I recently bought a ThinkPad X60, which has a Centrino Duo chipset,
and Intel 945GM (GMA 950) graphics.

At all brightness levels running on AC with the PSU, the LCD screen
and backlight is flicker-free, stable and consistent in terms of
brightness.

When running on battery, no matter what level the battery is at, if
the screen brightness is set to any setting between minimum and
maximum, the backlight appears to flicker like a cold fluorescent
light sometimes does. This appears to come and go, I haven't been
able to force it to happen, but I also feel like motion causes the
effect to worsen.

I've tried disabling Intel Display Power Savings Technology, I've
tried uninstalling Power Manager, and also setting the brightness
setting for LCD while running on battery to High. I've also tried
setting the refresh to 60Hz instead of 50Hz. None of these fix the
issue.

I'm trying to figure out whether this is likely a hardware problem
somewhere, or a firmware/software/BIOS problem with power saving
related features.

Backlight flickering often points to a bad inverter, but in this case
since the problem only manifests itself while on battery power, and
never when the AC adapter is connected even at the same brightness
levels, I'm skeptical that the inverter is the problem.

Any ideas?

--
Adrian Chung (adrian at enfusion-group dot com)

Under Warranty? Call service.

"Adrian Chung" <check@signat.ure> wrote in message
news:slrnel9b47.ckr.achung@rogue.genosha.enfusion-group.com...
>I recently bought a ThinkPad X60, which has a Centrino Duo chipset,
> and Intel 945GM (GMA 950) graphics.
>
> At all brightness levels running on AC with the PSU, the LCD screen
> and backlight is flicker-free, stable and consistent in terms of
> brightness.
>
> When running on battery, no matter what level the battery is at, if
> the screen brightness is set to any setting between minimum and
> maximum, the backlight appears to flicker like a cold fluorescent
> light sometimes does. This appears to come and go, I haven't been
> able to force it to happen, but I also feel like motion causes the
> effect to worsen.
>
> I've tried disabling Intel Display Power Savings Technology, I've
> tried uninstalling Power Manager, and also setting the brightness
> setting for LCD while running on battery to High. I've also tried
> setting the refresh to 60Hz instead of 50Hz. None of these fix the
> issue.
>
> I'm trying to figure out whether this is likely a hardware problem
> somewhere, or a firmware/software/BIOS problem with power saving
> related features.
>
> Backlight flickering often points to a bad inverter, but in this case
> since the problem only manifests itself while on battery power, and
> never when the AC adapter is connected even at the same brightness
> levels, I'm skeptical that the inverter is the problem.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> --
> Adrian Chung (adrian at enfusion-group dot com)
>

You might get more specific info on ibm.ibmpc.thinkpad


"Adrian Chung" <check@signat.ure> wrote in message
news:slrnel9b47.ckr.achung@rogue.genosha.enfusion-group.com...
>I recently bought a ThinkPad X60, which has a Centrino Duo chipset,
> and Intel 945GM (GMA 950) graphics.
>
> At all brightness levels running on AC with the PSU, the LCD screen
> and backlight is flicker-free, stable and consistent in terms of
> brightness.
>
> When running on battery, no matter what level the battery is at, if
> the screen brightness is set to any setting between minimum and
> maximum, the backlight appears to flicker like a cold fluorescent
> light sometimes does. This appears to come and go, I haven't been
> able to force it to happen, but I also feel like motion causes the
> effect to worsen.
>
> I've tried disabling Intel Display Power Savings Technology, I've
> tried uninstalling Power Manager, and also setting the brightness
> setting for LCD while running on battery to High. I've also tried
> setting the refresh to 60Hz instead of 50Hz. None of these fix the
> issue.
>
> I'm trying to figure out whether this is likely a hardware problem
> somewhere, or a firmware/software/BIOS problem with power saving
> related features.
>
> Backlight flickering often points to a bad inverter, but in this case
> since the problem only manifests itself while on battery power, and
> never when the AC adapter is connected even at the same brightness
> levels, I'm skeptical that the inverter is the problem.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> --
> Adrian Chung (adrian at enfusion-group dot com)
>