Optimus V: Display Issue

[acffordyce973]

I thought I'd check with the helpful people here whether this is a hardware issue or a software issue. I haven't updated anything, including Windows Updates, in the last couple of days so there have been no changes.

Yesterday, I noticed that whenever I opened something that was dark the screen would start to dim. Whenever I opened something that was bright the screen would get brighter. For example if I opened Explorer the screen would get brighter, if I opened a dark video or image the screen would dim.
First, I thought it might be due to the Windows 8 adaptive brightness (still unsure if this is for sensors) so I checked that the service was disabled and made sure it was disabled in the advanced power plan settings. I also checked the Intel Graphics software for anything that could do this, with nothing found.
Windows reports the brightness at 100% even when it dims and I don't have any issues with changing the brightness.

To make things worse I've started to see wavy lines, kinda like banding, on colours that should just be one colour.

I've checked this image on multiple devices and I see the wavy lines on all of them which makes me believe this is a software issue. I've also attached the Laptop to my TV and see the lines.
When the brightness changes the colours on the screen look like they are shaking and I can see the banding move.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

p.s. I'll be out until this evening but can respond on mobile. I won't be able to do any tests etc until I come back.

 

[ubuysa]

Do you have the Hotkey driver installed? I had brightness issues with an outdated version of Hoteky.

 

[acffordyce973]

Do you have the Hotkey driver installed? I had brightness issues with an outdated version of Hoteky.

I have it installed but have it disabled in Startup. It's been like that for weeks.

Edit: Started it up, version 8.0107. I'll restart and see.

 

[rav007]

Is this using igpu and dgpu? This should determine if its hardware or software specific.
Does it happen in software like when watching videos in vlc or is it global throughout the OS? Could be a video interlacing option
As far as I am aware this is not adaptive brightness (unless if you are in pitch black when using the computer) as adaptive brightness uses ambient light to adjust the screen brightness like a smartphone does. This sounds more like dynamic contrast which tries to effectively makes your "whites whiter" and "blacks blacker". Not sure how you can change that in win8 but there will be an option somewhere im sure. As for the banding, if that is global and not task specific then I have no idea on that one

edit: If the banding isn't task specific it could be an option in the gpu settings, or it could be due to something you installed if it wasnt there since the beginning. If it is doing it for a single colour it makes absolutely no sense to me, but if it occurring when the screen shows a colour gradient that would make more sense and it may be related to the colour bits being reduced in some option that windows has.

 

[acffordyce973]

Starting that Hotkey software seems to have fixed the issue. I'll check when it gets dark since it will be easier to tell.

Only dark colours were affected by the banding and it was doing it for every program, including the Desktop background, when using the iGPU. I never tried the dGPU.