Comments on: Windows Vista’s Gamma Table Bug

By: Mahmoud Al-Qudsi

Mahmoud Al-Qudsi — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:05:38 +0000

Microsoft has published an advisory, along with what may be a fix:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951537/en-us

By: Anyone with actual experience; Spyder 3 & Vista 64 & UAC? - Vista Forums

Anyone with actual experience; Spyder 3 & Vista 64 & UAC? - Vista Forums — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:32:32 +0000

[...] ICC profile when the screen dims. It appear to me that here might be a gamma LUT issue with Vista. Windows Vista’s Gamma Table Bug — The NeoSmart Files If any of you use a custom ICC file for color correcting with the current setup, I would [...]

By: Vista - Leica User Forum

Vista - Leica User Forum — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:35:34 +0000

[...] von jrh68uk What exactly are you talking about here? Maybe this… Windows Vista’s Gamma Table Bug — The NeoSmart Files __________________ Steve Website - http://www.steveunsworth.co.uk Picture a week - [...]

By: EdwinM

EdwinM — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:43:57 +0000

This site is really helpful. recently suffered with same problem. I had been using Spyder2express on my hp dv6000 with intel(r) 945 chipset with Vista Home premium for almost 9 months and it was running beautifully. No change in color from hibernate or LUT.

About 2 months ago, i installed the optional updates which was the intel driver. upon installing, the problem described here started showing. I rolled back the driver from the previous and it worked beautifully…until now.

I had my laptop upgraded from 1bg memory to 2gb, the one who did the upgrade updated everything including the optional updates. Then turned off the laptop so i wasnt able to rollback the driver.

Been trying to find the best solution without re-formatting and this by far is the closest (using the displayprofile).

I believe the fault maybe on the graphic driver.

By: Julian

Julian — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:10:46 +0000

I got a question : I got only 1 Profile with gamma table tag in my list when i run display Profile and unfortunately it has the gamma settings “1″ inside obviously, because if i switch to it, gamma is set to 1.
Can i download somewhere any Monitor Profiles or a programm that creates usable Monitor Profiles?

Monitor type : iiyama E2200WS

By: Conrad Monroe

Conrad Monroe — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:52:49 +0000

When I frist began having problems, I shut off the UAC, and I dont have any Office products installed on my Vista 64 machine. I guess that is why that it appeared to be fixed.
My Vista 64 machine is used solely for photo & video editing, I use my older XP box for general office and internet use. Perhaps one day M$ will fix the rest of the issues. Until then I will stay with my current setup.

By: Mahmoud Al-Qudsi

Mahmoud Al-Qudsi — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:08:58 +0000

I wonder what update that was - the last WU totally ruined my computer and I must now format it… Keyboard no longer works from the bootloader selection screen onwards!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:02:19 +0000

Likewise on 32-bit Ultimate and Home Premium PCs, still whenever UAC, USB device insertion/removal, Office 2007 starting/Outlook 2007 downloading emails, etc…

By: Wibbly

Wibbly — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:41:03 +0000

Not completely fixed here 32bit Vista Ultimate, fully patched.

A UAC prompts still messes up the LUT

By: Conrad Monroe

Conrad Monroe — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:12:38 +0000

For what it maybe worth, after Windows Update ran this week (4/9/08) my problem with the color LUT being wiped out after sleep or locking windows has been resolved. I am running Vista 64.
Windows installed 9 updates on the 9th, however none of them listed this problem or that it had been fixed.
Anyway, I am glad that it is repaired. It was a major PITA!
Conrad.

By: Mahmoud Al-Qudsi

Mahmoud Al-Qudsi — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:46:07 +0000

Just a minor clarifaction: Linux *does* support color management.

By: Jeff Chapman

Jeff Chapman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:20:48 +0000

This gamma table bug was one of the major motivators for me to go Macintosh for my graphic design work. Trust me, I love Windows for what it does; but I need a reliable platform for color design work, and Vista isn’t it. Microsoft tried, really tried hard with their new color management system for Vista, but in the meantime, they left this gamma table problem with us. Many of us are experiencing it and have come here for answers. A few have not experienced it - it may be because of their graphic card drivers, or some other factor, perhaps.

As I wrote previously, I’ve had some success anyway with Pantone/Gretagmacbeth’s Huey monitor calibration tool - it fixes the damage done by the Vista gamma table bug within a matter of seconds after the problem surfaces. So if I insisted on using Vista for design work, I could probably do it if I kept Huey plugged in and the calibration automatically refreshed every few minutes or so. It’s nice in the meantime to hear that Microsoft admits that there is a problem. It would be nice to see a knowledgebase article or some other official news from them.

By: ms-windows

ms-windows — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:58:00 +0000

“Shortly after” SP1 means exactly whatever long it takes, I bet two years more. So don’t count on it, just don’t buy Vista and use XP if you must or Linux (which has no color management as well).

By: Kier Darby

Kier Darby — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:25:21 +0000

As I posted previously, I received a response from the Windows Experience Color Team saying the following:

It’s a known problem (and has been known for a long time) and it’s caused by the fade-to-black transitions that Vista uses during login, resume, UAC check etc. The black fade is achieved by manipulating the gamma tables, but after the fade is completed the system fails to restore the correct values.

There will not be a fix in Vista SP1, but the fix has been cleared for release as a Windows Update Hotfix shortly after SP1.

By: John

John — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:49:05 +0000

Nope, not fixed, even with SP1. This is Not Good.