Display Refresh Lags Leaving Screen Pixelated

Hi all,

Since about a month ago I’ve noticed my screen has a bit of lag when changing the display suddenly. When I move windows around, pop one on top of the other or scroll through a file too quickly this happens. Interestingly, playing videos does not prompt this pixelation. These pixels only last briefly but it’s mildly irritating. I’ve included a picture below of the screen when this happens.

Is anybody able to shed any light on this?

System details:

inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width
System:
  Kernel: 5.10.70-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64
  root=UUID=4727d3b5-3d75-4873-a543-c1d16f5710b3 rw quiet apparmor=1
  security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
  Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 15 7590 v: N/A serial: <filter>
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0VYV0G v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.7.0
  date: 05/11/2020
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 29.9 Wh (91.2%) condition: 32.8/56.0 Wh (58.5%)
  volts: 10.4 min: 11.4 model: BYD DELL CP6DF99 type: Li-poly serial: <filter>
  status: Discharging
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.41 GiB used: 5.33 GiB (71.9%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: 6-Core model: Intel Core i7-9750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP
  arch: Kaby Lake note: check family: 6 model-id: 9E (158) stepping: A (10)
  microcode: EA cache: L2: 12 MiB bogomips: 62431
  Speed: 3260 MHz min/max: 800/4500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3260 2: 2984
  3: 3135 4: 3054 5: 3055 6: 3203 7: 3043 8: 3208 9: 3236 10: 3212 11: 3257
  12: 2980
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon art
  avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush clflushopt 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 fxsr ht hwp hwp_act_window
  hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm
  mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat
  pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts
  rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1
  sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust
  tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt
  xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional,
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] vendor: Dell
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3e9b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q]
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nvidia v: 470.63.01
  alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f91
  class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  bus-ID: 1-12:4 chip-ID: 0c45:6723 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
  loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: nouveau alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa
  display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 506x285mm (19.9x11.2")
  s-diag: 581mm (22.9")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6")
  diag: 395mm (15.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.3
  direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
  v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci bus-ID: 00:1f.3
  chip-ID: 8086:a348 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.70-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.38 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 vendor: Rivet Networks Killer™
  driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 3b:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp59s0 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 AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-4:2
  chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 57.6 GiB (24.2%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: LITE-ON
  model: CL1-3D256-Q11 NVMe 256GB size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
  logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
  rev: 22301111 temp: 26.9 C scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 64 GiB size: 62.87 GiB (98.24%) used: 57.51 GiB (91.5%)
  fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 label: N/A
  uuid: 4727d3b5-3d75-4873-a543-c1d16f5710b3
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 680 MiB size: 676 MiB (99.41%)
  used: 91.7 MiB (13.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
  label: ESP uuid: DE0D-CC70
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 5 GiB used: 2.3 GiB (45.9%) priority: -2
  file: /swapfile
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 size: 128 MiB fs: <superuser required>
  label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 size: 155.08 GiB fs: bitlocker
  label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-3: /dev/nvme0n1p5 maj-min: 259:5 size: 990 MiB fs: ntfs label: WINRETOOLS
  uuid: 406AD2376AD22984
  ID-4: /dev/nvme0n1p6 maj-min: 259:6 size: 16.36 GiB fs: ntfs label: Image
  uuid: C6B2D273B2D26787
  ID-5: /dev/nvme0n1p7 maj-min: 259:7 size: 1.28 GiB fs: ntfs
  label: DELLSUPPORT uuid: A660AEC460AE9B17
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 16 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-4:2 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
  interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0029
  class-ID: e001
  Device-2: 1-7:3 info: Shenzhen Goodix Fingerprint Reader
  type: Abstract (modem),CDC-Data driver: N/A interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0
  speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 27c6:5395 class-ID: 0a00
  serial: <filter>
  Device-3: 1-12:4 info: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: Video
  driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA
  chip-ID: 0c45:6723 class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 10 rev: 3.1
  speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 60.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2403 fan-2: 2413
Info:
  Processes: 397 Uptime: 2h 52m wakeups: 5871 Init: systemd v: 249
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: 1533 pacman: 1507 lib: 372
  flatpak: 13 snap: 13 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 running-in: yakuake inxi: 3.3.08

One thing I notice is you could use a BIOS update (1.7.0 >> 1.13.0):
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=vkw3d&oscode=wt64a&productcode=xps-15-7590-laptop

that seems to have done it but I’ll give it a day before I confirm

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The problem has returned so it wasn’t the BIOS. It seems to be less frequent after a startup. Any other ideas?

Thanks