Cyan corruption on screen

[arezey]

I don't know how to call it anything else. I installed Mint about a week ago and began installing stuff, alright. While doing that, I figured I should upgrade the system through apt and did so, getting a kernel upgrade and whatever in doing so.

After a reboot, however, the screen got this phenomenon, basically some red to white colors began appearing cyan. At first, occasionally the colors flickered and even fixed itself for a bit but reverted into the broken state later. Even as I write this, this text box has a cyan background.

The problem seems to be hardware-related since the color fault is present both on both Mint as well as my Debian and Win7 installations. Any help with this?

EDIT: This is on a Toshiba Satellite C660D-128 laptop, 2 years old. Graphics card is VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series

[bigj231]

Possibly a dying GPU since it's OS independent. Could you post the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -G

[arezey]

Code: Select all

$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series]
           X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS880 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.0

[bigj231]

Have you tried installing FGLRX? Since you're on a laptop, if your GPU is dying you're SOL.

Is your laptop overheating? My 4870 did that when the heatsink got plugged up. Try blowing out the vent with some canned air or an air compressor. You could try getting lm-sensors and checking the temps. Generally, anything under 80C is fine. I fixed my laptop overheating by opening it up and replacing the thermal compound with Arctic Silver 5. Definitely not a project for the faint of heart.

I was about to ask how you were getting the corruption with the screenshot, but then I noticed the crud on the screen.

[arezey]

Have you tried installing FGLRX? Since you're on a laptop, if your GPU is dying you're SOL.

I guess I'll have to try that. And yes, I've heard horror stories of people trying to replace anything in a laptop.. gotta remember to get a desktop next time.

Is your laptop overheating? My 4870 did that when the heatsink got plugged up. Try blowing out the vent with some canned air or an air compressor. You could try getting lm-sensors and checking the temps. Generally, anything under 80C is fine. I fixed my laptop overheating by opening it up and replacing the thermal compound with Arctic Silver 5. Definitely not a project for the faint of heart.

I haven't had any heating problems since august, during the last few summers I've had problems with heat but considering this happened pretty suddenly I don't know if it's related. The color corruption happens all the time with no regard of temperature, even on a cold boot when the temperature seems to be 30 degrees.

I was about to ask how you were getting the corruption with the screenshot, but then I noticed the crud on the screen.

Yeah, it's taken with a digital camera. A screenshot obviously cannot show the fault...

[bigj231]

I have heard of people trying to reflow the solder on their boards using a kitchen oven. Nobody ever replied back on whether it worked or not. It did seem to work for some RRoD xbox owners though. That's obviously a last resort though. Look on hardware related forums for info on that.

I'd also recommend building your own desktop if you were getting a new desktop. It's so much cheaper when you look at a mid to upper end system. You also know exactly what's going in your system even if you go with low end stuff.