Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Disable Vari-Bright on the dm1z to stop brightness fluctuations

My dm1z screen display brightness seemed to spontaneously change at times so I wanted to resolve this. The dm1z has Vari-Bright to help maximize battery life by tweaking how bright your screen is. A good thing but I'm sure this causes the brightness fluctuation I observe. I'll just lower brightness manually when needed, no problem. So I disabled Vari-Bright:

Start Menu > All Programs > Catalyst Control Center > CCC > Power > PowerPlay > and untick Enable Vari-Bright option.

18 comments:

  1. And have you noticed any impact on battery life by doing this?

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  2. No. When unplugged I set it for optimal performance anyway. I think the Vari-Bright tries to give you even a bit extra but I just can't stand those brightness fluctuations.

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  3. Dude. Thanks for this. Thought I was imagining it at first. lol.

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  4. I reinstalled three versions of Win7 before got what causing this =D

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  5. I can't seem to find that option on my DM1Z

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  6. I can't find that option, either. Is the option not available in certain (later?) versions of Catalyst Control Center? Can anyone help with either a screenshot or a description of where the buttons/options are? Thank you!

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  7. Thanks for this tip, I thought it was a hardware issue at first. What a strange tool, I wonder who thought that was a good idea.

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  8. At least in the Linux version of Catalyst Control Center, it's under "Power Play" (game-related options) at the bottom of the window.

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  9. Thank you so much for the help!

    I purchased this machine today and the brightness fluctuations were driving me crazy.

    For me I had to go to AMD Vision and then deactivate it.

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  10. Hello Guys,

    If you can't find "Catalyst Control Center" like me, here is another way to disable Vari-bright: http://www.ardeearam.com/blog/2012/02/19/changing-brightness-on-hp-pavilion-dm-1/

    Enjoy! I was really annoyed, I thought it was a hardware issue, and almost had the unit replaced. Good thing I found the solution sooner ;)

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  11. Thanks! Saved me a lot of trouble! Like the OP said I thought it might be some weird hardware issue. Plus, I can now have the brightness setting lower and actually get a brighter picture. :)

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  12. Excellent tip! Thought I was imagining this, then was worried there was something wrong with my brand-new HP DM1. This makes it much more pleasant to use. :) (I had to hunt down AMD Vision too, but glad I did.)

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  13. oh god THANKS.
    In AMD Vision Engine Control Center, the optiones appears in "Energy", "Powerplay"

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  14. Auto brightness was a pest. Thanks.

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  15. Thank you, thank you, thank you! From Brazil.

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  16. Thanks man thanks alot for this guide. I was thinking may be some issue with hardware.

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  17. Thanks so much! This has been annoying me for ages and your article finally gave me the lead I needed. In my case I had removed control center (and other HP junk) when I first got the laptop, but it looks like a driver somewhere must still have been using the vari-bright configuration. Removing the old drivers, reinstalling control center and then disabling vari-bright fixed the issue.

    Full details:
    http://www.calcatraz.com/blog/fixing-the-brightness-problem-with-hp-laptops-finally-1394

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  18. Do you have to have CCC installed or can you turn off the vari-bright setting then uninstall it (only leaving the drivers installed like I had before)

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