Here's a strange one… haywire graphics on battery power (Win10)

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I have a Dell XPS-17 (L702x), a 17”, 9 lb. laptop bought new in 2012.

Specs are – Windows 7 Home / Intel Core i7-2760 QM / upgraded the dual HDs to Samsung 850 SSDs / 8GB DDR3 RAM / Nvidia GeForce GT 555 QM w/3GB / 90 WHr 9-cell battery.  This laptop was used when traveling (not by air!) and never used on an everyday basis.

About a year + ago I upgraded to Windows 10. The process went fine, and there were no problems. I use it a couple of times per month, all with it plugged in. Then one time I used it NOT plugged in. Every 3 or 4 minutes the screen would blink-out for a few seconds. Then sometimes the entire screen would be that blue-with-black grid, like when your graphics goes kaput.  I un-installed/reinstalled the graphics driver. Didn’t help. Went to Nvidia website to re-install drivers. Still didn’t help. I’m sure I checked other things that I can’t recall now, but nothing fixed it. Seeing as this ONLY happens on battery power, I bought a new battery for the heck of it. That didn’t help either. I finally wiped the HD and re-installed Windows 7. It’s OK again, running W-7.

I’d like to be running Windows 10 if I could solve this graphics problem.

Any ideas why the graphics would go haywire with Windows 10, but only on battery power?

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Usually when on battery power the display dims. Did you set it to not dim to see if it made any difference?

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Yes. The brightness looked perfectly normal when on battery power.
Just thinking, I should have asked for help before wiping the HD and reinstalling Windows 7. If I get any suggestions that seem a good chance of solving the problem, then I’d try going back to Windows 10.

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https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/1903-broke-on-battery-brightness-adjustment/dd4da7ff-07b4-43aa-af44-d2a7ed4b5fd7

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I had no problem with brightness sliders. The screen would simply shut off for a few seconds, randomly.

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FOUND THE CAUSE. I went ahead and re-installed Windows 10. Running on battery, the same problem occurred; blinking screen, with total graphics failure for about 5 to 30 seconds every few minutes. I should have figured this out before; seeing as this big laptop has descrete nVidia graphics, disabling the Intel onboard graphics prevents the problem.  The only problem is that when the computer is restarted, the graphics are all way out of proportion, so I’ll have to re-enable the Intel graphics  – then disable again if I go on battery power.

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NOW I FOUND THE FIX. The fix for my graphics problems when running on battery power was to change the “Power Plan” from “Balanced” to “High Performance” (Control Panel > Power Options)

I’m thinking Windows 10, in their effort to lengthen battery life, cut back the default power level to the point there wasn’t sufficient power to run the combination of on-board Intel graphics plus the nVidea graphics card.

It makes sense now. I wonder what other problems this may cause for other users.

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

Vincenzo

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That was some nice detective work

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