X201 two-part display problem

[NonYankee]

My X201 has a two-part problem:

1. the display dims when it shouldn't
2. at the moment the display dims, the whole screen goes black (except for the on-screen brightness "pop-up")

This is best illustrated by a video I took today:

Video of ThinkPad X201 display problem

The problem occurs under all power profiles, both on AC and on battery power. Sometimes touching the TrackPoint (or mouse) does not return the display to the previous brightness level. In these cases the image returns but the brightness remains at 0 and I must manually increase it. I don't know whether I'm dealing with two problems or one.

I have all the most recent updates from both Microsoft and Lenovo. I'm running Windows 7 (64-bit) SP1 and Power Manager 6.30. Does anyone have a solution?

My system:

X201

Core i7 M620 @ 2.67GHz

8 GB RAM

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

1) i see that your battery is nearly empty on the Youtube video.

So does this problem appear even the battery is full.

Also, have you tried to uninstall the ThinkVantage Power Manager? does the problem appear then?

[NonYankee]

Yes, the problem occurs on full battery, AC (with or without a battery installed), and low battery.

I haven't tried uninstalling Power Manager completely; I only tried updating it. I'll try uninstalling and report back.

[NonYankee]

I just uninstalled Power Manager. The problem persists, but without the brightness pop-up. The screen simply goes black (but the backlight remains on). The required period of inactivity seems to be the same, 1 minute.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

other than trying to reinstall the OS, i am not sure what other option to suggestion (have you tried to update the BIOS firmware)?

Also, do you still have warranty remaining?

[NonYankee]

I recently updated my BIOS through Lenovo's Software Update. The problem seems unaffected by the update.

The problem hasn't always existed, yet I don't know what caused it. My X201 is still under warranty (with more than a year remaining), but it would be very inconvenient for me to send it in now, as I am working abroad for the next few months.

[NonYankee]

I just reinstalled Power Manager 6.30 and the problem is pretty much the same, with one difference. After one minute of inactivity, the screen still goes black (but with the backlight on), but now the on-screen brightness pop-up indicator doesn't appear. So this leads me to believe that one part of the problem, the improper screen dimming, has been resolved by the reinstallation. It's possible that improper dimming could occur sometime past the one minute mark, but any other time period would be completely arbitrary, so I doubt that.

The screen blackout remains a mystery.