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I just upgraded from 14.10 to 15.04 and one of the first things I noticed is that the monitor often behaves like it was changing the resolution (a click sound from inside the monitor, black screen, another click, screen is as it was before).

One cause for this I can reproduce is starting some specific programs (qTox, Unity system settings, PokerTH, run inxi from terminal), but it already happened on more occasions. Also happens at least five times while it initializes the desktop session (after login screen).

Relevant system specifications:

$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV535 [Radeon X1650 PRO]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1280x1024@85.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV530 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.5.2

on a Belinea 10 60 75 CRT-monitor.

When this happens, there are no messages appearing in the dmesg output.

Anybody knows what the reason could be and how to fix it?
Do you need more detailed information or command outputs?

Update:

Trying different resolutions I found out that the monitor's native resolution (1600x1200, 75Hz) does not change the problematic behavior at all, while switching to the lower 1024x786, 75Hz, the screen still goes black for a second in the same situations as before, but there are no two clicking sounds any more as if the resolution was going to change. Just a short time of black. However, I can not work with this resolution on that big screen...

Byte Commander
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  • How old is the video card pushing the display? – RobotHumans May 04 '15 at 21:13
  • I am not sure, it's a second hand computer. Less than 10 years, I assume. But I doubt it could be a physical defect, as it is not triggered randomly but whenever I launch some specific programs. And it did not happen on Win7 or on 14.10 before the upgrade. – Byte Commander May 05 '15 at 19:05
  • What graphic driver are you using ? Out of idea, you could try to switch driver from ATI proprietary to open source radeon, or vice-versa. – solsTiCe May 05 '15 at 23:54
  • @solsTiCe As you can see in the inxi -G-output in my question, I use the default open-source radeon driver, not the proprietary fglrx. And I was not able to switch, because it seems like the current version of fglrx does not support my card model any more. Or can you point me to a working installation guide for older cards? – Byte Commander May 06 '15 at 12:29
  • What happens if you boost the resolution to the native 1600 x 1200 at 75 Hz that your CRT supports? Are the results the same? – Elder Geek Jun 12 '15 at 14:30
  • Try if less resolution would help, normally most programs are Compiler due to resolution with 1024x768(798) Pixels ?! – dschinn1001 Jun 16 '15 at 14:44
  • @ElderGeek I tried your suggestion, but the flashing when I start some programs persists... Btw: How can I set the frequency? I can only chose from a small set of resolutions in the Control Center, but no option for the frequency. – Byte Commander Jun 17 '15 at 11:21
  • @dschinn1001 I also tried this, but I can't use this setting on that monitor. It looks just huge and pixelized, no space for nothing. However, the clicking sound stopped when I open one of those programs, but the screen still goes black for a second. It just does not try to change the resolution anymore. – Byte Commander Jun 17 '15 at 11:26
  • Regarding frequency (aka refresh) see: http://askubuntu.com/questions/147580/how-to-see-change-screen-refresh-rate-or-monitor-frequency – Elder Geek Jun 17 '15 at 22:11

1 Answers1

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I had a similar problem to yours and I solved by installing the AMD catalyst center.

I have a different graphics card, but it should work well since it is a Radeon series anyway.

I followed this help.ubuntu.com guide and solved that.

Quantopik
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  • First, this is not really an answer but more of a comment, as an answer should explain how to do this. Second, I already looked for proprietary drivers for this graphics card, but was not able to find any for 15.04 as the card is pretty outdated... I'm afraid your answer does not help much in my case, but thank you anyway for trying. – Byte Commander Jun 26 '15 at 07:13
  • I'm sorry @ByteCommander, but this is all I know and I tried to help you. The guide, anyway, explains fully what you should do. – Quantopik Jun 26 '15 at 08:45