[PLUG] xterm font losing pixels

[Keith Lofstrom]

> Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> >Sometimes one of the characters in my gnome-terminal instances
> >(I typically run about 20) loses a few black pixels - on every
> >instance of that character on every terminal instance.

On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 02:57:39PM -0700, Ken Stephens wrote:
> Wonder if you can test the video memory.  memtest86 tests the
> main memory.  Does it have a test for your video card memory? 

The Intel Express Integrated Graphics Controller (945GM?) uses
main memory for graphics.  Remember, this is the font table that
is getting messed up, and I presume it is either X or gnome-terminal
that manages that table and renders the display windows for that.
The 945GM does not have a font rendering engine.

When I switch virtual windows, X rerenders the window, presumably
with the help and saved state of each application.  Since I don't
see this behavior in Firefox or the other applications, and the
disk copy of the font table remains intact (it is there when I
restart X), I presume the corrupted table is in RAM and belongs
to gnome-terminal or X.

However, your suggestion does inspire a clue - since the busted
pixels are always stored in a table in RAM, perhaps something is 
interfering with the RAM refresh for that.  I will run memtest86+ 
with the "bit fade" option  - that takes 3 hours, I'll run it tonight.

If there is another program I should run that keeps the memory bus
too busy to run refreshes - is that possible? - I should try that.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com