Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
32 Posts
0
910413
XPS 13 2015 9343 (QHD) with Ubuntu 15.04: screen goes blank at random times
Very odd. It even happened once before I logged in, still in the session manager, when I was typing my password.
The screen goes off (completely black) but the system is still running (sound keeps on going, and I can pause/play a movie with the space bar, even if I can't see it).
Often just pressing power and making the computer suspend, and then pressing it again to wake up solves the problem.
The issue doesn't happen in Windows, so I don't think it's a hardware issue.
I saw some postings in askubuntu.com of people having similar issues, but none of the solutions worked for me.
Any ideas ?
cheers
Jan
ps.: This is a re-posting, since I haven't gotten any responses on the original post, and I thought it was time to try again.
dths
3 Posts
0
August 25th, 2015 08:00
Has anyone tried 4.2rc kernels? Worrying indeed that 4.1 and latest video-intel still doesn't resolve this.
* status summary:
Current config: A05, Kernel 4.1.6, video-intel from git
Current problems: random blank screen, misbehaving spacebar
bezerker
9 Posts
0
August 25th, 2015 09:00
I'll give 4.2-rc8 a shot. I know there was some issues still with a few things, but it'll be good to see if I notice the issue with screen blanking.
mr_ndrsn
4 Posts
0
August 25th, 2015 12:00
Good Luck and Godspeed, BEZERKER.
Seriously, tho, I hope it fixes the issue.
bezerker
9 Posts
0
August 25th, 2015 15:00
Running 4.2-rc8 and still have the bogus alignment dmesg messages, but I did my usual "Tricks" to cause screen blanking. So far so good. I will test tomorrow with a full day of working on it.
Too soon to tell if this helped or not.
edit: I have used 4.2.0-rc8 throughout the day and have no experienced any screen blanks... yet. I will continue to test. I still receive fifo underruns and i915 crashes however.
bezerker
9 Posts
0
August 27th, 2015 02:00
just had a screen blank.
4.2 does not resolve blanking.
jan.gorecki
11 Posts
0
September 2nd, 2015 16:00
I updated kernel today to:
3.19.0-28-generic
And now:
1. Current restart screen script `xset dpms force off ... on` doesn't work anymore
2. Issue is appearing about 400% more often
At the current moment I must reboot machine which means I'm losing all my open stuff.
If this will continue so I will be losing my work multiple times per day I think I will end up with returning the notebook to Dell as it is hard to work on it now.
Any new working workaround?
mr_ndrsn
4 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 06:00
After reaching out to Dell about this, and going thru some extensive troubleshooting, they replaced the motherboard in my XPS 13 DE. It did not fix the issue. The person helping me is very knowledgeable, but I fear we're out of luck until we see a fix upstream.
I've also verified the issue exists in multiple distros, it's not just ubuntu. FC 22 and 23a, debian 8, mint 17.2, elementary (unusable, ironically) all either have the blanking issue or, in the case of elementary, are completely unusable due to font corruption.
As things stand now, I don't think I'll be able to recommend this laptop for our use, which is a shame, because it's a really nice piece of kit! Maybe we'll have to look at the Zenbook.
mr_ndrsn
4 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 10:00
Do you mean have I compiled my own kernel and run it? No. If there's a PPA or process to do this that builds the kernel with the right modules, I'm up for giving it a shot!
DELL-Jared D
350 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 10:00
MR_NDRSN, have you tried using a 4.2 kernel (released August 30th)? TBH, I've never ever seen this issue, even with the 3.13, 3.16 and 3.19 kernels. Do you have a Launchpad bug report on this too?
DELL-Jared D
350 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 11:00
Also, if you haven't yet, please report the bug using ubuntu-bug on your system and let me know the bug number. I'll then try to make sure our contact within Canonical who's been helping us with XPS 13 related bugs is made aware of it.
jan.gorecki
11 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 11:00
could some Dell guy confirm they can make a LCD replacement to solve that issue?
If it only happens on linux then it definitely should be enough to handle on software level without LCD replacement.
DELL-Jared D
350 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 11:00
wiki.ubuntu.com/.../MainlineBuilds
janpf
32 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 11:00
That would be odd. This seems to be a very common issue.
And at least in my machine -- a dual boot on windows/linux, it has never ever happened in Windows. And it has always happened in Linux.
Actually I agree with another user that commented that it got worse on build 3.19.0.28 (?! I don't have the laptop here with me to check the exact). Definitely looks something software related to me.
Or maybe a combination of both ?
bezerker
9 Posts
0
September 11th, 2015 11:00
I firmly believe this is hardware related now. on #xps13 on freenode a user reported screen blanking is solved by having dell replace the LCD screen.
janpf
32 Posts
0
September 12th, 2015 06:00
Thanks for the link. If only it were that simple ... The wireless wouldn't work to begin with.
After a few hours researching I managed to get working.
For others trying, at least for Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid) after installing kernel 4.2.0-generic, you'll have to install the updated version of bcmwl-kernel-source from 15.10 (Wily) because it supports 4.2.0. Well almost as I found out, there is a bug related to using some GPL only library:
https://github.com/longsleep/bcmwl-ubuntu/issues/6
I followed the suggestion in the thread and fixed it by editing the file /usr/src/bcmwl-6.30.223.248+bdcom/patches/0001-MODULE_LICENSE.patch and changing the line with MODULE_LICENSE to MODULE_LICENSE("GPL")
I hope this helps others.
Others have already reported that kernel 4.2.0 doesn't solve the issue. Here though it's been a few hours already and I haven't had the blanking issues -- so at least it seems to be less frequent than before.