I was recently given a Surface Laptop 7 for Business which uses Windows 11 and the Intel Arc 130V GPU - it gives me awful headaches within an hour or two. I've googled and tried all of the usual things to tame sensitivity in Windows 11 but I just can't get it to work for me. In a bit of a panic as I have to upgrade by October as they're ditching Windows 10!

@"markdotpeters5"#p43675 Sorry to hear that, I’ve been in a similar spot with my corporate job. Honestly, all we ever do is find ways to hack around these issues. If you're not in a strict corporate environment, the quickest short-term workaround I know is to uninstall the Intel display drivers, use the basic display driver, and connect to a known good external screen. It’s far from perfect. The visuals look rough and battery life drops, but it might help a bit if you're not super sensitive to whatever Windows 11 is doing (I'm not sensitive when using basic driver or old hardware). If you're in a corporate setup where you can’t install anything, I’ve worked around it by using a better laptop for most tasks and connecting through Microsoft Teams with the remote control feature whenever I need access to internal systems. I’m quite sensitive to full-screen refresh rates above 5 FPS, like with VNC or capture cards, but the Teams method has worked surprisingly well for me. Other meeting software also works fine in my case, again assuming you're not sensitive to whatever rendering approach they're using (I'm not sensitive when using basic driver or old hardware).

@"randomboolean"#p43678 thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I’ve tried uninstalling the display driver on my Windows 11 build at home and that didn’t help, despite being a known good screen. if I can’t sort something out in the next few months I’m going to have to rely on using 365 and my own hardware (Which will give me some restrictions but better than having constant migraines)

@"markdotpeters5"#p43695 Yeah, sounds like there’s something else causing strain beyond just the driver. If your employer allows any flexibility, having your own known-safe hardware is usually the safest route. Have you ever tested remote access tools like VNC, RDP, NoMachine, or Chrome Remote Desktop? Some users here report they’re not too sensitive to remote desktop solutions – basic VNC in particular. Personally, I couldn’t tolerate any of them, except for Chrome Remote Desktop, which I manually throttled down to 5 FPS by editing the HTML. Also, I can comfortably use Teams and Google Meet. Teams also has a built-in “Take Control” feature for screen sharing – it’s a lower-quality remoting method, but it’s often not blocked by corporate restrictions (unlike most other options). It’s not super responsive, but it works well enough. That’s how I was able to access all our internal systems, which normally can’t be reached externally. Our setup allows Teams and other Microsoft services outside the corporate machine, so this workaround did the trick. I’ve also heard some people use a capture card to stream from their work computer to a safe one. I’ve tested that too, but for me, the strain was just as bad as with VNC. I suspect it’s because, at the core, it still captures the screen at 30–60 FPS and renders similarly to remote desktop tools, so the end result feels the same. If you're not sensitive to this, might be an option too.

My issues are all hardware based. My Dell Latitude 5431 work laptop can give me a migraine in minutes/seconds, but it's fine when I hook it up to a docking station and use a known good display of mine.

@"Business-Eyes"#p43715 How do you do that?

New work laptop.. .I'm screwed aren't I?

markdotpeters5

MagnuM interesting.. which docking station please? I actually have one in my drawer I've never tried!

MagnuM

markdotpeters5 You probably don't need a whole docking station. You could just connect your laptop to a TV or some other display via HDMI cable. Work gave us Dell WD19TBS docking stations for work-from-home during COVID.

markdotpeters5

MagnuM I have already done that though.. while I'm at work, it's docked to two monitors.. still gives me crippling headaches.

MagnuM

markdotpeters5 How do you know those two monitors are "eye safe" for you though? Has it been tested on another machine that doesn't cause you issues?

Business-Eyes

Here is my trick for new laptops, project the display of new pc to a pc that works well for you. Been using this method for like 5 years now

elpa

Business-Eyes How do you do that?

markdotpeters5

MagnuM exactly that. My current Windows 10 laptop plugged into the same monitors gives me 0 issues.

ryans

markdotpeters5

Some avenues you might want to try:

Searching the forum for "Surface", maybe some posts (like this) could help you.
Turn off ACM
Turn off visual effects
Disable DPST
Non-tech you could try covering one eye ("patching") which has had some success for some some on here.
If your company lets you, attempt to use ditherig to disable temporal dithering

Donux

markdotpeters5 All surface laptops use PWM. So personally I would avoid running like a chicken without a head and starting to install, reinstall, upgrade, uninstall endlessly. PWM is not going anywhere. Best thing you could try is PWMHelper.exe and set PWM to higher value and see how it goes.

markdotpeters5

Donux They do, but I'm using it 99% of the time on a safe screen with PWM that either doesn't exist or is at 'safe' levels for me… so PWM isn't the primary issue.

Sunspark

Definitely plug in the docking station and try it out if you never have.

markdotpeters5

Sunspark I've tried, unfortunately it's exactly the same

Clokwork

When I received my new one I thought I was going to be in a world of hurt. I somehow got decently used to win 11. I'm fairly certain it's a 6+2 FRC display. I don't usually have issues with this setup unless its a TN display.

markdotpeters5

Think I'm going to have to rely on 365 on my own hardware running Windows 10/MacOS Sonoma, maybe get a Macbook air M1 dedicated for work or similar that works for me.