Resolution criteria
This market will resolve to "Yes" if, by June 15, 2025 12PM EST I receive a comment on this market that provides detailed, step-by-step instructions to fix my laptop. The steps must be clear, actionable, and directly address the issue I'm experiencing. If no such comment is received by the specified date, the market will resolve to "No."
I must eventually be able to perform the steps and fix my laptop. If I don't perform the steps to fix the laptop, but the comment was before the deadline, then it resolves Yes.
I will not be doing a full factory reset or reverting to a backup.
I will not be spending money on repairs for the purpose of proving a comment correct, so if you believe it is unsolvable without taking it to a repair store, then feel free to bet NO.
I reserve the right to refuse a workaround that does not fix the underlying problem like freezing the screen brightness or setting a task to repeatedly set the brightness to some level.
The issue:
The screen seems to randomly dim a few times on start up. I will increase the brightness and then it will drop. It only happens around 2 times.
System Info:
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming
BIOS: 1.15.0 (type: UEFI)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 Driver Version: 31.0.101.2135
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Driver Version: 32.0.15.7640
More info available on request.
Update 2025-05-15 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator may reject solutions deemed too much work for a slight annoyance. This was a reason for rejecting a system reinstall (even while keeping files). Such a solution was also considered undesirable because it doesn't identify the specific underlying problem, which aligns with the existing preference for targeted fixes over broad approaches.
Update 2025-05-16 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has stated that a solution involving permanently switching to a new user account will not qualify as a "Yes" resolution. The goal is to fix the issue on the current user account or repair that account.
Update 2025-05-16 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has indicated they may have fixed the issue themselves, potentially with insights gained from troubleshooting steps like checking a new user profile (which may have been suggested in comments). They expressed uncertainty on how the market would resolve if this self-fix is confirmed, particularly if the fix didn't stem directly from a single comment providing a complete, qualifying step-by-step solution as per the original criteria.
1,000@Sz the description wording seems pretty explicit on the existence of a comment being the resolving factor, so I would either do NO or N/A (since the premise is moot)
What display is connected? If you have or can borrow another display find out if it recurs on the other.
You listed integrated and discrete graphics cards. Does that have two outputs? (HDMI or DisplayPort?) does the issue recur with both?
[edit] just saw that this is regarding a laptop. To clarify, you are talking about the integrated screen?
@Eric_WVGG alright, I just plunked down a strong bet, I think I’ve got it.
Your laptop is equipped with an ambient light sensor (https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-15-7568-laptop_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf). This is designed to dim the screen in dark rooms for better visual comfort, and brighten the screen to make it visible in sunlight.
You can test my hypothesis by putting a piece of masking tape or your finger over the screen and rebooting. It should stay dim and not brighten. Then you could put it in a dark room and turn on-and-off your smartphone flashlight and see how the brightness level changes.
It’s shipped turned off for some reason. According to this document, it can be toggled by typing fn-Left-arrrow. There’s also some BIOS settings to try. Docs here:
@Eric_WVGG Integrated screen.
Also I don't believe I have a light sensor
@Eric_WVGG I won't have access to the laptop for a few days, but yes I checked the BIOS and had no ecopower or adaptive brightness settings. The built in keyboard isn't backlit but if there's things I can run when I'm back to check if there's a sensor I will.
@Sz Do you have brightness adjusted for lighting? In that case, you should turn off that setting so you can use any brightness you want.
@100Anonymous My laptop doesn't have a light sensor (I think). If you mean depending on the content of the screen, pretty sure I don't have that turned on.
@Sz Try creating a second user account, and reboot into that account instead. This will often be very similar to a “clean system” initialization. (In the Mac world, this tends to fix almost anything, which usually winds up indicating a corrupted Preferences file in the Library)
@Eric_WVGG The second user account does not dim. That's good diagnostically, but I'm not changing user accounts over this. Is there a tool to fix user accounts?
@Sz Then it's that you have some setting you've to change. Can you check the manual, if you have it?
@100Anonymous This is the only manual I have,
@Sz “is there a tool to fix user accounts” not to the best of my knowledge… the Windows “registry” is a database of tens of thousands of key-value pairs, not gonna be easy to drill down