Characters on screen randomly garbled [Intel GM45] <SOLVED>

Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
Ahem

Characters on screen randomly garbled [Intel GM45] <SOLVED>

Post by Ahem »

I see this constantly and it is driving me crazy. Note these two pictures to see the behavior.
http://imgur.com/I4fU5Cm
http://imgur.com/IZvxmTs

Characters have been randomly doing this on my machine for months. Any action on the screen seems to affect the rendering of all the other text on the screen, and characters all over the screen will randomly flicker in millisecond intervals before the whole behavior stops. A character or two will remain messed up as if whatever happened interfered with the rendering of the text. Any number of things can set the character back to the way it should be, from highlighting it, screenshot, scrolling the text offscreen and back on, etc. I have seen this behavior in both browsers, in window title text, and when switching from Cinnamon to XFCE. I have done reinstallation of some font stuff and the system is fully up to date. Still haven't figured it out. Any ideas?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
User avatar
xenopeek
Level 25
Level 25
Posts: 29564
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:58 am

Re: Characters on screen randomly become garbled

Post by xenopeek »

Sounds like problems with your graphics card driver. Can you open the terminal application and run this command? Share the output here to let us know what graphics card and driver you have.

Code: Select all

inxi -SGx
Image
Ahem

Re: Characters on screen randomly become garbled

Post by Ahem »

Thanks for the help, here's the output.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: heebs-VGN-NW270F Kernel: 3.11.0-12-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.1) 
           Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 16 Petra
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.14.5 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.2.1 Direct Rendering: Yes
wayne128

Re: Characters on screen randomly become garbled

Post by wayne128 »

Ahem wrote:Thanks for the help, here's the output.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: heebs-VGN-NW270F Kernel: 3.11.0-12-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.1) 
           Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 16 Petra
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.14.5 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.2.1 Direct Rendering: Yes

So you have intel integrated graphic.

and you have kernel 3.11 and Mint16

there is a bug, affecting myself and several others.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1261352
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... it=garbled

bug was raised some half a year ago, no one is assigned to resolve.

now that Mint 16 and going to end support soon,
it is up to you to try the SNA fix.

or switch to another version that had no issue on intel integrated graphic.
Ahem

Re: Characters on screen randomly become garbled [Intel GM45

Post by Ahem »

Thank you, I will try the fix listed there. Looks simple enough so that's nice.
By the way what do you mean by switch to another version? Do you think Mint 17 will still have this problem?
wayne128

Re: Characters on screen randomly become garbled [Intel GM45

Post by wayne128 »

Ahem wrote:Thank you, I will try the fix listed there. Looks simple enough so that's nice.
By the way what do you mean by switch to another version? Do you think Mint 17 will still have this problem?

I used LM17-mate-rc for a while.
So far no incidence of text crumbled / scrambled as in the old day with LM16.

Another version : old versions, but now the only one I would consider is LM13, being long term support till 2017.
Ahem

Re: Characters on screen randomly become garbled [Intel GM45

Post by Ahem »

Just wanted to say thank you, I tried it out and the listed fix worked great. :D
Locked

Return to “Graphics Cards & Monitors”