Display problems on Dell Inspiron 4100

[Guest]

I put a fresh install of Kubuntu 9.10 on a Dell Inspiron 4100. The strange thing is that the login screen looks fine, with nice resolution. But once the desktop comes up, the task bar on the bottom turns into a very long, multicolored UPC symbol. Just the task bar. The desktop still works, sort of: the task windows are just coming up as unusable rectangles filled with tiny polka dots.

Here's the specs on my laptop: http://bit.ly/FaJdg. Video controller is listed as a ATI Mobility RADEON.

I assume its some kind of video problem, but I can't figure out why 95 percent of the screen looks fine. Any suggestions? Ideas?

[lmilano]

Re: Display problems on Dell Inspiron 4100

Hi,

I have a hunch desktop effects are on, and there is no chance they'll work with this card. Can you access the KMEnu to open System Settings, and disable the Desktop Effects? That may do!

[Guest]

Re: Display problems on Dell Inspiron 4100

I'm having the same KDE display issue on a Dell Latitude C510. Although the hardware is a bit old, 9.04 worked fine.

With the new install of 9.10, KDE launches fine, but the following areas of the screen are not displaying correctly (the bar coding appearance described previously):

What's not displaying properly:
-Top and Bottom desktop taskbars
-Application window frames (top control, bottom and thin side borders)

What is working:
-Desktop and widgets (I'm using the application launcher widget to overcome the inability to use the start menu). All applications launch and work fine, with the exception of the borders of each window)

Desktop Effects are not turned on.

Any ideas?

[lmilano]

Re: Display problems on Dell Inspiron 4100

hi

it may be a config issue. You may want to remove all the plasma config files (you may want to back them up first)

~/.kde/share/config/plasma*

HTH!