Staticy flashing on Lenovo laptop screeen, could this be a software/driver issue?

Support & Help Requests
#1

Six-seven months ago, my family bought three identical Lenovo Thinkpad 11e laptops. For some time now I’ve noticed little, short flashing white horizontal lines, particularly on dark gray backgrounds. UM has many dark gray backgrounds. :smiley:

I suspect its a hardware issue with my screen, and I’m going to call Lenovo to see what they say (it should be under warranty). But I’ve wondered if it might be a software issue of some kind? I noticed similar behavior when I was at Fedora 25, but mainly in embedded videos. At first I thought it might be a software issue because it happened mainly in videos, but now it happens on anything with a dark gray or blackish background.

I have gone into the BIOS to see if the issue reproduces there. Unfortunately, the background in the BIOS is light gray, which doesn’t really show up the flashes. But I didn’t notice any. Now I’m going to try some live USBs with UM 17.04 and a few other distros to see if it reproduces in there.

OFC it’s almost impossible to diagnose computer issues remotely, but do you think it is more likely to be software related or a hardware issue? If you have experienced similar issues, what resolved it for you?

#2

I’ve seen this kind of thing on an old external screen.
I’ve since retired the screen since there was nothing to be done.
Weird that it would happen on a Seven-month old laptop.
It would be helpful to know if the same thing happens on more than one laptop since you bought three.

#3

Yeah, it definitely is weird for it to happen so soon… and it has been doing this for several months now.

I will take a look at my Ma’s and Dad’s machines later, and report back. I borrowed Dad’s extensively a while back, when he was still running Fedora, 'cause I had to send my first one back with a fan issue (shippers sent it without bubble wrap and shook something loose). I didn’t notice anything, even in long fullscreen terminal sessions in Gnome terminal, which is the same color as Mate’s. This is one of the reasons I suspect it’s an issue from the factory.

I should have done something about this earlier, but I was trying to ignore it, having already had to send one back. Ah well.

#4

When you get access to it make sure to bring both machines to the same update level, then compare their kernel versions:

apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel linux-generic

#5

I’ll do that! I betting its hardware, though, 'cause I just tried a live CD of UM 17.04 LTS and sat around playing with menus and terminals (where the flashing is usually most noticeable). It looked like it wasn’t flickering for the first few minutes, but then it started up again and was rather noticeable. If it was software, I’d guess a different version would probably fix the issue.

We’ll see what happens when I check on my mother’s 11e. If hers doesn’t flicker and mine does, I’ll be certain its hardware. Then I’ll call Lenovo customer service.

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#6

I used Mom’s 11e for a few hours today, saw no static-like flashes anywhere. I payed special attention to the terminals and menus where it is usually visible. Ran the command you suggested, too, ouroumov.

This is the result of the command on my machine:

me@mylinux:~$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel linux-generic
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1.2
  Candidate: 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1.2
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1.2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
linux-generic:
  Installed: 4.4.0.93.98
  Candidate: 4.4.0.93.98
  Version table:
 *** 4.4.0.93.98 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     4.4.0.21.22 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

And the results of running the command on Mom’s machine:

mom@herlinux:~$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel linux-generic
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1.2
  Candidate: 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1.2
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1.2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
linux-generic:
  Installed: 4.4.0.93.98
  Candidate: 4.4.0.93.98
  Version table:
 *** 4.4.0.93.98 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     4.4.0.21.22 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

Kernel version and xorg appear to be identical on both machines, leaving hardware as the likely culprit.

I also tried running a live USB of Fedora Mate 26. Almost went snowblind before I changed the theme and background (light theme on white-and-blue background, egad). :smiley: Didn’t see any staticy flashing, but it can take a while for it to show up (it showed up after several minutes running UM 17.04 off a live USB), so I’m still sure it is hardware related. Also, Fedora doesn’t go in for as many dark colors as UM, so it is harder to see, though the dark theme should show it up. Booted back into my installation of UM and noticed static right away. Most odd.

I will say that Fedora Mate could be quite nice after some customization, but UM is just the best out-of-the-box, especially for new users! We’ve got the right balance between pre-setting features and leaving room for customization, IMO.

I’m pretty sure this is hardware related and NOT a Linux issue at this point, since an identical machine running the same OS version is trouble-free. I’ll contact Lenovo tomorrow. According to their website I’m already out of warranty, even though I’ve only had it seven months or so and they promise a year. Apparently they count the half a year it spent in a warehouse. :confused: Absurd, in my opinion, but I’ll see what they say.

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