Citation
BibTEX
@misc { npapadopoulos_intel's_panel_self_refresh_(psr)_feature,
author = "Nikolaos Papadopoulos",
title = "Intel's Panel Self Refresh (PSR) Feature",
howpublished = "\url{https://www.4rknova.com/blog/2022/09/01/intel-panel-self-refresh}",
month = "09",
year = "2022",
}
IEEE
[1] N. Papadopoulos, "Intel's Panel Self Refresh (PSR) Feature",
https://www.4rknova.com, 2022. [Online].
Available: \url{https://www.4rknova.com/blog/2022/09/01/intel-panel-self-refresh}.
[Accessed: 01-03-2025].
I was browsing ebay the other day, looking around for used Lenovo Thinkpads, and came across a x270 which was listed at a very low price. It came without a hard drive and had a few issues, including a cracked top lid. Overall, it looked like it required a fair amount of work to get to a good state. I did some research and was able to find all the parts I needed at a low cost so I decided that I could make a fun project out of restoring it.
I’ve spend a few days working on it and I am very happy with the result. I am actually using it right now to write this blog post.
Replacing the top lid was a fairly invasive process. I couldn’t find any reference material online so I had to take it all apart and figure things out along the way. After putting everything back together, I pressed the power button and was happy to see the boot screen.
I then spent a few hours installing Linux and Windows on it and running a few tests to verify that all the hardware was operational.
Everything was looking good, until I noticed a subtle flickering of the screen backlight. I double checked and this was happening on both Linux and Windows so my first guess was that the screen was damaged while I was working on the lid. However, after some research online I discovered that this was not the case.
As it turns out, Intel iGPUs have a power saving feature[1] called Panel Self Refresh (PSR) which is known to cause flickering in some instances.
The fix was to simply turn that feature off. Note that this will result in higher power consumption.
Linux
In Linux, use the kernel parameter:
i915.enable_psr=0.
There are many ways to achieve that but the simplest one would be to use a GUI tool such as “Grub Customizer”.
Windows
Under Windows, use the “Intel Graphics Command Center” tool to disable the feature.
