Dell U2711 monitor goes dim when displaying Linux text mode console? Here's a simple fix.
The Dynamic Contrast feature on Dell's U2711 monitor can be very sensitive to the picture content. For a Linux text mode console with black background and white text, the contrast can swing wildly from readable to incredibly faint in a matter of seconds, depending on the pattern of text displayed. Usually when you're logged in on a text console it's because you're trying to fix some other problem, so the last thing you need is to login and then watch your command prompt fade to unreadability. This video shows what the problem looks like, and how to disable the monitor's Dynamic Contrast feature to resolve it.
The Dynamic Contrast feature on Dell's U2711 monitor can be very sensitive to the picture content. For a Linux text mode console with black background and white text, the contrast can swing wildly from readable to incredibly faint in a matter of seconds, depending on the pattern of text displayed. Usually when you're logged in on a text console it's because you're trying to fix some other problem, so the last thing you need is to login and then watch your command prompt fade to unreadability. This video shows what the problem looks like, and how to disable the monitor's Dynamic Contrast feature to resolve it.