Black flashing on dell xps 13 (9315)

Hi all, I’ve just installed the I3 version of manjaro but I’m getting black flicking on the bottom half of my screen. It’s often triggered by playing a youtube video.

I found this forum post “Display black flashes” by Lorisp

and added the suggested kernal options in /etc/default/grub.

I think the issue is being triggered by a change in DPI in ~/.Xresources

it happens when I set Xft.dpi: 120 but not with Xft.dpi: 92. I definitely need to scale the screen somehow for legibility.

I’m getting a lot of errors from dmesg at the higher DPI

[  813.525713] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Fault errors on pipe A: 0x00000080
[  813.525741] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Fault errors on pipe A: 0x00000080
[  813.525754] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Fault errors on pipe A: 0x00000080
[  813.525766] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Fault errors on pipe A: 0x00000080
[  813.525776] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Fault errors on pipe A: 0x00000080

Here’s some system information

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.26-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1-x86_64
    root=UUID=b04c262e-394f-468c-88fd-b73f35e862e5 rw quiet
    cryptdevice=UUID=af9eb934-7965-4d9a-9935-6d9129b1442a:luks-af9eb934-7965-4d9a-9935-6d9129b1442a
    root=/dev/mapper/luks-af9eb934-7965-4d9a-9935-6d9129b1442a apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: i3 v: 4.22 info: i3bar vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 9315 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0GNN3X v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
    v: 1.10.0 date: 03/09/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 32.2 Wh (64.1%) condition: 50.2/50.2 Wh (100.0%)
    volts: 12.4 min: 11.6 model: BYD DELL G9FHC33 type: Li-poly serial: <filter>
    status: charging
Memory:
  System RAM: available: 15.26 GiB used: 2.34 GiB (15.3%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1250U bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
    arch: Alder Lake level: v3 note: check built: 2021+
    process: Intel 7 (10nm ESF) family: 6 model-id: 0x9A (154) stepping: 4
    microcode: 0x429
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 10 mt: 2 tpc: 2 st: 8 threads: 12 smt: enabled
    cache: L1: 928 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB, 2x48 KiB; i-2x32 KiB, 8x64 KiB
    L2: 6.5 MiB desc: 2x1.2 MiB, 2x2 MiB L3: 12 MiB desc: 1x12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1900 min/max: 400/4700:3500 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 1900 2: 1900 3: 1900 4: 1900 5: 1900 6: 1900
    7: 1900 8: 1900 9: 1900 10: 1900 11: 1900 12: 1900 bogomips: 45168
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_lbr arch_perfmon art avx avx2 avx_vnni bmi1 bmi2
    bts clflush clflushopt clwb cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8
    de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority
    flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr gfni hfi ht hwp hwp_act_window
    hwp_epp hwp_notify hwp_pkg_req ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ibt ida intel_pt
    invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe
    movdir64b movdiri msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx ospke pae pat pbe pcid
    pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pku pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdpid
    rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep serialize sha_ni smap smep smx
    split_lock_detect ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm
    tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer tsc_known_freq umip vaes
    vme vmx vnmi vpclmulqdq vpid waitpkg x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt
    xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB
    filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-UP4 GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: Dell
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.2 process: Intel 10nm built: 2021-22+
    ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, DP-5, HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:46aa class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 compositor: Picom v: git-b700a driver:
    X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1200 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x317mm (20.00x12.48")
    s-diag: 599mm (23.57")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Sharp 0x1548 built: 2021 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60
    dpi: 169 gamma: 1.2 size: 288x180mm (11.34x7.09") diag: 340mm (13.4")
    ratio: 16:10 modes: 1920x1200
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.0.3 renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:05.0
    chip-ID: 8086:465d class-ID: 0480
  Device-2: Intel vendor: Dell driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
    alternate: snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:51cc class-ID: 0401
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.26-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.70 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 0000:00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:51f0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-10:4 chip-ID: 8087:0033 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
  Device-1: luks-af9eb934-7965-4d9a-9935-6d9129b1442a maj-min: 254:0
    type: LUKS dm: dm-0 size: 476.64 GiB
  Components:
  p-1: nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 size: 476.64 GiB
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
    v: 0.6 port: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:467f rev: class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 14.26 GiB (3.0%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 model: 3460 NVMe Micron 512GB
    size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 2 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 34600022 temp: 44.9 C
    scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 476.64 GiB size: 468.09 GiB (98.21%) used: 14.26 GiB (3.0%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 maj-min: 254:0
    mapped: luks-af9eb934-7965-4d9a-9935-6d9129b1442a label: N/A
    uuid: b04c262e-394f-468c-88fd-b73f35e862e5
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 472 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: N/A
    uuid: 05C1-235F
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 512 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1
    speed: 20 Gb/s (2.33 GiB/s) lanes: 2 mode: 3.2 gen-2x2 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-3:2 info: Shenzhen Goodix USB2.0 MISC type: <vendor specific>
    driver: N/A interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 27c6:63ac class-ID: ef00 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 3-4:3 info: Intel USB Bridge type: <vendor specific> driver: N/A
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 8086:0b63 class-ID: 0000
  Device-3: 3-10:4 info: Intel type: bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 8087:0033 class-ID: e001
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
    speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 261 Uptime: 9m wakeups: 2257 Init: systemd v: 252
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.1 clang: 15.0.7
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1106 libs: 340 tools: pamac,yay Shell: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: kitty inxi: 3.3.27

I’d really appreciate any advice on curing the flashing/scaling issue as I’m a bit out of my depth with this sort of lower level linux config stuff.

I tried installing endeavoros out of curiosity and more things are working out of the box including the scaling/flashing issue so I think I’m going to migrate over to that. It’s a shame because I hoped to just copy my dots over from my previous manjaro i3 setup but a laptop without a working display is pretty useless.

Just replying in case this A. helps someone else and B. doesn’t waste someones time who might jump in and try to answer my questions.