brightness issue

[BrightMatter]

Hi !

Before describe my issue i just want let you know : after struggling during two years to find a way to stop fan spinning when i'm browsing (i did everything : repaste, thermal pad on VRM, undervolting, fresh install, cooling optimization...)  finally i found this amazing software, and now i can enjoy a perfectly silent laptop !  :heart:

I noticed a strange behavior, on my XPS 9560, when HWiNFO is running (6.04-3727) W10 1809 i can't adjust the brightness.

If i press + or - to adjust the brightness nothing happen. After closing HWiNFO, it works properly. And if i run HWiNFO again, same issue.

I also noticed, right after closing HWiNFO, the brightness cursor appear on screen. 

i don't know if i'm doing something wrong or not.


Let me know if you need more information.

 

[Martin]

Try to disable monitoring of the DELL EC sensor if that will help (hit Del over the sensor heading).
Do you also use fan control in HWiNFO ? If yes, that might be causing it as well because those functions might be interacting with certain features that are used to control things like brightness.

 

[BrightMatter]

Yes, i am using only for fan control.

I  disabled; this one right?

And still same, i cant control the brightness.

 

[Martin]

Yes, that one.
And if you also switch off fan control?

 

[BrightMatter]

When I turn off the fan control, it works. i can adjust the brightness.

 

[Martin]

That means commands to control fans interfere with brightness control as well.
I'm afraid there's nothing I can do here, it's a system 'feature'.

 

[BrightMatter]

Hum, I see. But what a strange behavior, in fact i'm not so surprised from the brand who made one of the worst thermal management ever.

Anyway, if i can help , just let me know.

 

[Martin]

Well, the thing is that fan control and other DELL-specific functions are proprietary and DELL keeps them very secret.
In order for custom fan control to work, HWiNFO issues certain commands to disable system fan control, which might otherwise override commands sent by HWiNFO.
It's quite possible that some of those deactivation commands affect brightness control, but due to the secrecy it's very difficult to determine what's right.

 

[yan487]

Hi Martin

I got exactly the same issue.

Maybe you can just detect the Fn+F11 (or F12) keyboard hit, and then disable the fan control for a second. Second when we will be able to ajust the brightness.

 

[yan487]

Hum, I see. But what a strange behavior, in fact i'm not so surprised from the brand who made one of the worst thermal management ever.

Anyway, if i can help , just let me know.

Hi Martin

I got exactly the same issue.

Maybe you can just detect the Fn+F11 (or F12) keyboard hit, and then disable the fan control for a second. Second when we will be able to ajust the brightness.

 

[yan487]

Well, the thing is that fan control and other DELL-specific functions are proprietary and DELL keeps them very secret.
In order for custom fan control to work, HWiNFO issues certain commands to disable system fan control, which might otherwise override commands sent by HWiNFO.
It's quite possible that some of those deactivation commands affect brightness control, but due to the secrecy it's very difficult to determine what's right.

Hi Martin

I got exactly the same issue.

Maybe you can just detect the Fn+F11 (or F12) keyboard hit, and then disable the fan control for a second. Second when we will be able to ajust the brightness.

 

[Martin]

Such solution won't work.
But I have an assumption why this might be happening. Currently there are 2 methods used to control system automatic fan control (to disable it if a custom mode is used, or enable back).
Those methods are not well understood and currently it's unknown on which model which method should be used. My assumption is that using one of those methods might be causing the issues described.
So I have decided to let the user choose which one (if any) should be used. I will add two new options into fan control called
"Use System Auto Control Method 1"
"Use System Auto Control Method 2"
which will both be disabled by default.
The user will need to test in case system automatic fan control is taking over the custom mode which of those methods works for him (or whether one of them is causing the issues).
This will be added in the next Beta build of HWiNFO.