[SOLVED] Nvidia Proprietary Drivers - Mint 18.3 KDE Glitching

[Ponder]

I have this problem that only started tonight. I've tried updating to the latest kernel (4.15.0-13-generic) and the latest proprietary Nvidia drivers (396) with an Nvidia GeForce GT 730 card but nothing solves the mad glitching that happens constantly. This also happens from the login screen so it's X11 related rather than KDE.
I've even tried recompiling the driver for the kernel using dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-396 but not even that has helped.
Any ideas anyone?

New member but not new to forums. Will set up profile properly soon, but would like to sort this out first

[JeremyB]

I would try the 4.13 or 4.4 kernels and see if they work as I doubt Ubuntu has patched the nvidia drivers in the 16.04/xenial repos that Linux Mint 18 uses for the 4.15 kernel yet

[Ponder]

It started while using kernel 4.13.0-38.

I'm currently leaning towards a hardware failure. I have an older GT 710 I can use while I get it replaced under warranty but I need to be absolutely sure first.

[trytip]

what does glitching mean? framerate skipping, vsync tear, flashing white or green?

[Ponder]

Random flashing triangles and black tears over text are the most annoying.

[Ponder]

Here are a couple of examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t3T44ewEBQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bB_-MKlCGM

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Eem4Xz7iwVuccpEn1

[Mattyboy]

Your first youtube link displays symptoms very reminiscent to issues I had a few years ago in Windose... might be nothing, might be something... disabling triple buffering fixed it. However I've just looked at nvidia settings on my Linux rig and can see no way of doing this so you may want to drill down to the config file.

[catweazel]

It started while using kernel 4.13.0-38.

I'm currently leaning towards a hardware failure. I have an older GT 710 I can use while I get it replaced under warranty but I need to be absolutely sure first.

So drop back to a previous kernel and see if the problem persists.

[trytip]

those glitches are precursor to video card going bad. best way to test it is run a live distro other than mint and check out a youtube
i had an instance where the bios was corrupted with strange characters and couldn't tell what i was reading, turned out to be the GPU. i could still use it watching videos but going into bios i could not make my way around as everything was alien writing flashing characters and missing characters

[Ponder]

Going to be trying a Live distro when I get time. This has happened at a bad time for me, not going to get a proper chance until Saturday. Might have to squeeze in some diagnostic time tomorrow.

[Ponder]

Live distro. Proprietary drivers selected and activated by restarting sddm. I think this reinforces the failed card
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qcRrAe0PJgMujzej1

[Ponder]

Found time, GT 710 installed, no glitches. It's not as smooth but it'll do for now.