I have a laptop but I use it only as a CPU. I have separate keyboard, mouse and monitor. The HP laptop is about 3-4 years old, the monitor is a Samsung 23" that is a couple of years older. It is connected to the laptop via a HDMI-to-video adaptor with 15 pins.
It’s fine most of the time, but whenever the screen is mostly dark with a small lighter area that has the content, or mostly dark with not very much contrast with the text, my monitor goes exaggeratedly dark and I can barely, or not at all, make out what is on the screen.
There is one other connection available on the back of the monitor but I don’t know what kind it is without taking the monitor off the wall. I can do that if it’s necessary to figure out an answer. Is there a different connection protocol that would work better? Is it likely the adaptor that is to blame? Or do I need a newer monitor?
Is this a monitor or a TV? They aren’t so different but TVs tend to have slightly different behaviors.
My WAG is that you have a problem with an adaptive backlight. Some TVs will reduce the backlight brightness when the screen is dim, both to save power and reduce bleed. However, they don’t always account for having only a small illuminated part of the screen. Since the backlight covers the whole screen, you might end up with a small portion that’s unreadable.
So try looking around for a setting called adaptive backlight, adaptive brightness, or something along those lines, and disable it. It may also be bundled into the “eco” settings.
If you know the model number of the screen, post it so I can peek through the manual.
You didn’t mention what the same image looks like on your laptop monitor. I presume that’s OK? A desktop would be easier to diagnose. Easier to swap out the video card to see if that’s what the issue is.
I would first unplug and replug all the connections. If all those are secure my second guess would be the adapter. Third most likely is the monitor, or one of it’s settings like Dr.Strangelove suggests.
D’oh! I didn’t even think of checking that, my laptop is usually closed and in a vertical holder to save space on the desk – I don’t need two screens to be active. Anyway, it seems to be doing the same thing there.
I will be checking that next. Thanks for the suggestions.
I couldn’t find any video settings that seemed anything like adaptive backlight or adaptive brightness. I found one setting for EnergyStar, and I changed it from the recommended setting to the one that uses more power, but that didn’t improve things. Unless I have to re-boot to make that take effect, but it didn’t say so.
When I right click on the desktop (Windows 7), in the resulting dialog, my monitor is listed. Enter into there and there’s a bunch of settings.
Besides that, my video card is also listed on the right click dialog. More settings there.
Maybe try experimenting.
Is this just a recent thing? Playing with settings should at least show you some noticeable change, for better or worse. If you can’t achieve anything acceptable I’d lean towards getting a new video/graphics card. A problem with that could be that many laptops have built in cards and are not upgradeable (why laptops suck).
I had to upgrade my card several years ago after buying a high end monitor. The existing card wasn’t up to the task. Just saying - that doesn’t sound like your problem. But manufacturers are known for not always using the best components in ‘off the shelf’ models.
I found several settings by right-clicking on my desktop background, including Graphics Properties and Graphics Options. Under Graphics Properties, was a Display tab, that has color settings for Brightness, Contrast, and Gamma. But no matter how much I manipulated those, it had no effect.
Here is my test case, a website: franklin-christoph.com (they sell their lines of fountain pens and accessories, and I have no affiliation). When I go to that website, or if I already have it open in a tab and switch to it, my screen starts out fine but immediately dims down to maybe 50% less light on the screen. When I move off that site, it starts out dark and then goes back to normal brightness. These transitions take around a second, maybe a bit less. This isn’t the only site that does this, but it’s the only one I visit regularly enough to remember.
Something else I just discovered: It only happens in the browser, and if the browser is less than full screen, the degree it happens is proportional to the amount of the screen taken up by the browser.
As a further test, I opened up my word processing program and made a page of a few white on black background, and then increased the magnification so that the black dominated the screen. There was a slight darkening of the screen, but nothing like it does in the browser.
The browser I use is Chrome. I will try it with another browser, and also see if I can find any appropriate settings in the Chrome controls to test.
The images on that site are too dark, but that’s the fault of who did the web site. However on my monitor the colour light/dark did remain consistent. The white text was sharp & clear.
Technically you don’t need a graphics card. Your processor will allow viewing. Just not optimum.
Be good if you could borrow a laptop from someone and hook it to your monitor. I’ve a feeling it’s your graphics processor (think that’s what it’s called) and if that’s not upgradeable, then it’s your laptop.
Maybe there’s help on the HP site.
Thanks for checking it out. It’s good to know (one way or the other) if other people have the same kind of issue.
As I mentioned above, my laptop screen does the same thing, so it’s not a monitor issue. It may well be the laptop graphics card or processor, in which case it’s not bad enough for me to go to the trouble and expense of trying to fix it. I’ll just wait until it’s time to buy another laptop and try to get one with a better graphics setup.