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The computer in question is one that I've set up for my mother-in-law, but I can remotely access it anytime via TeamViewer. She is only using it for browsing web via Chrome, and so far it's worked great, but lately she's complained that some websites are displaying visual artifacts. More details:

  • It runs Linux Mint, latest version with automatic updates.
  • It's an older machine - Phenom II X2 550 CPU, 6GB of RAM, Radeon 6450 GPU (passively cooled), Samsung 860 Evo SSD. Still powerful enough for web browsing.
  • The glitches usually are either black blocks or gray/blank areas. Kind of reminds me of GPU memory corruption, however the symptoms don't quite match.
  • They are reliably reproducible in the same webpages in the same places. Other webpages don't have them.
  • It's not a monitor glitch - I can see them over through TeamViewer.
  • Rebooting does not help.
  • Enabling experimental Vulcan support in Chrome has helped a lot, but some places still have them.
  • Running a few online 3D WebGL benchmarks don't exhibit any corruption
  • Firefox seems to run fine, but she's used to Chrome, so I'd rather not change that.
  • The glitches don't seem to line up with any HTML elements
  • The glitches scroll with the webpage
  • The desktop environment itself as well as other apps (that I tried at least) don't exhibit any corruption, HOWEVER:
  • When I tried viewing her computer over TeamViewer today, I noticed that my connection seems to freeze at times. At one point I even had to reconnect. I wanted to chalk that down to flaky internet (although we both have broadband cable), but then she told me that the freezes were happening on her side as well - so it wasn't the internet that was freezing, but rather her whole PC. I tried looking for evidence in logfiles, but all I could find was a hang and a core dump of systemd-udevd which might have lined up with the biggest freeze. Not much else to go on, but I also don't know where to look.
  • She also complained that lately some of the little arcade games that she likes to play on the web (solitaire, mahjong, breakout-clones, etc) have become much slower - albeit no glitches.

I can't make up my mind if this feels more like a software bug or a hardware bug. Hardware bugs are usually more all-encompassing than just a single app in specific places. But visually it resembles hardware bugs and systemd-udevd is related to hardware...

Any ideas what could be the problem, or where I should look for more evidence?

Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots, but here's an interesting cellphone photo she sent me. Note in particular the cloud icons that overlap the glitches. I later connected to her computer (after it had been rebooted) and reproduced this view EXACTLY (which is another strike against hardware bugs - they're usually more random). This particular glitch went away after enabling the Vulcan support, but later she discovered other webpages that still have these glitches.

enter image description here

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  • Have you tried chromium instead of chrome? If, which is very unlikely, chromium works fine, it should be a painless switch for her as it looks and behaves pretty much exactly like chrome. Commented Jul 24 at 13:08
  • @terdon - I'll try this the next time I connect to her computer. It might also already be Chromium - TBH I don't remember which one I installed there. 😅 Commented Jul 24 at 13:10
  • Wondering if this persists after turning off hardware acceleration. Commented Jul 24 at 13:34
  • @wobtax - Huh. Now that you mention it, it's obvious, but I didn't think to test that. Will try that too the next time. Note that since switching over to Vulcan helped, I expect that this will also affect it. However I'd rather not keep it turned off, because I expect it to have a rather noticeable performance effect. Commented Jul 24 at 14:18

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Having just retired my last Phenom II x6 1090T machine (replaced it with the Threadripper 1950x CPU & MB & RAM from my workstation when I upgraded that to a 9950X3D), I was well aware that I had been running it 24/7 for ~15 years and that I was lucky it had lasted so long. It was still in good working order, but it was built with what was, at the time, a fairly high-end Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard.

I still have an FX-8150 on another one of the same motherboards, but I don't expect that to last much longer, maybe another year or two...when it dies, I probably won't even replace it - I have backups and it's not doing anything all that important to me that I can't do with a VM, or maybe an rPI or similar.

Nothing lasts forever.

Anyway, an equally old machine built with low to mid-range hardware might not have the same longevity. If it was just "chrome" , I'd suspect the software, but it's happening with games too and the whole system is hanging. Sounds like a hardware fault to me, might be the GPU, might be the RAM. Maybe some other part. Maybe multiple parts are failing, the machine is OLD.

BTW, when you say "chrome", do you mean "Google Chrome" or "Chromium, the open source version of Chrome commonly packaged by Linux distros"?

Maybe try re-seating or replacing the RAM. And, while you're at it, give the machine a thorough clean, remove all the dust - you can get car-cleaning kits with small brushes and nozzles suitable for cleaning PCs for under $30, they attach to a normal vacuum cleaner hose. An artist's paint-brush is also useful. NOTE: don't let the vacuum spin any fans, at least not while they're plugged in to the PSU or the motherboard. Depending on the dust levels and whether there are cats or dogs around or smokers in the house, this should be done at least every year or two. Intake fans suck in dust and fur. Even if they have dust filters, the filters get clogged and need to be cleaned.

Another thing to look at is the power supply. If it's ancient too, it may not be providing properly regulated voltages any more. In that case, unless you're handy with a soldering iron and good at fixing power-supplies, just replace it.

Also, you should remove the CPU cooler, clean the old thermal paste with isopropyl alcohol, and then re-paste it with fresh thermal paste. It's a good idea to do that every 3 or 4 years anyway...if not more often.

You should do that for the GPU too, but depending on the brand and model that will probably be more of hassle to do than for the CPU...but you said that it's a passively cooled model, so it's probably not that hard. I'd bet that it's never been done on that GPU and it's probably at least 12 or 13 years old, as the Radeon 6450 was released in 2011. Re-pasting is well overdue.

(BTW, speaking of re-pasting CPUs and GPUs: as well as losing its ability to transfer heat effectively, it's possible for really ancient thermal paste to turn to something like cement, making it impossible to remove the cooler from the chip. I've got one of those, a Phenom II x4 995 CPU stuck to a cooler, never did manage to break it free)

You're looking at maybe a day of work pulling the machine apart, cleaning everything, re-pasting the CPU & GPU, re-seating all the RAM, etc.

If all that fails, it's probably time to recognise that the system needs to be replaced. Maybe look for a second-hand AM4 Ryzen motherboard and CPU (e.g. a 3600 or 5600). You can find complete systems (CPU, GPU, RAM, case, power supply, etc) for reasonable prices (and some very unreasonable prices from sellers who don't understand that computer gear depreciates in value even faster than milk left out on a hot day).

Or maybe get her a new low-end AM5 Ryzen 7600 CPU & MB.

Note that AM4 uses DDR4 RAM, and AM5 uses DDR5. You will not be able to re-use the DDR3 RAM from the old Phenom 550 system.

And pretty much any GPU made in the last 5 or 8 years or so will be more than enough to replace a Radeon 6450 from 2011, even the really crappy do-not-buy-this-ripoff-junk like an Nvidia 1050 or 3050 or Radeon 5500 or 6500 - compared to something that old, they're amazingly good (but on the second-hand market, they're not much cheaper than the better models of their era).

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  • BTW, install pysolfc and show it to her. It has dozens of solitaire and mahjongg variants with multiple card and tile sets, and is probably packaged for Mint (I know it is for Debian). And if you look at some of the godot demos and tutorial projects you'll find an enormous number of clones of Breakout, Space Invaders, Pac Man, and lots of other ancient arcade games. Commented Jul 24 at 16:10
  • Her games are on the web too. I do mean that she literally just uses Chrome (or Chromium? I'll have to get back to you on that one) on that machine and nothing else. As for the rest - umm, thanks, but I kinda know all that already. I just want to make sure that it really is old hardware that is dying, and not some software glitch. That said, I also don't want to spend a lot of money on it, so if I can isolate the failing component and replace just that, that'd be great too. Commented Jul 24 at 21:24
  • yeah, that's why i mentioned that there are non-web versions of the kinds of games she likes, all probably better than the web games and not requiring internet to run and certainly not spyware. As for failing components, GPU, RAM, and power-supply are the most-likely culprits so check those first. At least the GPU is PCI-e rather than PCI, so it'll be possible to replace with something new-ish rather than equally old if it's the problem. Commented Jul 25 at 1:42

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