Brief display/screen flickers

Michael Piziak · 05-13-2022, 06:55 PM

I know it can't be good.

Perhaps once a day, my laptops screen will briefly go off (black) and on in a split second. I know it can't be memory, as I have 12 gigs of ram - it occurred before and after memory was added (added today).

Any thoughts? I'm guessing the laptop has an integrated graphic card, built into the motherboard, that may be on it's way out... Perhaps there is a way to test the display (driver?)

mrmazda · 05-13-2022, 08:02 PM

Just how old is it? What does inxi -Ga report?

I've seen that behavior on occasion on old GPUs & IGPs. I've suspected something could be triggering functions shared by xrandr, as use of xrandr often triggers a display reset that blacks the screen momentarily.

frankbell · 05-13-2022, 08:47 PM

I agree with mrmazda that the age of the machine may be quite significant here.

You could try booting to a Live CD/USB of something not related to your current distro and seeing whether the issue recurs. If it does, that would indicate that there's a good chance that it's a hardware issue.

Michael Piziak · 05-13-2022, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

Just how old is it? What does inxi -Ga report?

I've seen that behavior on occasion on old GPUs & IGPs. I've suspected something could be triggering functions shared by xrandr, as use of xrandr often triggers a display reset that blacks the screen momentarily.

Please link me to how to insert terminal code into a thread someone

Here is the result:

Code:

michael@michael-HP-Pavilion-Notebook:~$ inxi -Ga
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
    v: kernel ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:1616 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP Truevision HD
    type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-3:3 chip-ID: 05c8:0379 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.3 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1
    compositor: gnome-shell v: 42.0 driver: gpu: i915 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Chi Mei Innolux built: 2012 res: 1600x900
    dpi: 104 gamma: 1.2 size: 382x215mm (15x8.5") diag: 448mm (17.6")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: 1600x900
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.1 direct render: Yes

mrmazda · 05-13-2022, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Piziak

Please link me to how to insert terminal code into a thread someone

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-output-38639/

Your hardware is next generation following that from which I type this, so not the kind of old I was writing about.

Do you have the same issue when using Xorg instead of Wayland, or using IceWM or some other DE instead of Gnome?

Michael Piziak · 05-13-2022, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-output-38639/

Your hardware is next generation following that from which I type this, so not the kind of old I was writing about.

Do you have the same issue when using Xorg instead of Wayland, or using IceWM or some other DE instead of Gnome?

Well, the only info. I can supply is that I recently upgraded to 22.04 lts from 20.x lts, and I didn't see the flickr previously.

And thanks for the info. on inserting tags for code. I amended my post (mostly to practice using it).

mrmazda · 05-13-2022, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Piziak

Well, the only info. I can supply is that I recently upgraded to 22.04 lts from 20.x lts, and I didn't see the flickr previously.

Gnome didn't default to Wayland in 20.04 like in 22.04. Wayland still isn't close to really ready to replace Xorg, and may never be. You should look for an existing bug report about this. Add to it if you find one. If you can't find one, create one.

TB0ne · 05-14-2022, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

Gnome didn't default to Wayland in 20.04 like in 22.04. Wayland still isn't close to really ready to replace Xorg, and may never be. You should look for an existing bug report about this. Add to it if you find one. If you can't find one, create one.

If it's the same system OP has been working on in previous threads (HP-EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF), there is a reported bug/issue with the BIOS on the HP support forums, specifically related to the graphics. OP was advised to update BIOS in previous threads (where they claimed they couldn't find it), but apparently they have not.

That could be ONE cause, and as you say mrmazda, Wayland could also be the culprit. Had the OP done any research or shown any effort, they could have found this already-registered bug report, complete with some suggested fixes and a workaround:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1970426

...just by putting "ubuntu 22 intel i915 flickering" into Google. OP seems to have trouble doing such research.

mrmazda · 05-14-2022, 02:51 PM

OP's is exactly the class of IGPs bug 1958191 is about. There's an upstream bug too. This may be an *buntu-only problem.

TB0ne · 05-14-2022, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

OP's is exactly the class of IGPs bug 1958191 is about. There's an upstream bug too. This may be an *buntu-only problem.

Absolutely, and probably is...seen things related to the older 5.4 kernel (I believe) where it worked, and the upgraded one has issues. All easily found.

Michael Piziak · 05-15-2022, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

OP's is exactly the class of IGPs bug 1958191 is about. There's an upstream bug too. This may be an *buntu-only problem.

Thanks for the research and supplied links.
Again, with my laptop, it only happens like one flicker a day, and again, I only noticed it after the clean install of 22.04 lts...

I'm actually kinda glad that it may not be my hardware...

Thanks again!

TB0ne · 05-15-2022, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Piziak

Thanks for the research and supplied links.
Again, with my laptop, it only happens like one flicker a day, and again, I only noticed it after the clean install of 22.04 lts...I'm actually kinda glad that it may not be my hardware...

Again, why do you expect people to do your research for you?? You provided no details about your system (we had to assume it from another of your threads where we had to ask multiple times), and somehow couldn't put that information into Google and press ENTER by yourself??

You, yourself, posted it was an Intel graphics using the i915 driver, you're using Ubuntu 22, and have screen flickering. Amazingly the search term was "ubuntu 22 intel i915 flickering".