Screen artifacts, how to check if it's a hardware or system issue?

ShortPants7 · 2025-01-10 18:36:27

Hello. I am running arch with Xorg on my laptop, and I am using the AMDGPU driver.

A few hours ago, my laptop's screen started getting some pretty bad screen artifacts (shadows around screen border, etc.). I tried the following:

- disabling/changing compositors (namely xfwm4)
- system updates
- downgrading the mesa package
- reverting all system packages to older versions

After doing all of these, the artifacts have been reduced so the screen looks more or less normal, but there are thin horizontal black lines across my screen. The best way to describe it is that it looks like one of those old arcade cabinet screens (sorry for this description, it's not very noticeable on camera).

I did some further testing and hooked up an external monitor to my laptop. Screen looks perfect there, no artifacts. I did one last check and booted into a linux mint live usb. Laptop screen still has artifacts, external monitor is fine. I'm thinking my laptop hardware is causing the issue instead of arch itself. But I still want to be completely sure before sending it to a repair store because, uh, my mom won't be happy about it. Any guidance on this would be appreciated.

System Details:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U
VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c2)

dmesg output: https://pastebin.com/SmGmrAw3
/var/log/Xorg.0.log: https://pastebin.com/AwRdUbZ6

twelveeighty · 2025-01-10 18:57:17

If by "a few hours ago" you mean you didn't change anything in terms of system updates, configuration, etc. and it started to happen by itself, then it's almost guaranteed to be a hardware issue, which lines up with you booting into a Mint live CD showing the same problem.

ShortPants7 · 2025-01-10 19:00:56

twelveeighty wrote:

If by "a few hours ago" you mean you didn't change anything in terms of system updates, configuration, etc. and it started to happen by itself, then it's almost guaranteed to be a hardware issue, which lines up with you booting into a Mint live CD showing the same problem.

Yes, I did not change anything like that.. that is unfortunate

seth · 2025-01-10 23:55:53

The best way to describe it is that it looks like one of those old arcade cabinet screens

Hey! You're old!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scan_line ?
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=301280 tl;dr, add "amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10" to the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters - does it help?
Or are you no longer on a 6.12 kernel?

ShortPants7 · 2025-01-11 04:45:23

seth wrote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scan_line ?

Oh yes, it looks like that exactly!

I am still on a 6.12 kernel. I tried adding "amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10" to kernel parameters with grub-mkconfig, and I've also tried "amdgpu.sg_display=0" since I saw it from another forum post. Still getting scan lines and even a white 'fog' now (since my last use ~9hrs ago, this did not happen after changing kernel parameters).

seth wrote:

Hey! You're old!

Nuh uh!

seth · 2025-01-11 20:16:12

Is this on X11 or wayland or both?
What's the output of "xrandr --verbose" on X11?
(An interlaced mode or variable refresh rate are currently my only ideas to get you out of the "panel is broken" zone )

Nuh uh!

Well, you know what CRTs looked like… maybe even phosphor screens (what would make you *really* old - or educated)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-01-10 18:36:27

Screen artifacts, how to check if it's a hardware or system issue?

#2 2025-01-10 18:57:17

Re: Screen artifacts, how to check if it's a hardware or system issue?

#3 2025-01-10 19:00:56

Re: Screen artifacts, how to check if it's a hardware or system issue?

#4 2025-01-10 23:55:53

Re: Screen artifacts, how to check if it's a hardware or system issue?

#5 2025-01-11 04:45:23

Re: Screen artifacts, how to check if it's a hardware or system issue?

#6 2025-01-11 20:16:12

Re: Screen artifacts, how to check if it's a hardware or system issue?

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