[DAE51D]

I just got a Mini-9 and I notice that when the screen is about to go into power saving or screensaver or something, instead of going black or doing the starfield screen saver, it goes pure bright white!!? pretty much the opposite of what a screen saver is supposed to do actually.



If I go to the starfield screensaver setting and "preview", it does do it right, so it's not that.

Anyone else have this issue and know how to fix it? In all my years, I've never seen this type of problem.

[Dunhamzzz]

Have you checked the power settings to see if the screensaver overlaps any of the power saving functions?

Could be a possible cause, is a bit of a weird one.

[danmanx]

That is extremely strange. Yeah, going white is absolutely a waste of power. If you are still having a problem, I would reinstall the video drivers, then the screen saver.

[DAE51D]

One thing I did this past weekend was convert my Dell Mini-9 into a "Hackintosh", that is, it is running Mac OSX now:

How to Install Mac OS X: DellEFI Method

Everything was looking promising (it runs OSX great by the way! It's very fast, faster than the Windows XP that came with it).

Then unfortunately, yesterday I left the screensaver run while I was watching TV. I turned around after a while when I noticed the screen went pure white.

This means that whenever the power-saving mode kicks in for the LCD, my LCD goes bright white instead of "off". It is not operating system dependent or driver related. It's hardware.

[holmes4]

Actually, there's no difference in power consumption based on the color of the screen, assuming the backlight level stays constant. Black screen, white screen, all the same.

[DAE51D]

That doesn't make sense. It must take power to turn on every pixel. It also can't be good for every pixel to be blasting full white (talk about screen burn-in). Otherwise why would "power saving" modes turn off the LCD display (normally)?

Not to mention, it's annoying as hell to all of the sudden have this screen turn into a flash-light when you're sitting there not expecting it.

[holmes4]

When a power saver turns off the LCD, it turns off the backlight. That DOES save energy.

[DAE51D]

While I'm sure the power is minimal from white to R, G, or B, I have to figure that your statement is not entirely true. RGB color model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia If you have to turn on three LEDs (R/G/B) to make white, vs. a combination or one LED, or NO LEDs (black), there is some amount of power draw especially multiplied across 1024x768 (or whatever the resolution is).

I realize that turning OFF the LCD is what DOES the energy saving in a more noticeable way.

Given that I leave my Mini9 plugged in mostly, power saving isn't my main concern. It is:

• the burn-in of having all pixels pure white and
• the annoyance of it. You can't just leave it sitting on the coffee table while watching TV or all of the sudden you are blasted with a 9" wide flashlight.

[psyopper]

Originally Posted by DAE51D

[*]the annoyance of it. You can't just leave it sitting on the coffee table while watching TV or all of the sudden you are blasted with a 9" wide flashlight.[/LIST]

If it were an iPhone you would be paying $5 for the Flashlight app... Think of it as a freebie!

[holmes4]

You misunderstand the way the panels in the Mini9 work. There are not three separate colors of LEDs turned on or off. "White" LEDs replace the fluorescent bulbs of traditional LCD panels. The colors still come from filters in front of individual LCD pixels. (I say "white" in quotes because these can be made of separate red, green and blue LEDs with a diffuser dome, or a UV LED that excites a phosphor.)

A future technology that does have individually addressable red, green and blue LEDs is OLED, but this is not yet practical for screen sizes more than a couple of inches.