Strange graphical glitches with onboard Radeon TrueHD [solved]

[patrokov]

The glitches are pastel renderings of certain photos and screen elements.  An example is found below.  Notice that the photo is affected as well as the three ForecastFox icons.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why it happens, but Facebook photos seem to be the most affected.  Also note that since the glitch comes through on the screenshot that it's not a cable or monitor issue.

http://www.patheyman.com/media/weird1.jpeg

I have a laptop that has had this problem intermittently, and my desktop started doing it after the last update (fglrx and new kernel).  Both computers have integrated TrueHD graphics chips (4200 I think).  I'm using the RadeonHD driver.  (The laptop seems to have not done this in a few months.)

Any ideas would be welcome.

[gseaman]

My brother just bought a computer with the ati 4200, and so did I. Mine installed and worked, his didn't. I've been following all of these discussions and helping him over the phone to try and figure it out. I know it worked for me, but the installation procedure must somehow be perfect or it fails. I don't have the answers but Tex posted this yesterday and today. (It's not the exact problem, but the config for these cards seems extremely fragile.)

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,89720.msg752366.html#msg752366

The fglrx drivers were backed down to 8.821 because the 8.831.2 is causing a lock up on some laptops. There are 3 parts to the fglrx driver. Make sure all 3 packages are removed before re-installation.

dkms-fglrx-8.821-2pclos2011.i586.rpm
fglrx-control-center-8.821-2pclos2011.i586.rpm
x11-driver-video-fglrx-8.821-2pclos2011.i586.rpm
---
Things to try.

1. Remove the 3 fglrx packages
2. Delete the /etc/ati folder
3. Re-install the 3 fglrx packages
4. Delete the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file
5. Run XFdrake --auto to generate a new xorg.conf file and properly link to correct GL
6. Reboot to kernel 2.6.33 or 2.6.38 kernel.

Galen

[patrokov]

Thanks for the suggestion.  It didn't work though, and the problems that are described in the thread are very different than this one.  This one has actually been occurring in one of my laptops for quite a while (although not recently).  My desktop seems to be getting worse if anything since reinstalling the drivers and rebooting.

[gseaman]

I should have made a better connection to your problem, so that you understood why I posted this reply. I started playing around with my video driver and xorg, because although everything worked glxgears reported extremely low speeds. In the effort to tweak videos settings I ended up with images like you showed. I got everything back in order by following Tex's instructions. These cards seem to have a mind of their own, and don't seem to respect PCC!

Galen

Also, I should report that after a little trial and error, glxgears went from about 150fps to 2500fps, like it should be.

[patrokov]

Several updates of fglrx later (each time using the technique  gseaman referenced) I am still having this issue.  So I decided to try a different driver.  In PCC, it says that I am using Radeon HD 4200 (radeon/fglrx) when I know that I used to use the radeonhd/fglrx.  I tried changing drivers and rebooting, but the problem persists and PCC still says that I am using radeon/fglrx.

[T6]

i don't know if you are using the free driver or you are using the proprietary driver

haven't tried to install amd driver in a very long time

could you test that?  someone with experience with this could help please?

[patrokov]

I finally fixed the problem.

1. I copied, the /etc/ati folder and xorg.conf, and XvMConfig (which is symlinked to /etc/alternatives/xvmconfig) from a laptop with TrueHD 4200 that was working fine.
2. Rebooted, the graphical glitches were still there, and the screen was now the resolution of the laptop.
3. Change the resolution back to the desktop's native resolution and kill the xserver.
4. When I logged back in, the glitches were magically gone.

No idea why the glitches were still there at 1366x768 but fixed at 1650x1080. (Maybe all I ever had to do was change resolutions and change back?) Still the most bizarre thing I've seen.