Brightness slider and night light issue - WINDOWS

Question

Brightness slider and night light issue - WINDOWS

Sandipan Roy Choudhury 0

my laptop's brightness slider and night light are not working tried most of the stuff available on internet but didn't fix the issue does anyone has any idea I think it was the may update saw several people have similar issue around the same timeline I tried the general things like disabling , enabling display drivers and such but it does nothing , I thought maybe using DDU will fix as it helped me fix BSOD issues in the past , but that also did not really help. Does any one have any suggestions/ ideas ?

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2 answers

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Answer 1

David-M 123.8K Independent Advisor

Hi. I'm David, and I'm happy to help you.

To be able to assist you better, please share a screenshot of the display adapters in Device Manager.

Open "Device Manager" (Windows + X and select Device Manager);
Expand "Display adapters" and take the screenshot.

Use the shortcut "Windows + Shift + S" to use the screenshot tool.

Also, share a screenshot of your system information.

Press "Windows + R", type msinfo32 and press Enter.

Maximize the window and use the screenshot tool.

Looking forward to your reply.

Sandipan Roy Choudhury 0 Reputation points

2026-08-24T15:07:27.3666667+00:00

I seemingly have solved the issue , first uninstalling the corrupted drivers with the help of DDU since windows does not let me delete it directly , then I noticed windows was trying to access (dell support , since my laptop is dell) before the problem started so, I thought of checking it . Now, the solution was to update the drivers via dell support or whatever your laptop model is . After that is done screen will flicker black a few times then the issue will resolve itself.
I really appreaciate your time and effort for trying to help me solve the issue.
Thanks
David-M 123.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-24T15:22:05.81+00:00

Glad you managed to solve the problem.

Thanks for sharing the solution you found.

Best regards.

Answer 2

Since disabling and re-enabling the display driver did not help, the most likely cause is still the graphics/display driver stack.

Try this path:

Check whether Windows is using Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.
- Open Device Manager > Display adapters.
- If Microsoft Basic Display Adapter appears there, the proper graphics driver is missing or corrupted. In that case, download and reinstall the graphics driver from the laptop manufacturer’s support site for the exact laptop model, then restart.
Install display-related updates from Windows.
- Go to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates.
- Install any available display or keyboard/hotkey driver updates, then restart.
Update the display adapter driver from Device Manager.
- Open Device Manager > Display adapters.
- Right-click the graphics adapter > Update driver.
- If brightness controls are still missing or nonfunctional after that, reinstall the manufacturer-provided graphics driver again rather than relying on the generic driver.
Verify whether this is an external-monitor limitation.
- On devices with an external monitor, Windows may not show a brightness slider. Brightness must be changed using the monitor’s physical buttons.
Check whether Night light is unavailable because of the active display driver.
- Night light is not available on some systems using DisplayLink or Basic Display drivers.
- If the Night light toggle is grayed out, update the display driver.
Test Night light directly in Settings.
- Go to Start > Settings > System > Display.
- Turn on Night light.
- Open Night light settings and adjust the Strength slider.
- If needed, turn Schedule night light off while testing.
If the issue started after a recent update, try a temporary auto-brightness workaround if the problem is specifically with adaptive brightness.
- A known issue can cause auto-brightness to stop responding until another brightness-related action occurs.
- Temporary actions that can reactivate it include:
  - adjusting the brightness slider manually
  - pressing a brightness hotkey
  - plugging or unplugging power
  - turning Battery Saver on or off
  - putting the device to sleep while on battery

What this points to:

If both brightness slider and Night light fail together, that usually indicates the display driver is not the correct OEM driver or Windows is falling back to a basic/generic display path.
Since DDU already did not help, the next best step is a clean reinstall of the laptop manufacturer’s graphics driver package for the exact model, plus any hotkey/function-key utility if the laptop vendor provides one.

References: