# How to disable adaptive brightness?



## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

Gotta Dell Latitude 7300. Checked so many things on how to turn it off and no options anywhere. Even went into BIOS and nothing there especially in the video section. Any hope?


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

This is generally handled in the display settings of whatever operating system you may be using. That, or if Dell has a dedicated utility, and very often the OEMs do for this sort of thing.

Without additional information it's difficult to be any more specific.

Also, there's scads of information available from Dell on this:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dell+Latitude+7300+adaptive+brightness


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

I'm using windows 10 and went through all the display settings possible and no options.


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

citycowboy said:


> I'm using windows 10 and went through all the display settings possible and no options.


Then review the material from Dell.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

Not much in the Dell manuals unfortuntanely as you all may know lol


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

citycowboy said:


> Not much in the Dell manuals unfortuntanely as you all may know lol


Au contraire.

The very first thing returned by that DuckDuckGo search:

https://www.dell.com/support/articl...windows-8-1-to-address-screen-flicker?lang=en

Gives the step-by-step instructions, as does the entry entitled, _Panel brightness cannot be adjusted by Fn+F6 or Fn+F7 on the latest generation of Latitude notebooks_, on this page, https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/latitude-13-7300-laptop/docs,which is the second or third item returned.

It is appalling that you could not be bothered to click through on that search and consult anything, which you obviously did not.

You can lead a horse to water . . .


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

I can use the FN & F Keys just fine.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

i went through all of your articles. they don't do what i want to fix. i can adjust brightness just fine. what i can't adjust is the adoptive brightness. you know where the screen goes to bright to dark and vice and versa.


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

First, it is ADAPTive brightness, the brightness is adapted to the amount of ambient light in the room, using a light sensor.

If you cannot read the very first reference, I'll post it here so others can. Straight from Dell's mouth, and though written for Windows 8.1 the same things apply, exactly, in Windows 10:

The steps to disable the ambient light sensor in Windows 8.1 are listed below:

Press the Windows + X key to open the quick jump menu. Click or tap Power Options.
In Power Options, Click or tap Change plan settings (hyperlink on the right side) for whatever plan you are using.
Click or tap Change advanced power settings.
Scroll down to the Display section, click or tap the + in front of Display and Enable adaptive brightness.
Choose Off for whichever power situation the you desire to control manually, (battery or AC), or both.
Click or tap and OK to save and close. Then close any remaining open windows.
On systems equipped with Intel Display Power Saving Technology (DPST) you may also need to complete these additional steps:

Right click on the battery icon in the systray.
Click Dell Extended Battery Options from the menu.
Under Dell Intelligent Display, click on Configuration and turn this feature off.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

I'm well aware you trying to help but I have no such options. I posted a pic to prove it to you. And I have no dell extended battery options either.


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

citycowboy said:


> i went through all of your articles.


No, quite clearly you did not. Period. Or at least not thoroughly. Have you checked the Intel specific steps.

If all else fails go to Device Manager. I will not venture to guess exactly what the light sensor would be called or classified under, but it is a device and it's got to be somewhere. Disable it.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

britechguy said:


> No, quite clearly you did not. Period.


And I goggled firsthand everything before coming to this forum. If you don't believe me then fine.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

And also no Intel settings whatsoever.


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

It is not a matter of belief. Getting help is a two-way street, and you are making assertions about content at said references that is not correct, _whether they match your system or not_. That would _suggest_ to virtually anyone that you have not read same.

I have no idea if this system may have been tweaked at some point, whether by yourself or a previous custodian, but the things that are generally present for direct control of the very thing you're seeking to control appear to be missing. That generally does not happen by itself.

Check the Dell Support Page for your model, specifically Downloads & Drivers, and see if there is anything specifically listed there that either directly references this feature, or that's for Display in general.

Other than disabling the actual ambient light sensing device, which should work, I have absolutely no other options to offer you.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

I have formatted the laptop so no tweaks. Also my inspiron 7791 had the same issue but in the bios there was something called ecopower i disabled and it disabled the adoptive brightness. And i thought the latitude will have the same thing going after all the options were missing as well but no ecopower.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Post #9 has the answer. You have the settings. Give it another go.


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

And by the way, and I shouldn't have to quote it since it is in an emphasis block in the Dell Support Page, *How to turn of the the automatic brightness control on systems that shipped or upgraded to Windows 8.1 to address screen flicker*, which I gave the link to, and where the instructions in #9 come from as well:

*NOTE*: _Updating to the current system BIOS on some system models may allow this issue to be addressed from the BIOS (EG: Vostro 5470 BIOS version A06 added an ON OFF feature for automatic brightness.)_

You also need to check on the Dell Support Page for your specific model whether your installed BIOS/UEFI is older than the most recent update supplied by Dell.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

I did update the bios it didn't help. Like I said my inspiron 7791 also had the same issue but turning off ecopower in bios helped but the latitude has no ecopower in bios. And no settings anywhere to turn it off just like in the inspiron. Everything you guys posted to me I found in google before coming here. Thought maybe there is some hidden way to fix this.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

Corday said:


> Post #9 has the answer. You have the settings. Give it another go.


Checked like 10x already dunno how many more will help.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

Ok i installed some graphics driver from dell and it installed the graphics command center. Going through the settings there i found adoptive brightness but it was off both for plugged in or off. But there was another option turned on called display power savings maybe that was it i turned it off. We will see. Man this is complicated. I guess it's a similar feature to the Intel Display Power Saving Technology you been talking about.


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

citycowboy said:


> Thought maybe there is some hidden way to fix this.


Which I've already mentioned. Adaptive brightness requires constant, active input from a light detection device. That device will absolutely be somewhere in the collection of devices in Device Manager. I cannot give you the exact name, but a web search strongly suggests there is a device manager category for sensors on devices that have same.

Disabling it will keep it disabled until or unless you were to re-enable it. When its output is not available as input for adaptive brightness, the default is to go back to usual non-adaptive behavior.

I do not recommend removing the device because it's possible that it will be automatically detected as a plug-n-play device at a later time and re-enabled when a new driver is located for it.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Why don't we ascertain whether the ambient light sensor is actually present or not in Device Manager?


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## xrobwx71 (Oct 24, 2019)

Give us a screenshot of your device manager please.


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## xrobwx71 (Oct 24, 2019)

Go to the Start menu.
Search for Device Manager and click on Device Manager option in the results.
Look for Sensors category in the list of different device categories.
You’ll have to maximize the Sensors category to see the light sensor subcategory.
If you don’t see the Sensors category then it may be hidden. You’ll have to select View option and then Show Hidden Devices option to see the Sensors category.


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## citycowboy (Jun 5, 2019)

I have fixed it the way i explained it. And i have posted a screenshot long before about my device manager. there is no option to fix it the way you guys telling me or the way google tells me.


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## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

citycowboy said:


> And i have posted a screenshot long before about my device manager.


You posted one, and only one, screen shot of a dialog for a single device.

You really need to learn that when you ask for assistance on tech support forums that it is incumbent on you to actually supply the information that potential assistants request rather than argue with them. This entire interaction would have been much shorter, and more efficient, had you done so.

If your issue is solved, it would help future readers if you give, very precisely, the steps you used to achieve that solution so that they can, to.

Afterward, please mark the topic as solved:


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## Madmaxneo (May 14, 2017)

citycowboy said:


> I have fixed it the way i explained it. And i have posted a screenshot long before about my device manager. there is no option to fix it the way you guys telling me or the way google tells me.


I believe the issue you had and why none of the great suggestions worked is because you reformatted the drive and installed Windows yourself. In doing this I assume you completely left out any Dell software or driver installs. If this is the case then that is why you were able to find the Adaptive Brightness controls and could disable it after installing the Dell graphics software. 
You would have had the options others had mentioned if you would have reinstalled everything using the Dell method, unfortunately that also involves all the unnecessary bloatware they push on their customers.


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## Sophus (Feb 4, 2011)

Just weighing in...
I've got an Acer Nitro AN515-53-55G9
Win10 x64 Home 1903 updated to 18362.836 (new update pending)
When I first got this laptop it DID have a setting to adjust the brightness when the power state changed from AC to battery and battery to AC. (note: this is not an "ambient light" sensor setting...it is a function only of whether or not AC power is connected).

The option was EASY to find and use. It was definitely not shy.
I then changed it to reduce the brightness a bit more than the default setting to save even more power when on battery only.

SINCE THEN...that option has completely disappeared from all known locations. I just spent about an hour performing an exhaustive search re-verifying this (I'd tried to backout my change some months ago and also couldn't find it then, but it wasn't a huge deal to me at that time).
I went through all power profiles and discrete options and advanced settings, display options, graphics card options (Intel 630 and GTX1050Ti), battery options, and more.

SOMETHING in Windows about this has definitely changed since I got this notebook in 2018.

I postulate it was removed during an Windows update (I have not yet had to update any notebook-specific drivers). I also ensured to "unhide" any hidden power plans. For example, it should be noted that when I enter the "Windows Mobility Center" (one choice from right-click on battery icon) it "hides" the "Ultimate Performance" power plan from the selections you can make. You must go into the Control Panel >> Hardware and Sound >> Power Options to select and work with the "Ultimate Performance" power plan. WHY Microsoft hides it in one panel but not another...who knows? But this does demonstrate Microsoft does unexpected things in its management system.


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## Sophus (Feb 4, 2011)

Forgot to address an issue raised in post#22. I have never reinstalled Windows nor used backups to recover from any failures on this notebook. It is as provided at retail with just normal Microsoft updates since the purchase.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Sophus said:


> Just weighing in...
> I've got an Acer Nitro AN515-53-55G9
> Win10 x64 Home 1903 updated to 18362.836 (new update pending)
> When I first got this laptop it DID have a setting to adjust the brightness when the power state changed from AC to battery and battery to AC. (note: this is not an "ambient light" sensor setting...it is a function only of whether or not AC power is connected).
> ...


See https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials...splay-brightness-power-options-windows-2.html and https://www.bing.com/search?q=chang...form=B00032&ocid=SettingsHAQ-BingIA&mkt=en-GB


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## Sophus (Feb 4, 2011)

Thank you _Stancestans_ for *confirming that Microsoft did in fact change this parameter and removed it* from the operating system.

Unfortunately, when MS did that, it STUCK my notebook in that state, so I apparently cannot get the display back to full brightness on battery power unless I change it MANUALLY EVERY TIME I unplug the AC power or power-up on battery. What a pain in the butt. Yeah...the "new and improved" unified brightness setting did NOT address that part of their change. There are still two brightness levels and the reduced brightness when AC power is removed does NOT change permanently when you change the overall brightness setting in any power plan, display setting, taskbar element, etc. The reduced brightness on battery power can be changed only in real time, and temporarily...not as a setting that sticks. I am stuck with it for now.

Perhaps there is a registry setting that controls this. I'll explore that for a bit.


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## Sophus (Feb 4, 2011)

xrobwx71 said:


> ...Look for Sensors category in the list of different device categories.
> You’ll have to maximize the Sen....


There are also some 3rd party *freeware* programs that can greatly simplify looking for devices...and especially very detailed device information...on a system. Programs like PC Wizard, hwinfo, and others:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/pc_wizard.html
https://www.hwinfo.com/

For example, with PC Wizard I easily obtain the real-time voltage of the battery in my notebook, not just the "% Remaining". Similar obscure details for other devices often are readily available.

These kinds of 3rd party programs sometimes help me find something in literally seconds after I've already spent considerable time working my way through Device Manager and other Windows system information tools and I either missed it or it was listed under some obscure name that the 3rd party tools helped with by calling it by a more obvious name, or it didn't provide theinformation at all. For example, I don't see a category named "Sensors" in Device Manager on this notebook. Also, some of the 3rd party tools collate virtually everything about a device in one location whereas in Windows you often have to go through multiple different system information resources to find certain details about an item...like HDD firmware levels or S/Ns. or USB port mA limits or (if memory serves) the actual mA used by an active device, and so on.

Some also have search capabilities whereas Device Manager and other resources may not.

Edit to add: 
Almost forgot...you can also consider creating the "God Mode" desktop icon on your computer. Search for it on the internet. It basically puts ALL the system info/control resources in one place so you don't have to separately access the dozens of separate panels to find resource information,change settings, etc. on the computer. It can save a lot of time.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Sophus said:


> Thank you _Stancestans_ for *confirming that Microsoft did in fact change this parameter and removed it* from the operating system.
> 
> Unfortunately, when MS did that, it STUCK my notebook in that state, so I apparently cannot get the display back to full brightness on battery power unless I change it MANUALLY EVERY TIME I unplug the AC power or power-up on battery. What a pain in the butt. Yeah...the "new and improved" unified brightness setting did NOT address that part of their change. There are still two brightness levels and the reduced brightness when AC power is removed does NOT change permanently when you change the overall brightness setting in any power plan, display setting, taskbar element, etc. The reduced brightness on battery power can be changed only in real time, and temporarily...not as a setting that sticks. I am stuck with it for now.
> 
> Perhaps there is a registry setting that controls this. I'll explore that for a bit.


Maybe you have battery saver permanently enabled while running on battery power. Check it. It is my understanding that the brightness level you set for battery saving mode applies independent of the unified brightness level.


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## Sophus (Feb 4, 2011)

Stancestans said:


> Maybe you have battery saver permanently enabled while running on battery power. Check it. It is my understanding that the brightness level you set for battery saving mode applies independent of the unified brightness level.


Info and Results With My Nitro5 notebook responding to your "Check it."
Remember I'm using Win10 x64 Home 1903 updated to 18362.836

BATTERY SAVER MODE
I did check my battery saver mode settings yesterday, and even if I had the brightness setting or other action that impacts the display, at >90% charge level my battery isn't anywhere near the levels I specified for Battery Saver mode, which are below. If you see differences from what you expect, they MIGHT simply be Microsoft "Home" v "Pro" user control restrictions. 
Battery Saver "turns on" at 15%
"Low" is 10% (Notification="On"; Action="Do nothing")
"Reserve" 7% (there is no notify or action option for "Reserve")
"Critical" 5% (Notification="On"; Action="Hibernate")
...so that should not cause any 70% <==> 100% Brightness changes from the Battery Saver subsystem.
Thanks for suggesting to check it (which I did again just now to verify).

Oh yeah...I should point out that in the screen for Battery Saver Settings it stipulates, 
_"Screen brightness is set to 100% on battery power."_ But in reality we know it is not working that way. It is stuck on dimming the display when the AC adapter is removed. With fully charged battery, Remove AC adapter = display dims to about 70%. Plug AC adapter back in = display brightness returns to 100%. Yeah...I've worked on the problem with Battery Saver turned on and off as part of a power display management test matrix and found no difference in "no AC adapter brightness reduction" with ONE exception. When I switch back and forth between "Ultimate Performance" plan and "High Performance" plan, when I'm on battery, the display brightness does increase to 100% when I first switched from "High" to the "Ultimate" button. I then clicked the button for "High" again and brightness stayed at 100%. I then returned to "Ultimate" and the display dimmed back to about 70%. Clicked on the "High" button and display again went to 100%. So something is definitely "odd" with the brightness control coding. (note: I noticed that command prompt and power shell approaches apparently see the same problem. Also from the tenforums.com forum 


*Option Four:* To Adjust Screen Brightness in PowerShell
*Option Five:* To Adjust Screen Brightness in Command Prompt)
----------------------

MICROSOFT BRIGHTNESS CONTROL CHANGES:
Here is what one of the references to which you directed me yesterday said regarding the changes to the brightness options. A minor point in what they said about external display brightness control coding changes. (They didn't say this, but of course one could also use an external display's remote control, assuming it has one and the remote has that "button", to adjust its brightness.)

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/44213-adjust-screen-brightness-windows-10-a.html
_"Starting with *Windows 10 build 18282*, Microsoft heard your feedback about a specific case where a display can become brighter when transitioning from a battery charger to battery power. Microsoft is modifying the display brightness behavior so that this can no longer happen. If a person adjusts their display brightness, that *brightness will now be remembered as their preferred brightness whether they are on battery or connected to a charger*. This new behavior results in a more consistent and battery friendly experience. *This does not affect battery saver mode settings*; if a person has opted into lowering the screen brightness in battery saver mode, their display will still dim when the battery is below the threshold selected."..."Brightness settings will not be available for an *external monitor* connected to the computer. You will need to use the physical brightness button on the monitor, or change from the on screen menu for the monitor. Brightness settings will only be available for a built-in display like on a tablet or laptop."_


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## jonnyb (May 23, 2006)

citycowboy said:


> And I goggled firsthand everything before coming to this forum. If you don't believe me then fine.


BTW: They got some goggles on any water sports websites.


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## xrobwx71 (Oct 24, 2019)

jonnyb said:


> BTW: They got some goggles on any water sports websites.


?Huh

Oh....nevermind. I see.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Sophus said:


> Info and Results With My Nitro5 notebook responding to your "Check it."
> Remember I'm using Win10 x64 Home 1903 updated to 18362.836
> 
> BATTERY SAVER MODE
> ...


There is another piece of software that comes into play in your case, the Nitro Sense OEM utility. From the little reading that I've done about it, it seems to let you configure a power plan for battery mode and a different power plan for AC mode, so when you unplug the AC adapter the system switches to a different power plan. Do you have this piece of software installed? If not, I suggest you do, and even if you have it installed, I suggest you reinstall it, then check if both the battery and AC power plans are configured for the same brightness level.

There also is a BIOS update dated 2019/09/05 version 1.28, I strongly suggest you apply it if you're not already using that version. The link to your model's support page is https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7571?b=1


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## Sophus (Feb 4, 2011)

Stancestans said:


> There is another piece of software that comes into play in your case, the Nitro Sense OEM utility. From the little reading that I've done about it, it seems to let you configure a power plan for battery mode and a different power plan for AC mode, so when you unplug the AC adapter the system switches to a different power plan. Do you have this piece of software installed? If not, I suggest you do, and even if you have it installed, I suggest you reinstall it, then check if both the battery and AC power plans are configured for the same brightness level.
> 
> There also is a BIOS update dated 2019/09/05 version 1.28, I strongly suggest you apply it if you're not already using that version. The link to your model's support page is https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7571?b=1


Thank you. I certainly didn't expect system-specific help and it is very nice of you to take the time to do that.

I haven't uplifted BIOS since 1.19, as I haven't had any REALLY serious issues, AND...later updates included a Keyboard(KB) LED patch where MS did sort of the same thing as they did for this problem...instead of giving customrs what they were all screaming for, MS decided to make the LEDs on the keyboard now operate the same whether or not it was on AC or battery. What people wanted was an option to NOT turn off the LEDs after a few seconds when on battery. In other words, give the *user* control over the LEDs staying on 100% of the time when on battery... even though it will deplete the battery a bit faster. Instead, MS made sure the LEDs will now turn off after like 3 seconds of keyboard inactivity EVEN when you're on AC power. DAM* it! MS went entirely the wrong way...again.
I'm visually disabled and MS now turning off the keyboard LEDs every time there is a few seconds pause in typing is another real pain in the butt...and the new firmware forces the customer to accept that change.
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I've checked programming and BIOS and another action I'll try is restoring from an older backup version of the entire operating system. I've got both image and a "smart" backups of the original disk, so if needed I can even see if That might make a difference.I'm not going to mess with retro-BIOS versions though...diminishing returns.


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## Sophus (Feb 4, 2011)

I've just found out that Nitro5 AN515-53 firmware 1.25 SUPPOSEDLY introduced what should now be an acceptable level of user control over the LED timeout!!!!!
I have NOT confirmed this. 



> _This version still does not add the function that allows the user to choose whether the backlight keyboard remains active or not! Acer will release version 1.25 of bios for this model! Version 1.25 will add the backlight keyboard function! To enter the BIOS, press f2 as soon as you turn on the notebook!_


 source: https://community.acer.com/en/discu...1-24-bios-update-and-fixing-backlight-problem

When 1.25 came out, this change was not described in the patch download information and therefore I skipped it. But, I'm willing to risk installing 1.28 (20190905 is latest version) for the possible improvement in LED control and now also will obtain the patches I didn't consider vital at the time.

Your comments on this inspired me to revisit all the info I could find on the firmware patches for this system and fixing the LED control issue will be a HUGE gain for me and help with my vision problems. 
*Thanks again. 

*Note: when I talked about the keyboard LED user control issue it was as a "See? MS did same thing to customers on other problem" and really didn't intend to hijack this thread on the screen dimming problem and I apologize.


Edit to add: Now I just saw a user state that 1.25 did NOT fix the LED timeout issue, but that 1.26 DOES..."This time for sure, Rocky!"


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