Screen has black squares intermittently - "BadWindow" messages

[oygle]

For the last few weeks the screen/monitor on this Dell laptop has been intermittently having these black squares. They appear for a second or two then disappear. I initiall y thought it was the laptop screen on its way out, but looked at the file .xsession-errors



qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 12983, resource id: 54536997, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0


Thousands of these messages, but I don't know how frequently that file is cleared ? Found a post at https://superuser.com/questions/1451901/how-to-suppress-qxcbconnection-xcb-error , but that is only how to suppress the messages.

Is this a bug ? Or how can I fix it please ?

[QIII]

Could you attach an image, please?

If you can't print screen at the time, snap a picture with a cell phone and paste it as an attachment.

[oygle]

Could you attach an image, please?

If you can't print screen at the time, snap a picture with a cell phone and paste it as an attachment.

To catch it will be very hard, as it goes within a second or two, disappears, then later it may appear again. It is very much like the picture at https://silicophilic.com/black-box-keeps-flashing/

It does seem to be more prevalent when there are quite a few Firefox windows/tabs open, and as I move from one to the other, the black boxes appear. Different sizes, different positions, so it may be resources ?? I did check the Nvidia driver, to make sure I was using the correct one, and it is.

Relating to that link, I did adjust the brightness a few weeks ago, as it was too dull. The contrasts is not great either, and I can get a deeper/better view when I hook up a large monitor. Although I haven't done that for quite a while.

Thanks for your help. :)

[Autodave]

I would hook up another monitor and see if it does it with that. You may also want to check your connections and try another cable.

[oygle]

I would hook up another monitor and see if it does it with that. You may also want to check your connections and try another cable.

Thanks for your reply. I did have another monitor hooked up, but of course it can only be hooked up as HDMI and it is a reflection/mirror of the laptop. So yes, it did happen on the external monitor, because the source was the laptop. The laptop screen/monitor is directly connected, internally, there are no external cables (other than when I hook up via HDMI)

[Autodave]

Can you give us make and model of the laptop please? Also, where did you get the nVidia driver from? What driver is installed?

[oygle]

Can you give us make and model of the laptop please? Also, where did you get the nVidia driver from? What driver is installed?

It's a Dell Inspiron 3542 - Specs are at https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-15-3542-laptop_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf


$ ubuntu-drivers devices


WARNING:root:_pkg_get_support nvidia-driver-390: package has invalid Support Legacyheader, cannot determine support level
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.4/0000:08:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001341sv00001028sd00000653bc03sc02 i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : GM108M [GeForce 840M]
driver : nvidia-driver-390 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-418-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-340 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-460 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-450-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470 - distro non-free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-460-server - distro non-free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

When I look in Synaptic, there is a nvidia-driver-460 , plus other nvidia-*****-460 packages installed. There is also a X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver installed, so I don't know if any conflicts ??

It's either the laptop screen on its way out, or resources. I say resources because although this is a quad code CPU and I think 8 Gb RAM, plus plenty of disk, it is VERY slow the last few months. Applications , try to open, the 'wheel' spins for up to 10 or 15 seconds, plus a number of apps just don't load. Have to keep trying until they do.

Oops, I just realised I should have 470 installed, as per the bash display

[oygle]

Have now installed nvidia-driver-470 and uninstalled nvidia-driver-460

[Autodave]

I hope that the 470 driver fixes it, but I doubt that it will. What happens if you boot the maching using a USB installation stick?

[oygle]

I hope that the 470 driver fixes it, but I doubt that it will. What happens if you boot the maching using a USB installation stick?

Yes, the 470 didn't fix it. What will booting from a usb stick prove or not prove, when the problem is intermittent, and there were hundreds of updates since the initial installation. It is only perhaps matching something now against something that was, so where will that lead to ?

I've just seen this post at https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2465060 , and looking through that forum and this one, many video problems. What's the solution ?

[Autodave]

Is this one of those with 2 video cards in it? I believe that it might be. Is it possible to disable either one of them in the BIOS? Has the BIOS been updated?

[oygle]

Is this one of those with 2 video cards in it? I believe that it might be. Is it possible to disable either one of them in the BIOS? Has the BIOS been updated?

From https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-15-3542-laptop_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf#Cedar_15_specs.indd%3AVideo_1 there is only one video card. The BIOS is updated. Thanks for your help though.

[him610]

What happens if you remove the nvidia drivers and just use the nouveau driver only?

[Autodave]

I may be wrong, but when I look at the specs from the link that the OP provided, I seem to think that there are 2 cards here: the on-board one and then the nVidia one.

[oygle]

What happens if you remove the nvidia drivers and just use the nouveau driver only?

Good idea. I'll have to backup everything first though. Nothing worse than no monitor when trying to troubleshoot.


I may be wrong, but when I look at the specs from the link that the OP provided, I seem to think that there are 2 cards here: the on-board one and then the nVidia one.

Dell have advised that the nVidia GPU is a chip , and the integrated GPU is part of the CPU. There are still thousands of these messages in .xsession-errors


qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 30742, resource id: 46247738, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0

Also, noticed this in the boot log


kernel: nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
kernel: nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
kernel: Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint

The following from
inxi -Fzx


Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
Device-2: NVIDIA GM108M [GeForce 840M] vendor: Dell driver: nvidia v: 470.57.02 bus ID: 08:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa
resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce 840M/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.57.02 direct render: Yes

[oygle]

I have made no changes to the drivers. On the 7th Sept I changed the Firefox settings as per How To Fix Firefox Black Screen Issue (https://techcult.com/how-to-fix-firefox-black-screen-issue/) , and there have been no problems since. So I will have to assume that fixed it, and will mark this as solved.

(The "BadWindow" messages still appear in .xsession-errors , however I think that is a QT bug)

[oygle]

Just an update - I have not had the black square issues since following the advice in regards to a Firefox configuration ( https://techcult.com/how-to-fix-firefox-black-screen-issue/ ). Currently have 35 tabs open and no black squares at all. So it is fixed/resolved.