Jerry, yes. The thing about eye strain is that it is quite a complex issue, with multiple sources of eye strain, and that a person may actually suffer from multiple causes of eye strain, which makes it harder to isolate and identify each one. You have the right idea already, I know it is hard and time consuming, but you must take the time to isolate and identify the causes of your eye strain. If you dont do it, nobody is going to do it, and the problem may never be solved.

Perhaps you can try something like, every weekend (when you are not working), every saturday or sunday, limit yourself to just one display devices e.g. first saturday, phone only. Dont view any other display devices like tablets, TVs etc on that day. It is going to be hard, but it has to be done. Then see if you get eye strain or not from your phone. If your phone causes you eye strain, then you may need to find another phone. There is not much we can do if a phone causes eye strain. Same for tablet. I cannot use LG tablets at all, I get very severe eye strain within 2 minutes of using. Some tablets are not so bad i..e mild eye strain. I have my 4-year old ipad mini which i get zero eye strain, and that is the one and only tablet that I am still using until today. I do not even dare to upgrade the OS, for fear the new OS might cause eye strain. If it aint broke, dont fix it. At least I have one tablet model that I can use with zero eye strain. There might be one that you can use with zero eye strain as well, but the search for it will take time and lots of testing/trial and error. Good luck.

    Kray Thanks for your suggestions. I think now I have a good idea how to start the diagnosis process. When I first had the problem around 2009, I just did not realize or could not believe computer screen can cause headaches. It was not instant headaches to me though. I used to watching TV and movies a lot on computers, but I did not feel headaches when I was watching (maybe because I was too focused on the movie). The headaches hit me hard afterward and bothered my sleep and stay almost constantly. However, if I watch movies again, I would not feel the headaches, so watching movie gave a break but made things worse at the same time. I saw headache clinic doctors, they never ever mentioned computer screens could cause headaches. They scanned my head with MRI, but the results look normal. I never thought about computer screen being the cause until I read that eye strain thread in the apple forum.

    I will try one device at a time for the diagnosis. I am pretty sure smart phones give me headaches, so I wont try them for now. I ordered a BQ2760HS and a Dell desktop with nVidia GeForce® GT 730 graphics card. We'll see how it goes. I will report back. By the way, currently I have old Dell ST2310 LCD monitor, I can use it for checking emails, offices, some internet surfing. It is not perfect, but I can live with it.

    So glad to see this list get puled together. I thought I was crazy with the results of some of my experiments, but graphics driver trigger would explain all of them. Multiple times I have been triggered by a screen that does not normally trigger me when changing the video source. this would be explained by a difference in graphic driver. Thank you for putting a name to this!

      12 days later

      To report back, I got the desktop (Dell XPS 8910) with a nVidia GeForce GT 730 graphics card and an integrated intel graphics card, and the BQ2760HS monitor (the box says BQ2760S, but on the back of the monitor it says BQ2760HS). Have been using it for a few days with the intel card disabled. I try to limit myself to this screen exposure only during the test period. The monitor is very bright, I have to reduce the brightness and contrast all to zero and still wear a sun glass clip-on. In terms of symptoms, it is definitely better than the Dell ST2310 I was using. We will see how it progresses. Meanwhile, I am also trying to set up a linux system to see if it can be better.

        ensete In general, when you plug in one device and it hurts your eyes on an otherwise ok display, it is almost assuredly because of Temporal Dithering. Unknown graphics driver issues are rare but DO exist, as in:

        • When IOS7 was introduced, it was much harder to look at on identical devices than IOS6 was. For no apparent reason. PWM was still not observable. It's difficult to rule out temporal dithering in this case, but I didn't see any under a normal magnifying glass.

        • Windows 8 introduced software compositing for the output, except when in Direct3D gaming modes. It led to a lot of people not liking Windows 8 much. I could tolerate it on the right hardware.

        • Windows 10 Anniversary Edition (2016) has made a big change to the software compositing resulting in INSTANT eyestrain for a number of people including myself. I use Windows 10 8 hours a day on this machine with a Quadro K420 and never have problems... I upgrade to AE and it immediately hurt. Same drivers (nVidia's latest Quadro drivers), same monitors. Rolled it back immediately and it was fine to look at again.

        Also, detecting PWM can be pretty simple, the "wave your finger up and down in front of it and see if it blurs or leaves ghosts" test is relatively accurate in my experience although ineffective at detecting high-frequency PWM.

          Jerry I can't find this model. Do you mean the GW2760HS?

            Gurm Do you run Windows 7 on any of your computers? I was thinking of dual-booting it with my WIndows 10 AE machine (which is a pain with UEFI, but anyway) to see if it makes a difference. Despite my prior statement that the AE made no difference I want to compare directly.

            Are all of the updates safe to install? I read, here I think, that some of the newer ones may have made changes that are detrimental to some of us.

            If it's the case that the newer updates ruin Windows 7 I will run un-updated SP1 without an internet connection and just compare it from there.

            I haven't seen any patches to Windows 7 cause issues, I haven't checked for updates on my primary laptop in a while though. I'll run it through its patch cycle and get back to you.

            • KM replied to this.
            • degen likes this.

              degen Yes, it is BenQ GW2760HS. Sorry for the typo.

              I ordered this from Costco today (for the 90 return policy), so we can both report on this monitor soon.

              Gurm I believe at the end of 2016 they made all further Windows 7 updates cumulative. Which means there is no way to isolate future problematic updates since they're all gonna be included in every monthly rollup. I might be wrong but it looks like this is true. Because on my fresh Windows 7 SP1 installation I don't see the November rollup anymore. Only the December one, its ~150 MB in size...

              • Gurm replied to this.
                5 days later

                KM I will make a system restore point wherever I was, and test that way.

                I have reams of documentation around my eye strain issue, so happy to share to this thread over time. To date I have not found any explanation for display eye strain that fits all of my observed outcomes. While incredibly frustrating, it is worth adding

                For example, smartphones and credit card terminal screens are notorious for causing me severe, immediate eye strain. However, some screen protectors 100% eliminate this issue. To date I have identified 2 types (Skinomi and TechArmor matte anti glare) that work. There have been other models but silly me forgot to keep track. There are several models that do not help at all.

                So seeing as how there is a screen that does cure the eye strain, that would point to something being emitted from the display that the screen protector is blocking. This does not fit in with the temporal dithering, PWM, or other internal graphics properties hypothesis of cause.

                I have also used various blue blocking lenses and never had any success with them.

                  ensete I'm going to give those matte screen protectors a try, although for me there can be a HUGE difference between revisions of operating systems on a given device. My HTC One m8 is flawless for me under Lollipop. The instant I put Marshmallow on it, and reboot, it becomes instantly and harshly painful. The same can be said for PC's. Regardless of the hardware involved, updating Windows 10 to the Anniversary Edition (August 2016 build) renders it unusable.

                    Gurm Same thing here, I had a Moto G on Lollipop, no issues, the Marshmellow update came down, and I got severe eye strain. Something in the OS altered the way the video hardware is driving the screen. I have not moved any of my PC's off Windows 7 so I cant speak to 10

                    Just another FYI, I would suggest trying those specific brands (TechArmor or Skinomi). I keep a running list and most screen protectors do not help at all. I have emailed both companies trying to determine what makes their protectors different, or find out what exactly they filter out, but cannot get an answer from them.

                    ensete, can you provide the exact (maybe an Amazon link) model of the screen protectors that work? I want to upgrade my smartphone and frankly a $10 solution is well worth it.

                    Did these screen protectors help with your Moto after you upgraded to Marshmallow?

                      Now that I know it's the matte protector you prefer, I am able to determine more information.

                      It's PET film, Polyethylene terephthalate aka polyester aka plastic recycling symbol #1.

                      This means that it has to do with light polarization. A common problem with smartphones and photography for general people is that when they are wearing polarized sunglasses and turn their phones from portrait to landscape it goes black and they can't see the screen anymore. The solution in these cases is to introduce a film to change the polarization, or to get non-polarized sunglasses.

                      This video clip demonstrates the effect of introducing a polyester film (overhead slide projector sheet) when filming through polarized sunglasses.

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd_UhC5aHMM

                      Pilots know about this issue because many windscreens and cockpit instruments are polarized, so they need to use non-polarized sunglasses.

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t5GHR6opfI

                      around the 2:30 mark of this video you can see them demonstrating the effect on the cockpit instruments.

                      So polarization can cause or prevent eye strain? What might be the reasons?

                        KM I had stumbled across the PET film polarization before. I can't say it's NOT helping, but I have tried several other PET screen protectors that have not helped with eye strain at all.

                        Also, the Skinomi is not a PET screen, it's a kinda of rubbery material.

                          dev