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SP3 display: poor black levels, and possible fix

Knuck

Member
Yes you have to use the 64 (not 32) zip version of the non-beta (May) release. You can extract it and run the extracted setup.exe app. If you want the beta (June) version you also have to download the 64 zip version but the extracted setup file does not seem to work. You can manually uninstall the MS version through device manager, reboot and then update the driver through device manager by browsing to the location you extracted the beta files to.
 

fonzman78

Active Member
AAARRGGHHH!!! I torn by doing or not doing this. I can't see 13 on the test but I also don't want to mess up my good streak with my SP3.

Gonna take the plunge as Mitch recommends. Let's see if this makes a difference.
 

malberttoo

Well-Known Member
AAARRGGHHH!!! I torn by doing or not doing this. I can't see 13 on the test but I also don't want to mess up my good streak with my SP3.

Gonna take the plunge as Mitch recommends. Let's see if this makes a difference.

You could always create a Restore Point first, or make an image first of your system in its pre-toasted state... :D
 

wynand32

Well-Known Member
Did you try and run Intel's .exe or the unzipped file? I haven't done it but others stated you have to load the unzipped file in device manager... see this post:
http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/graphics-control-panel-colour-management.9947/#post-71285. (choosing correct version based off of graphics card)

Or maybe you did it like this already... it seems some things are working for some and not others :(

So, after the restore, I fiddled again with the Tweak tool and somehow got to where I can see the #6 block. I'll stick with that for now, I think, until I get another burst of energy. :)

Thanks all for the help!
 

fonzman78

Active Member
Ok, took the plunge and used Goodbytes tool. And.... now I can barely see #5. I watched some movies and they look good. I did a before and after of ctitanic's 4k video and I can definitely see an improvement in the black level. There's a real dark scene at 1:00 where before the fix, it was all black at the bottom. After the fix, you can actually see trees in the dark area. Very cool.

It seems like once you turn off dynamic contrast using the tool, it stays off regardless of whether you turn it off/on again. Or rather, once you fix it, it stays fixed. I turned it back on/off several times to see if I could do another before/after but no go. No matter what I do, no matter how many reboots I do, it stays fixed.

Thanks all for the help. Now I'm gonna monitor my SP3 to ensure I don't have any unwanted negative effects.
 

wmgreenjr

New Member
Yay! Congrats guys :) And yeah mine stays off too if I try to turn it back on... thought reboots would do it but looks like you tried that already. But I want to keep it off anyways (just fun to compare before/after) so I'm fine with that. Enjoy the black!
 

wynand32

Well-Known Member
Just thought I'd provide a final update... After the restore and successfully applying the fix (which works both when plugged in and on battery), I watched another episode of Hemlock Grove. Honestly, it seems like a different show now--what I thought was really dark is actually not nearly so. The image was amazing, and I could see details in night scenes that were invisible before.

So, this is another little gotcha that hopefully Microsoft will resolve. I hesitate to broadcast the issue for fear of giving more ammunition to the anti-Microsoft crowd, and so perhaps we should all report this to Microsoft support so that they can start working on it (if they're not already).
 

Doomofman

New Member
Wow, what a difference. Could only see up to 14 on the test, applied the fix, can now see up to 5. And wow, everything just looks better. I knew even before I looked at the test again that it had worked..
 

Johnny365

Member
I can't tell if it worked or not.

AFTER FIX:

I can not see the black boxes from 1-4, but from 5 and up, I can.

BEFORE FIX:

I think I could not see the black boxes from 1-7.

I don't know what that means, but whatevs!
 
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