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surface 2 led backlight issue?

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troykm

New Member
One thing you may want to try is turning off automatic brightness. If you go to the Settings charm by swiping from the right side of your screen, going to Settings\Change PC Settings (at the very bottom). Then when the Settings app loads, go to PC and Devices\Power and Sleep and uncheck the first check box that says to automatically change your brightness. This will make it so that the display will stay fixed at your preference and not automatically change. Like the iPhone, it can sometimes feel overly aggressive, especially when you are in dim light or use a particularly high brightness setting. Hope that helps and glad you like your Surface. If you think it is a hardware problem, please do use Microsoft support or the Microsoft Store!

I have auto brightness off. This is not the issue. I have filmed it and will upload it to YouTube so you can see it. This is my second surface, I had it replaced yesterday and the new one does it as did the 4 demo ones the retailer had in store. Today I went to a different store and all 3 of their demo surface 2 and pro 2 do it too so it's not just me nor is it just a faulty device. Unless the entire surface line has a serious design flaw.

Now my new one has another fault. The display wont wake up when I want to use it, I have to do a hard power down and turn back on to get it on again. I'm not impressed anymore.
 
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troykm

New Member
Here is the link to the video.

[video=youtube;gplcq2XyMZc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gplcq2XyMZc&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

As I slowly scroll down the screen dims twice, then brightens twice as the white comes in at the bottom. This is not normal and let me restate - I do not have auto brightness on.

Its gets worse the faster you scroll and this is through out the entire OS not just IE. I only did it slowly so you can see it.
 

Dorjan24

New Member
Here is the link to the video.

[video=youtube;gplcq2XyMZc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gplcq2XyMZc&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

As I slowly scroll down the screen dims twice, then brightens twice as the white comes in at the bottom. This is not normal and let me restate - I do not have auto brightness on.

Its gets worse the faster you scroll and this is through out the entire OS not just IE. I only did it slowly so you can see it.

I have this problem with both my SurfaceRT and Surface 2 if they're not plugged in and set to low dimness (with the auto turned off)
 

EMINENT

Active Member
Same issue here. I noticed this only happens when i'm at really low brightness. I never noticed anything like this on my Surface Pro.

I'm hoping this is just a driver issue that can be fixed with an update.

So, 2 things wrong with it so far, minor, but notable. The loose volume rocker and this.
 

beman39

New Member
ok I see that your in IE from the metro version, try the same thing but from the desktop version of IE and see if it does it also, I suspect it won't do it...
 
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troykm

New Member
ok I see that your in IE from the metro version, try the same thing but from the desktop version of IE and see if it does it also, I suspect it won't do it...

It is throughout the whole OS, not just IE. What I am doing makes no difference. Anytime there is movement on the display it happens.
 
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troykm

New Member
Sounds like a deeper video driver/firmware type issue. :(

I think its the LEDs themselves. Microsoft have chosen cheap ones and poorly implemented PWM to control them. Which the OS can't do at low brightness. At least I am not the only one with this issue and I suspect all surfaces do it based on what I have seen in stores, its just not everyone has noticed it yet - or is just not bothered by it. I can't turn up the brightness too high because I get headaches from staring at over bright displays. I agree over about 35% brightness it is less noticeable. But even 35% is like staring at the sun in a darkened room.

Do a Google search for surface screen flicker / dynamic contrast issue and see just how many people across the surface range have it.
 

beman39

New Member
so is it anything higher than 35% screen brightness that this happens to? cuzz I have it set to 45% and quit comfortable even in a dark room and I don't have this problem....
 
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