Why does screen sometimes dim/go gray/translucent?

TambourineMan · 09 Jan 2010

I can't really post a screenshot of this as it is infrequent and only last for a few seconds and my reflexes aren't that fast. You could simulate what I see if you held up an illuminated piece of wax paper that is the same size of your screen and instantly put it in front of your screen and after a few seconds, instantly removed it.

This was a fresh install on windows.

I had previously run Memtest86 from a boot disk, but I suppose it's worth running again as it's been awhile and I suppose the memory could go bad.

I don't think it's due to a power setting or an inactivity timeout as it usually happens when I am actively using my computer.

I no longer have any unidentified devices in device manager.

I an trying to think if it has ever happened other than when I was using a browser as I really suspect at this point it is being caused by my anti-malware checking for viruses or spyware. I am using Spyware Doctor, G-Data and Commodo - the paid versions. When this first happened I was dumbfounded to learn I had left Windows firewall also running, but I have since turned that off and it did not help.

techron · 14 Mar 2010

Have your received a reply to your problem that works? I have a smiliar problem. I have messed with the Power Options every which way and than some. I have set the UAC setting to the lowest and no change - display still dims.

I have 2 User Accounts. I don't have the problem with my secondary User Account and all the Power Options are identical. The display dimming started to happen about two months ago and now it's annoying. Everything looks good with Device Manager, graphice drivers are the latest.

Anyone know where I can find the power settings in the Registry. I want to compare the User Account Settings between both Users and perhaps I can find the odd setting.

Config: Windows 7 Home Premium
HP Pavilion Desktop, Intel i7 CPU 920, 9GM DDR3 memory, 600 HD

CarlTR6 · 14 Mar 2010

Is it your UAC kicking in? Mine does that when UAC alerts.

Rik55 · 14 Mar 2010

Is your Graphics Card the ATI AIW 2006. It's not Win7 compatible. What drivers did you manage to install. Even if you managed to install Vista drivers under Win7, you will still have issues as it will run at WDDM 1.0 level while Win7 uses WDDM 1.1. See if Areo themed effects are on, if so drop down to Windows Basic Themed desktop. Some user have reported getting similar cards working under W7 (only install the display driver component) but they are not fully functional.