 but they did not help).

What happens is when the power cord is removed, the screen undergoes a series of weird transformations. For example gray starts to blink, bright yellow and green get an ugly dark tint, purple goes dim too.

I also went through Intel HD Graphics Control Panel "On battery" settings. No help there, even there are many settings to try. Where is the correct switch for this?

 

[Solandri]

Which screen do you guys have on your Book 9?

I learned today that the 3200x1600 screens are actually RGBW instead of RGB. The extra subpixel is white, to enhance brightness. Likely what is happening is when on AC the laptop is cranking up the backlight and only using the RGB subpixels for maximum color saturation. On battery, it's turning down the backlight and switching on the W subpixel. This gives the same brightness even though the backlight is dimmer, but degrades colors. The Lenovo Yoga 2 uses the same screen and suffers the same problem.

Unfortunately I don't think this is user-controllable. Samsung will probably have to issue a BIOS and software update to give the user control over this. Someone else has been using batch scripts to uninstall/reinstall the graphics driver every time he uses the laptop.
http/www.eightforums.com/general-support/32090-laptop-colors-darken-when-unplugged-not-brightness-2.html#post284285

 

[jimhoyle]

Thank you Solandri for that RGBW information. That has also been bugging me alot. What is it with the screen (it says 3200 x 1800) anyway. Is it even really 3200 x 1800? It is totally rasterised and I wonder if it's so because there are in a way 2x2 subpixels instead of 1x3? Does it simply vertically lack every second pixel by doing the 2x2 trick? It certainly looks horrible if you look even slightly closer. Not totally horrible, but very far from true sharp 3200 x 1800.

That driver trick sounds very weird or uncomfortable, but better than nothing if it works.

 

[nuvolari7]

Which screen do you guys have on your Book 9?

I learned today that the 3200x1600 screens are actually RGBW instead of RGB. The extra subpixel is white, to enhance brightness. Likely what is happening is when on AC the laptop is cranking up the backlight and only using the RGB subpixels for maximum color saturation. On battery, it's turning down the backlight and switching on the W subpixel. This gives the same brightness even though the backlight is dimmer, but degrades colors. The Lenovo Yoga 2 uses the same screen and suffers the same problem.

Unfortunately I don't think this is user-controllable. Samsung will probably have to issue a BIOS and software update to give the user control over this. Someone else has been using batch scripts to uninstall/reinstall the graphics driver every time he uses the laptop.
http/www.eightforums.com/general-support/32090-laptop-colors-darken-when-unplugged-not-brightness-2.html#post284285

That was me who wrote about using batch scripts. Samsung released a download to fix the problem. I've tested it on Windows 8. It should work on Windows 8.1 as well.

Download from here

 

[philsung]

I had the same problem,
I can solve that problem by recovery to factory start.
and disabled one option.

http/cfile10.uf.tistory.com/image/2376183F5436EF0A052C1F
Sorry for that image is in KOREAN, but I expect u can find it.
U can find that option, INTEL HD GRAPHIC in CONTROL PANEL OF WIN 8.1.

I think INTEL or SAMSUNG have made some mistaks in updating software or driver of ativ 9 plus.
So after i did factory reseting and solved the problem,
i have never upgrade the software or driver which could be related to graphic and power driver.
May be the root cause is INTEL, anyway SAMSUNG dont know it.

I expect it could be help u.
and if u have any more question or information plz email me.
[email removed]

good luck to u, and enjoy ur life with ATIV BOOK 9 PLUS!

When I use my laptop on battery, the colours appear darker and less vibrant compared to when I use it plugged in. Both Battery and Plugged In modes are set to 50% brightness, and the auto brightness for both modes are disabled. Increasing the brightness just makes the screen brighter, the colours are still dark.

I have disabled Display Power Saving Technology in the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel but it makes no difference. The description says this feature turns down the backlight to save power.

Reinstalling the graphics driver fixes it but the problem comes back after restarting. Any ideas?

Thanks

Edit: Samsung released a patch to fix the problem

 

[philsung]

My Ativ's 1st OS is win 8.0 and then I could upgrade to 8.1.
I think, there is some Intel HD driver which has no problem.
1st time I always upgrade the drivers and found that my ativ had dimming problem in battery mode.
In my case the only intel driver that has no problem is factory reset version.
If u upgrade ur intel HD driver and then the options of battery mode could enabled.
The 3rd opton of Intel HD graphics cause dimming problem.
but upgrade version of driver could not turn off the option.
It has some problem.
If u get back to factory version driver, u can really disable the option.
you can upgrade to win 8.1 but u must do not upgrade graphic drivers by intel software or samsung upgrade software.