Solved Win 11 Laptop, dims and brights

Hello. I have a Toshiba Satellite that was org Win 10 upgraded to Win 11. I had been having trouble with the screen dimming and brightening. After soliciting sites for help and not finding suggestions worked I went for the Recovery Option with a new cloud download of Win 11 and I cleared the whole HD. Kept none of my files. It's on a Local Account. But now that the Recovery is done it is still dim/bright off and on. It seems to coincide with one of the amber lights on the front, complete in sync. I have still yet to find a satisfactory explanation what lights are for what on the front edge.

If this light is somehow connected to battery use is there something in there trying to dim the screen as if it's on battery when it's not? Also this issues stops when running strictly on batter.

I would look into your power saving settings, it is normal for the screen to dim and brighten according to the battery level and machine activity.

Also, Notebooks have key combinations for hardware adjusting such as just an Fx key or Fn + Fx, maybe crud has gotten into the keyboard. I'd use canned air and clean it.

x BlueRobot said:

I would look into your power saving settings, it is normal for the screen to dim and brighten according to the battery level and machine activity.

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Thanks! At this time it's all refreshed supposedly, and I have not made any changes to Power Options but I will check that asap.

Berton said:

Also, Notebooks have key combinations for hardware adjusting such as just an Fx key or Fn + Fx, maybe crud has gotten into the keyboard. I'd use canned air and clean it.

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I appreciate that for sure. I'll check that out! Thanks!

I have this continuing issue for near a month. I've tried myriad of suggestions and changes. I wouldn't be sarcastic to say I don't think there's a full answer? Many great helpers have posted helps. And I may see some betterment in the dim/bright issues repeatedly, mentioned in another post, and no better in screen off/on even if hibernated or shut down. It's not an enviromental issue with ambient light as it's always plugged in, not on battery. And, it changed back and forth like a slow lighthouse beacon.

All I can clue here is that I can hibernate, even shut down and eventually the screen will go to on/off ... repeat. ONLY ... when I unplug the AC cord will it behave. The icon on the tasktray forever has the "bolt" reporting it's charging. Yet to hover over it, it will report 100%. That "bolt" never goes away. I guess it's a bit of a challenge but I'll ask this once again. If no working I'll just learn somehow to work around it. Maybe I"ll just use the laptop on battery, shut down, and plug in at the end of the day and see if it will behave. BTW the LED on the front for batter is mainly always amber. I can get it to show "white" or "blue" ... whatever color that is under certain conditions but usually putting it on batter first. Now I'm getting myself confused.

Thanks for any suggests. I've tried many! But look for that gem that does the trick! jack ":-\\

Could it be the ambient light sensor automatically adjusting the brightness?

kelper said:

Could it be the ambient light sensor automatically adjusting the brightness?

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If this be so I will google how to turn off the ambient light sensors. It's is an older laptop so not sure if it has those sensors. Thanks a bunch!! Now my post got moved here and what I just posted was a different problem. I don't know why they moved me. The screen dim/bright issue is NOT the screen turning off and on while hibernating or shut down. Not the same at all. Thanks for the input for sure.

Can you describe what's happening in more detail? Does the screen brightness change almost at random or is it pulsing regularly?

If you take it into a brightly lit room does the screen go to full brightness? And ina dark room does it go to minimum?

To adjust Content adaptive brightness control settings

1. Select the Start button, then enter settings. Select Settings > System > Display .
2. In Display settings, select Brightness , then set the Change brightness based on content drop-down as needed:
   • Off: Adaptive brightness control will be turned off and screen brightness and contrast will not be adjusted. This can result in shorter battery life.
   • Always: Adaptive brightness control will always run regardless of whether the device is plugged in or on battery.
   • On Battery Only: Adaptive brightness control will only be activated when the device is on battery power.

jackdashack said:

Thanks for any suggests. I've tried many! But look for that gem that does the trick! jack ":-\\

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Does your laptop still have the Toshiba Diagnostic Tool ? May want to run, if not search for other hardware diagnostic software. Also, check any entries in Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor.

May want to search on Google. Many similar issues.

kelper said:

Can you describe what's happening in more detail? Does the screen brightness change almost at random or is it pulsing regularly?

If you take it into a brightly lit room does the screen go to full brightness? And Ina dark room does it go to minimum?

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=== me === I'll try to clarify this way.

I don't carry it around; it stays put on a Kensington laptop type pedestal. I can't think how to more describe than what I already have without getting tangled up in the nuances of trying to type problems. Here's what I said above.

> Laptop is always plugged in. That's my mode. It was a gifted laptop and I don't use them much that I would purchase one. So it is enconsed on a Kensington laptop pedestal
> It will report by hovering that it is 100% charged, but the little bolt that indicates charging never goes off, and the front LED is always amber, and I rarely see it turn white or blue, whatever color it is.
> Issue: When the laptop goes into sleep, hibernate or even shutdown it will come back on of itself after a bit and then repeatedly goes off and on, repeatedly like one after another. AND ... this is from Shutdown, hibernate or sleep. It doesn't do this when I'm using the device, as I am now. Just when it's idle. But I take note that the tasktray and front LED never report or show fully charged.

csun said:

Does your laptop still have the Toshiba Diagnostic Tool ? May want to run, if not search for other hardware diagnostic software. Also, check any entries in Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor.

May want to search on Google. Many similar issues.

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I have done so many searches on Google, and MS Communities but nothing has eliminated the issue. I feel I'll just have to work around it eventually. Thanks!~

There is no need to repeat what you have written, I've read it. If you come to this forum for help you really should try and answer questions. It wouldn't take you two minutes to do what I asked.

I'm not sure how I was offensive. I never, never try to be offensive with helpers ... never. AND, I did try your suggestion for a few moments, in fact many moments. I tried it over and over again. Sorry, it did not cure but thank you, and thank you! I only repeated what I said because I knew nothing else to say and rather than say, look up there what I posted, I, for convenience, copied it.

Maybe I have issues within the power adapter. I did recently install a new battery. Maybe if I remove it for a few, and reinstall it. Grabbing at a straw here and there. Thanks again. I hate the nuances of social media and chat. Sometimes folks read into it what they think they see. I surely meant nothing but for a lack of answers on my part maybe I erred.

":-\\

Nobody said you were offensive. Was the new battery a genuine one? I fitted an OEM battery to one laptop and I have to remove it and refit it to get it to charge. It only takes a few seconds. And once I bought a cheap charger on eBay. It would cause the touchpad to freeze!
I'll ask once more, how often does the screen brightness change?

kelper said:

Nobody said you were offensive. Was the new battery a genuine one? I fitted an OEM battery to one laptop and I have to remove it and refit it to get it to charge. It only takes a few seconds. And once I bought a cheap charger on eBay. It would cause the touchpad to freeze!
I'll ask once more, how often does the screen brightness change?

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The battery was bought on Amazon and I have to admit I probably went cheap but there was good reviews? And as I recall it didn't start this behavior until let's see I went from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and it was fine and then 11 being new to me I did a lot of changes and I forgot where I was and what I had done; so I just did a recovery and maybe it was after a Windows 11 recovery where I eliminated everything on the hard drive (not the Recovery partition) it started this behavior. And it only does it not when I'm working on it thankfully, but when it's in sleep mode or hibernate or even shut down it will come back on and it's repeated. Not once every few minutes I'm talking about on off on off maybe not quite that fast but you know you get the point it's not once in awhile it's one time after another. BUT, not when on battery alone. Unplug it from the AC adapter and everything's fine it does what it's supposed to.

Is the battery charger genuine?

I will check that, since it was a "used" giveaway I just assumed it was OEM power supply. I'll look. I know I have another original A/C power supply Toshiba OEM from a previous satellite laptop. I'll also check on that and see if it matches polarity and input/output. Thanks, I'll get on this first of week. I also went into Task Scheduler and at least temporarily disabled every schedule that triggers "when pc is idle" ... just to see if that does anything, as it's always at "idle" it does these bad things.

Hi,
Yeah 11 has a battery saver feature
It popup on me asking if I wanted to use it and I clicked yes
Every movement... was stalled, felt like focus was being lost very quickly so I undid that not long after.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Yeah 11 has a battery saver feature
It popup on me asking if I wanted to use it and I clicked yes
Every movement... was stalled, felt like focus was being lost very quickly so I undid that not long after.

Click to expand...

I think I had disabled that in settings but I'm going to double check it and thanks