XPS13 Dell Intel HD 520 panel of screen lighter/flickering

[LinJen]

I just got Linux installed for the first time today so I'm not familiar on the technical jargon yet. I apologize if this sounds vague but I have an issue and haven't been able to search up a solution.

I recently purchased a Dell XPS13 9350. It's a 6th Generation Intel Core i5-6200U (3M Cache, up to 2.8 GHz) with 13.3” FHD AG (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display non-touch and Intel® HD Graphics 520. I proceeded to reinstall a clean version of Win10 (although that's just to use temporarily) and then installed Mint 17.3 as a dual-boot.

The screen is fine in Win10 but when running Mint, even when booting from the USB, about 1/4th of my screen is slightly brighter and flickering, although the flickering is barely noticable. It's pretty much a straight up and down panel (second from the left if you divide my screen into 4 sections). This is more obvious when whatever is on the screen is lighter.

I've updated/upgraded Linux and looked for proprietary drivers but there weren't any available. Now I'm not sure what I should do to fix it. My troubleshooting has historically been limited to various versions of Windows. I know Intel provides Linux drivers and has DMCs (not quite sure what they are) for Skylake but I dunno if they're the ones I should install or how to install them.

Can anyone provide some insight? Thanks.

[z31fanatic]

Many people have reported problems with Mint and the new Skylake processors with integrated graphics. Ubuntu 15.10 is said to work better. Use that until Mint 18 is out. By then it should have proper support for Skylake processors.

[LinJen]

I just tried Ubuntu 15 and the screen is fine so I guess it'll have to do until Mint Sarah. At least this will give me a chance to try something else first. Thanks for the quick response!

[horny_1311]

well, i also have this problem of flickering at random times on mint 17.3, especially when switching between windows using alt+tab
though my hardware is quite modest

System: Host: akhil-Studio-1537 Kernel: 3.19.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.6 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana) Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine: Mobo: Dell model: 0P173H v: A09 Bios: Dell v: A09 date: 05/27/2009
CPU: Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T7500 (-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 8777
clock speeds: max: 2201 MHz 1: 1600 MHz 2: 800 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.19.0-32-generic
Network: Card-1: Intel WiFi Link 5100 driver: iwlwifi v: in-tree: bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: Broadcom NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 v: 3.137 bus-ID: 08:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1250.3GB (40.9% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: FUJITSU_MHZ2250B size: 250.1GB temp: 42C
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: External_USB_3.0 size: 1000.2GB temp: 0C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 29G used: 16G (57%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
ID-2: swap-1 size: 5.15GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 61.0C mobo: 59.0C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 2833 fan-1: 2829
Info: Processes: 171 Uptime: 10:43 Memory: 1144.9/3885.9MB Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28

should i bear this problem for now??
linux mint 17 quaina worked perfect