Monitor Changes Brightness on its own. [SOLVED]

[Surutcra]

Hey guys, this seems like a simple problem but I can't figure it out.

Backstory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16824255011
So about a year ago I bought this Westinghouse L2610NW-SP 2.5.5" monitor for real cheap used on ebay. When it arrived the backlight was busted, no light whatsover. I discovered something like 8 or 10 bulbs inside with one broken. Since I got it so cheap I decided to fix it my self and bypass one of the bulbs (it was in series). After getting the green light from a Westinghouse technician to bypass i soldered a wire to where the bulb was. IT WORKED.

That was 7 months ago when I did that and the monitor still works great, you can't even notice that it is slightly dimmer on a section of the screen unless you set the background to all white.

Problem:
I have noticed this within the past few weeks:Whenever I view something dark like a dark wallpaper or the windows start up screen for example, my screen starts dimming the brightness until it goes black completely. Also if I manually turn down brightness to about 40/100 the screen will go black. I have to turn off and on the monitor for the brightness to come back but only when there is a something bright on the screen somewhere will it come stay at full brightness. It is still usable 95% of the time, for example I don't turn the monitor on until login screen to avoid this but WHY is this happening? Remember my monitor is missing 1 of 10 bulbs so there is more voltage per bulb I assume. I know its the monitor and not the OS or other software because it occurs before the OS boots somtimes.

Other info:
I'm using a vga cable with a dvi adapter to connect to my asus hd4850 and also using Windows 7 RC1. +I have disabled DDC/CI on the monitor because that would eliminate the OS changing the contrast/brightness I think.

Thanks guys.

 

[videogames101]

Dynamic Contrast.

"A notable recent development in the LCD technology is the so-called "dynamic contrast" (DC). When there is a need to display a dark image, the display would underpower the backlight lamp (or decrease the aperture of the projector's lens using an iris), but will proportionately amplify the transmission through the LCD panel. This gives the benefit of realizing the potential static contrast ratio of the LCD panel in dark scenes when the image is watched in a dark room. The drawback is that if a dark scene does contain small areas of superbright light, image quality may be over exposed."


That Westinghouse uses it, and it sounds like this might be the problem? Just a guess.

 

[Surutcra]

OMG... this happend to me last time I posted a problem I had.. Ok so I thought it was DDC/CI that reduced the brightness, because it was in the same menu as the image settings (contrast/brightness) but that didn't work. But when I was fiddling around in the color menu I saw the DCR setting ON so I turned it off and it works perfectly. I feel dumb after that but hey at least I fixed my problem. Thanks Videogames101 for the quick response and btw it doesnt actually change the contrast it just reduces the brightness of the backlights. The purpose of this is so they can use the low brightness black vs 100% brightness white to label it DC 3000:1 contrast ratio. And because I'm missing a bulb when it reduced my brightness it would shut them off due to the less voltage it takes. Thanks again.

 

[JessicaD]

Surutcra,

This sounds like a situation that may receive a good solution directly from the source -- Microsoft. Microsoft does have an official Windows 7 RC Support Forum located here http://tinyurl.com/9fhdl5 . It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support teams. You may want to check the threads out there.

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

 

[Candymancan21]

Yea sound like Dynamic Contrast. My monitor goes really dark when viewing a dark image also, that is if i use dynamic contrast. I prefer to keep Dynamic on tho, when you play video games even if your monitor is tweaked perfectly the blacks still look grey, with dynamic contrast it looks 100% better.

 

[Surutcra]

Originally posted by: Candymancan21
Yea sound like Dynamic Contrast. My monitor goes really dark when viewing a dark image also, that is if i use dynamic contrast. I prefer to keep Dynamic on tho, when you play video games even if your monitor is tweaked perfectly the blacks still look grey, with dynamic contrast it looks 100% better.

Yeah I would imagine it would work nicely for dark scenes in games but my problem was that when it dims the brightness all the way my screen flickers and suddenly turns off. I'm happy that I can disable it though otherwise my monitor would be turning off all the time.

 

[Candymancan21]

Oh that sucks.. lol Yea good thing im pretty sure they all have the option to turn it off anyway. I wouldnt buy anything used from ebay for computers. The guy probably just ripped you knowing it was defective like that.

 

[Surutcra]

Originally posted by: Candymancan21
Oh that sucks.. lol Yea good thing im pretty sure they all have the option to turn it off anyway. I wouldnt buy anything used from ebay for computers. The guy probably just ripped you knowing it was defective like that.

The only thing wrong with the monitor is that one of the 8 or 10 bulbs was broken which I easily bypassed at no charge and I am pretty sure that this happend during shipping. I'm still glad I bought it at 250$+ shipping, I probably would do it again. I'm really enjoying the 1920x1200

 

[bigsnyder]

I am sorry if I missed it, but what was the solution?

 

[harobikes333]

same here... I'm lost.

 

[yusux]

He turned off his dynamic contrast.

And imo that westinghouse 26" is the worst LCD I've laid eyes on out of the 9 LCDs I've owned.