Display brightness at Ancestry DNA

[Pauline]

Yesterday, while looking at some DNA matches, I thought something was amiss with the display brightness on my old laptop. It's Windows 10 and I was using Chrome - everything up to date.

I was looking at a particular DNA match and clicked to view their unlinked tree in a new tab. When I moved to that tab to view the tree I noticed, after about 5 seconds, that the display was dimming, and this was perhaps most noticeable in the tabs at the top of the window. When I switched back to the DNA match, with its predominantly white background, I could see the display gradually getting brighter again.

I don't have an auto-brightness control on that or any of my computers, but because it was late, I didn't investigate further.

I've now being looking again at Ancestry on my new laptop, and exactly the same has happened again. So next I tried with Firefox (latest version) and it happened there too. I've just checked, and it's also happening on my husband's laptop.

So it seems to be an Ancestry issue rather than a problem at my end. I don't remember noticing anything like this before.

Is anyone getting this, and does anyone know why it might be happening? Is it a bug or a feature?

 

[Pauline]

OK, i’m now wondering if it’s a battery saving feature in the graphics driver, and is being triggered by the design of Ancestry tree pages. If there are very few people in the tree, the page is predominantly dark and this may be triggering the dimming when running on battery.

Does this sound possible? It’s not something I’ve ever come across or noticed happening before.

 

[Bob Spiers]

If there are very few people in the tree, the page is predominantly dark and this may be triggering the dimming when running on battery.

Can't help here Pauline as I run my laptops on power, and simulating what you were doing, I observed no dimming. Rather than trying again by running on battery (which I will also do) have you tried to connecting the power to see if the same thing applies? You probably have but if not give it a try,

Edit : I disconnected the power lead from a laptop and tried again and yes there was a small discernible dimming when viewing both the addition tabbed content and return to the original. But the observation is generic, power boosts display, and battery reduces. Is there not a 'what to do when running on battery' adjustment. I believe so and will check it out.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Are you running Battery Saver? "Turn Battery saver on automatically if my battery falls below..." (default 20%). You can adjust this with a slider. There is also a "Battery saver status to next charge on/off function" (This may be dimmed out as is mine, and likely depends on the setting selected for Battery Saver). You can also tick/untick a box "Lower screen brightness while in battery saver"

Click on the power/battery icon on the Taskbar which displays your Battery charge status. You can select a slider to choose between 'Best Battery Life' and 'Best performance'. The default is usually half way. You can also get to 'Battery Settings' from there.

I know some of this is pretty basic stuff, but you may find a happy medium which helps with your problem.

 

[Pauline]

I think all my battery setting are on the defaults, so much as you describe.

As I said before, I think this may be something controlled by the graphics driver rather than the standard Windows settings. It is a battery saving thing, so it won't happen except on laptops running on battery.

It feels sort of counter-intuitive to me as I would expect predominantly white screens to go dimmer to save battery but I gather it is something to do with the backlight and less supposedly being needed on dark screens.

But it's all new to me and only seems to be mentioned on fairly technical sites.

 

[Pauline]

I think all my battery setting are on the defaults

One thing that isn't on the default is that I have turned off fast start-up. I'm not sure how much difference it makes but my computer manual recommends it for power saving.

 

[Bob Spiers]

One thing that isn't on the default is that I have turned off fast start-up. I'm not sure how much difference it makes but my computer manual recommends it for power saving.

Yes somewhere in the dim and distant (past) I recall that opting out of a fast start-up was a battery saving recommendation. I can see it would put additional load on the battery, so for the sake of a few seconds (OK half a minute at worst) agree best to opt out.

Whilst back on the subject of saving on battery power , I would check to see if your laptop came with video presets set to enhance video rather than save on battery power. I have to say up front this is unlikely to correct the problem you have been experiencing , but you never know! There are options to play video at low resolution and optimisations to prefer video quality over saving battery life. (You will find these in Setting/System/Power). May be clutching at straws but could have a knock-on effect with graphics. (Also if you haven't already, check you have the latest graphics driver).

 

[Pauline]

Yes somewhere in the dim and distant (past) I recall that opting out of a fast start-up was a battery saving recommendation.

I think the thing about fast start-up is more that it works by not fully shutting the computer down - it’s sort of halfway between hibernation and full shut down, and so some minimal computer activity continues when it’s theoretically turned off. It’s this activity which affects battery usage, and why the battery level may drop overnight.

I have to say up front this is unlikely to correct the problem you have been experiencing

I’ve now come to the conclusion it’s a feature rather than a problem as such. I also gather it’s a feature with both Intel and AMD chips, and can be turned be turned off via the driver control panel, but on the whole I think I’d rather leave well alone.

I generally keep my screen at a fairly low brightness. My new computer came with it set at 100% and nearly dazzled me!

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Could you have Night Light feature turned on? This feature dims the screen by reducing the amount of blue light displayed after the hours of darkness. Blue light is a triggering light that has been shown to cause increased alertness in our brains and so many devices and operating systems have a "Night light" feature that reduces the amount of blue light after dark which aids drifting off to sleep. Studies have shown exposure to blue light before bedtime leads to more brain activity and more "agitated" sleep patterns which results in a less restful sleep. So the Night Light feature is a really good thing to get used to using if you use your devices late at night before heading to bed.

In windows 10 the setting is in Setting App, select System and the top tab (which is usually the one that opens is Display). One of the options there under the heading "Colour" is Night light. eg:

 

[Pauline]

Night light is turned off on this laptop, and I'm pretty sure it is on my old one also but that's not booted up at present so I can't check. I don't usually use computers in the evening or early morning so the night light isn't something I've needed to use.

 

[Pauline]

I‘ve been doing a bit more research on this, and the dimming and brightening I noticed seems to be down to the Intel Display Power Saving Technology (DPST). There’s a brief article about it on Wikipedia - here.

Google also found a Dell support article which explains a bit more, and is not specific to Dell computers.

I understand it’s not just an Intel thing, but I happen to have an Intel chip.

 

[Bob Spiers]

You might find some more information on your Intel Graphics Driver here IGD ...which will help you identify the IG controller installed on your laptop. Other related Graphics information also shown.

I have a Dell PC with Intel, but a somewhat antiquated device and Display Power Saving Technology not a feature.

 

[Pauline]

Thanks, Bob. I can actually see which driver version I am on via the Intel Graphics Control Panel, and I think it gets updated through Windows updates.

I gather that this kind of display power saving has been around for some years. My old laptop is a Sony and about 8 or 9 years old, I think, but that seems to have it - but presumably now an updated version of what it came with.