So I updated to Windows 8.1 because I figured it's been out long enough and the vendors got the driver issues fixed...apparently not! A day later, I realized I was no longer able to adjust my screen brightness. My laptop has two video cards, but the internal screen is driven by the Intel HD Graphics 3000 / 3000M.
So, I downloaded the latest driver from Intel's website - no dice. I uninstalled the driver entirely, and found that the built-in Windows standard/generic graphic driver works for brightness. However, the external VGA port doesn't work using that driver, and since it's a generic driver it obviously doesn't perform well.
Luckily, I found a fix for the issue - a simple reg hack. Make a text file in notepad and paste the following into it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
"KMD_EnableBrightnessInterface2"=dword:00000000
"KMD_EnableBrightnesslf2"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\intelkmd]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
Save the file as HD3000MFix.reg or something, double-click to import it and reboot.
Brightness control works now!
So, I downloaded the latest driver from Intel's website - no dice. I uninstalled the driver entirely, and found that the built-in Windows standard/generic graphic driver works for brightness. However, the external VGA port doesn't work using that driver, and since it's a generic driver it obviously doesn't perform well.
Luckily, I found a fix for the issue - a simple reg hack. Make a text file in notepad and paste the following into it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
"KMD_EnableBrightnessInterface2"=dword:00000000
"KMD_EnableBrightnesslf2"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\intelkmd]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000ffff
Save the file as HD3000MFix.reg or something, double-click to import it and reboot.
Brightness control works now!
OMG! You are my saviour!!! Thank you so much for putting this online. I had a very old version of the intel HD graphic driver with which brightness control worked under win 8.1 for some reason and it worked fine for me for a while. But now I noticed that iTunes was crashing after a couple of minutes of watching a film. With a new intel hd driver the iTunes crashes were gone but so was the brightness control. Now you gave me the brightness control back! Awesomeness! Did I say thank you already! :) Thank you!
ReplyDeleteIt looked like it worked, but then, after the system went to sleep, the screen stayed dark. Had to turn the device off completely as a last resort. After reboot the screen was OK again, but going into sleep is screwing it up each time!
ReplyDeleteMy setup: Samsung NP-N210 Plus; Windows 10. And it is more than a year after this blog was posted, so things may have happened in the meantime.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Put the device to sleep and then wake it again, it works (close the laptop after resuming the system and then putting it to sleep, sounds odd but works for me)
Deleteand BTW to the creator of this post THANK YOU, I was looking for a solution for more than three days and I was about to give up, but this was the real solution
Yee haw!! Thank you for the lead, turns out on my Dell XPS 15Z running Windows 10 Anniversary Update (build ), I needed 0xf840 rather than the value posted above... so here is my working reg config:
ReplyDeleteWindows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000f840
"KMD_EnableBrightnessInterface2"=dword:00000000
"KMD_EnableBrightnesslf2"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000f840
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\intelkmd]
"FeatureTestControl"=dword:0000f840
ooooo thanks this dword:0000f840 worked on my netbook too NP-NC210 Samsung Netbook with windows 7
Delete