Distorted text in programs' captions and icons' titles!

[93willy]

I currently use GNOME 3 (gnome shell).
The issue came up during the upgrade to the new Ubuntu 12.04, and it is still there. I'll try to explain what happens.

Each time the "frames" that form the video stream are refreshed, some part of text become "distorted". Not all the text, just the programs' captions (i.e. Google Chrome's bookmarks and tabs' titles) while the webpages' text is perfect.

The distorted text becomes normal when I hover the mouse on it. It is a very annoying issue: if I switch the navigation tab on Chrome, then almost all bookmark captions become distorted!

Just after the tab switch:


After hovering on the text with the mouse:


The same thing happens with webpages' URL (in that case I have to click on the text, as hovering on it doesn't help).
I think it isn't a Chrome's issue, since (if I remember right) sometimes it happens also with desktop icons' captions!
I have tried to change some setting inside compiz, but nothing changes.

[2F4U]

I would suspect an issue with either the graphics driver or the graphics card. But without knowing more about the hardware or the driver in use it is a bit difficult.

Did you try to reproduce the problem with another browser? From your post I read that it only happens while playing a video in the browser. Is this correct or is it happening on other occasions?

[93willy]

From your post I read that it only happens while playing a video in the browser. Is this correct or is it happening on other occasions?

No, it happens always!
It is unlikely to be a video card problem, I mean: before upgrading to 12.04 there wasn't any issue.

I will try with Firefox, but I don't think chrome is the problem: it happens also with Desktop icons' titles.

EDIT: In the previous message I talked about "video stream" meaning everithing on the screen, not video (like youtube), I meant that after changing the navigation tab of Chrome all the pixels of the windows have to be refreshed. Sorry for the misunderstanding

[samolang]

I am experiencing the same issue. Any chance you found a solution to this?

[93willy]

Nope, the last time I used that PC the problem was still there.
Are you using GNOME Shell too? I'm not sure about this, but maybe changing back to Unity (or another DE) can fix the issue.
Anyway, I have to say that my video card is very old and I can't find updated drivers for it. Maybe that could be the problem.

[alexakarpov]

happens in terminal, too. And in any GUI, not just the browser. Eclipse becomes absolutely unusable... I've seen this problem reported a lot, but no solution so far.