Screen blanks on mouse movement

[Mike H]

I was using 8.04 Hardy LTS until a week or so ago. It was pretty-much rock solid.

I've done a clean install of 10.04 while retaining my original /home partition. Initial impressions are that the systems is a lot slower than it was under Hardy. I've turned off KDE's desktop effects and stopped strigi, but it hasn't made a substantial improvement....

However, my main concern at the moment is a random problem where the system works fine for a while, but then starts blanking the screen. The screen blanking is related to mouse movement... In other words if I don't move the mouse the screen is fine, but if I move the mouse (and it seems to require movement over a desktop file icon or a panel) the screen blanks until a second or so after the mouse is stationary.

Rebooting fixes it and the system will then work normally again - usually for at least several hours - before the problem arises again.

Any ideas?

Mike

[Mike H]

Re: Screen blanks on mouse movement

No ideas about this? Nobody else seen it?

I've narrowed it down a bit more since my original post... I've found that if I change the screen resolution and then immediately put it back again to the original setting it temporarily cures the problem in the same way that a reboot does,

I assume it's something like the video output going outside the resolution and refresh rate combinations that my monitor supports. Initially I thought this might mean a problem with xorg.conf, but I've since discovered that 10.04 doesn't have to have an xorg.conf at all.

So I'm now thinking that the problem arises somewhere in the software that performs what used to be dictated by xorg.conf - but this is way outside the limits of my knowledge.

Has anyone got any suggestions? Sure, I can quickly change the video resolution and then put it back to the original setting and the problem will disappear for a few more hours - but I'd prefer to get to the bottom of the problem and cure it properly.

Mike

[Snowhog]

Re: Screen blanks on mouse movement

It's likely that some setting/configuration in your /home directory is causing the problem. Assuming it's within the hidden .kde folder, you can reboot, and when at the KDM Login screen, press Ctrl+Alt+F1, login to the console, and then rename ~/.kde to ~/.kde_OLD and then reboot and log in. You will of course, not have any customizations you may already have made, as the .kde folder will be recreated 'fresh.' If this fixes the problem, then you know it was a conflicting 'something' in your original /home folder. If it doesn't fix it, you can delete the new .kde and rename the .kde_OLD back to .kde and you've lost nothing.

[eddieg780]

Re: Screen blanks on mouse movement

This sounds like exactly what I experience. I did really put it together using the mouse but it's true. If I change my refresh rate it stops to for a while and starts again. It's been doing this since kde 4 and never did it in kde3. I have a nvidia video card, how about you mike?

I just previously posted about this here... http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3111844.0

[Mike H]

Re: Screen blanks on mouse movement

This sounds like exactly what I experience. I did really put it together using the mouse but it's true. If I change my refresh rate it stops to for a while and starts again. It's been doing this since kde 4 and never did it in kde3. I have a nvidia video card, how about you mike?

I just previously posted about this here... http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3111844.0

My video card is an ATI Radeon 9550. I was using Kubuntu 8.04 on the same hardware and hadn't seen this problem until I did a clean install of Lucid a few days ago. Thanks for the link to your thread - I'll try a few of the things that have been suggested.

[eddieg780]

Re: Screen blanks on mouse movement

So we can rule out it's a manufacturer problem since we have different video cards. I can't seem to lock my refresh settings. I put it on auto and the flashing stops then a little while goes by and it starts flashing, I check my refresh and it's at 50 then check it again after it flashes and it's 51. Something is not holding my settings.