Can't adjust screen brightness on Surface Pro 4. Not with the keyboard or with action center.

Anonymous
2017-05-08T08:50:00+00:00

I am having a problem with adjusting the screen brightness on my Surface Pro 4.

(It happened a few days after the new Windows 10 Creators update)

I can't change with neither the keyboard using "FN+Del" or "FN+Backspace", nor with using the Action center or Battery icon.

What I have done and observed:

  • The adjust screen brightness button is NOT greyed out (see picture)
  • When I try to change screen brightness with the keyboard I get the blue bar (as with volume controls) showing I am changing the brightness, but visually it has not changed. (see picture)
  • I've tried to update my Display Adapter using Device Manager.
  • I've tried to change my Display Adapter by "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" from Intel HD Graphics 520 to Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.
  • I've tried to turn off "Adjust my screen brightness automatically".
  • I've tried to update my screen monitor drivers in Device Manager.
  • I tried to change my Screen Monitor with "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" from Surface Display to Generic PnP-Monitor .
    • This worked to change my screen brightness the moment I changed the driver. However, it only changes to which setting I had changed to with action center or the keyboard. The keyboard and action center still doesn't work after changing the driver. Meaning I have to go to Device Manager and change my Screen monitor driver every time I want to change the brightness of my screen, as it only changes the moment I change driver.

Please help me! 

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2017-06-13T14:41:24+00:00

Hi there folks!

I had the exact same issue occur with my own Surface Pro 4 this week.

What triggered the issue was that I closed my Surface Pro without the Keyboard attatched, then it later went to Hybernate mode by it self (as it's supposed to)

Then I attached the Keyboard meanwhile it was in Hybernate and after woke it up.

Then the problem was there.. It left me thinking that I would think through what I had done and try to reverse what I already did.

The fix for me was simply to detatch the keyboard, then rebooting the computer without the keyboard, then suddenly it was fixed!

I was able to attatch the keyboard yet again and it still worked like a charm!

Once again in a more structrured manner:

  1. Make sure the surface is On and at the desktop or such alike.
  2. Detatch the keyboard.
  3. Use the touch screen in order to carry out a reboot.
  4. when at the desktop yet again, I personally swiped the screen from the right to bring out the notification center. To then use the touch screen to change the brightness.
  5. I attatched the keyboard and made sure that the problem didn't still persist. (which I was successful in) 

PS: Might be that there was some other thing that triggered your problem, however this was the story of my problem and how I fixed it.

Hope this helps any of you guys.

Cheers,

Adrian.

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Anonymous
2017-05-10T04:38:50+00:00

Going back to the steps given above, Have you already come upon on the gamma adjustment screen? In this screen, you can adjust the brightness of your monitor by moving the slider up or down.

Let us know if this works on your computer.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-06-27T10:03:40+00:00

    Thanks, this solved my problem, too!

    But I had to try it 3 times before it worked and I also set the brightness to 100% (which of course had no influence on the actual screen brightness at that point) before restarting Windows as suggested in another post here.

    (Also the first 2 times trying this I actually pressed "shut down" on the Surface and for the third and last attempt I clicked "restart" instead of shut down - maybe this did the trick...)

    Now everything works fine again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-07-01T03:05:28+00:00

    Hi there folks!

    I had the exact same issue occur with my own Surface Pro 4 this week.

    What triggered the issue was that I closed my Surface Pro without the Keyboard attatched, then it later went to Hybernate mode by it self (as it's supposed to)

    Then I attached the Keyboard meanwhile it was in Hybernate and after woke it up.

    Then the problem was there.. It left me thinking that I would think through what I had done and try to reverse what I already did.

    The fix for me was simply to detatch the keyboard, then rebooting the computer without the keyboard, then suddenly it was fixed!

    I was able to attatch the keyboard yet again and it still worked like a charm!

    Once again in a more structrured manner:

    1. Make sure the surface is On and at the desktop or such alike.
    2. Detatch the keyboard.
    3. Use the touch screen in order to carry out a reboot.
    4. when at the desktop yet again, I personally swiped the screen from the right to bring out the notification center. To then use the touch screen to change the brightness.
    5. I attatched the keyboard and made sure that the problem didn't still persist. (which I was successful in) 

    PS: Might be that there was some other thing that triggered your problem, however this was the story of my problem and how I fixed it.

    Hope this helps any of you guys.

    Cheers,

    Adrian.

    I'm experiencing the same issue, but my surface has never been connected to a keyboard even once so this solution isn't helping. Any thoughts?

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-07-02T07:56:25+00:00

    Hi Adrian,

    this just happened for me, but what you suggested worked perfectly

    Thanks for the info!

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