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I have strange black dots/freckles when scrolling.

benjaminschaefer
benjaminschaefer

Dear all,

I'm on a brand-new laptop, Intel Core i7 4750HQ with Iris 5200 Graphics adapter. The OS is a fully patched Ubuntu 13.10. Unfortunately, Firefox (26) shows strange black freckles/dots when I scroll. However, the problem is not reliably reproducible, but shows up very often up to the point where browsing becomes impossible.

See here for a screenshot: https://schaefer.taurus.uberspace.de/oc6/public.php?service=files&t=adc71d256cf7bf64d8735e31053cacc3

The problem is not solved by turning of smooth scrolling and/or hardware acceleration. Also re-installing the graphics driver didn't work. What I didn't check yet, is if re-installing Firefox or using safe-mode will solve the problem (I doubt it, but hey, who knows?). I will also install Firefox27 as soon as it shows up in the repos.

Any help or pointers would by highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Dear all, I'm on a brand-new laptop, Intel Core i7 4750HQ with Iris 5200 Graphics adapter. The OS is a fully patched Ubuntu 13.10. Unfortunately, Firefox (26) shows strange black freckles/dots when I scroll. However, the problem is not reliably reproducible, but shows up very often up to the point where browsing becomes impossible. See here for a screenshot: https://schaefer.taurus.uberspace.de/oc6/public.php?service=files&t=adc71d256cf7bf64d8735e31053cacc3 The problem is not solved by turning of smooth scrolling and/or hardware acceleration. Also re-installing the graphics driver didn't work. What I didn't check yet, is if re-installing Firefox or using safe-mode will solve the problem (I doubt it, but hey, who knows?). I will also install Firefox27 as soon as it shows up in the repos. Any help or pointers would by highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Chosen solution

I'm giving up on this. It's not worth the time/effort/nerves. So far, only using the generic driver has stopped the problem, but this is no viable solution. I will wait until the problem solves itself - hopefully.

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (5)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator

This could also be a problem with the graphics display card.
Make sure that you aren't overclocking the GD card as that can cause the GPU to get overheated.

Can you try another driver for that GD card?

benjaminschaefer
benjaminschaefer Question owner

Thanks for your suggestions.

The graphics card is definitely not overclocked (First of all, I don't do things like these, second, its a brand-new laptop. I don't think they ship it with an overclocked GPU). Nonetheless, I will check it again.

Getting another driver is difficult. I will try a downgrade of the Intel driver and I will try the generic kernel driver.

I'll keep you appraised.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator

On Linux, hardware acceleration is hardly used, so this is more likely a problem with the graphics display card or the driver.

What make is your graphics display card?
Is it supported on Linux with drivers?

benjaminschaefer
benjaminschaefer Question owner

Thought so, but it's strange that this behaviour shows up only in Firefox.

Anyway. The graphics card is an Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 as part of the Core i7-4950HQ CPU. It's fully supported by Intel's own open-source driver (https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/2013/2013q3-intel-graphics-stack-release)

So far: Deinstalling the Intel driver and using the generic driver of the kernel 'solves' the problem - at the cost of losing quite a bit of performance and higher battery drain. Hence, prohibitive for a laptop. Will now try to install a previous version of the driver.

benjaminschaefer
benjaminschaefer Question owner

Chosen Solution

I'm giving up on this. It's not worth the time/effort/nerves. So far, only using the generic driver has stopped the problem, but this is no viable solution. I will wait until the problem solves itself - hopefully.

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.