Small black squares all over screen

highstream · Jul 1, 2025

They were only showing up in browsers, but then I was trying to reconnect to OneDrive and they showed up in the MS pop up.

Running a video will be easy. I just got home with the adapter, so I'm going to give Safe Boot a try.

highstream · Jul 1, 2025

As far as I can so far, it's not happening in Safe Mode with Networking.

I'll play a video.

highstream · Jul 1, 2025

Video ok (15 minutes) and Safe Mode ok (tried twice). When I go back to regular mode, it's ok until I refresh the screen. What next?

garlin · Jul 1, 2025

Still could bad GPU if running in accelerated mode. When you open the browsers, go into settings and see if HW acceleration is enabled or not. Turn it off and see if the problem disappears.

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

garlin said:
Still could bad GPU if running in accelerated mode. When you open the browsers, go into settings and see if HW acceleration is enabled or not. Turn it off and see if the problem disappears.

I took each of the browsers -- Opera, Edge, FF, Chrome -- out of all accelerated modes that I could find. The results...
- Opera: no dots except a few fleetingly with quick mouse movements (I'm using a mouse)
- Edge: lots of flickering dots (the worst of the four) -- Black Dots - MS Edge jitter.MOV
- Chrome: dots come up with mouse movement then just stay in place until moved again
- FF: come up with some mouse movement, such as taking cursor under Forums banner on this site

Ok, so what to make of this? Anything else? The seller says there've been no problems he's heard of with several of this model he's recently sold, and I have no reason not to believe him (he has a Yoga 7i, Intel version). However, I'm not sure if he's referring to Yoga 6 or this specific model (Lenovo Yoga 6 13ABR8 Ryzen 7 7730U) . He's offered a return label, so no problem there. I really could use a good, light laptop for my surgery trip -- this one's 3.07 lbs), but wouldn't otherwise use it enough to justify spending big bucks (have a Win 10 PC and iPad Mini). Thoughts?

garlin · Jul 2, 2025

Just might have a bad GPU or memory.

You can try running a graphics test like in this YouTube video:

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

The stress test seems ok. No artifacts. The temperature went from the mid 70s to the upper 80s, but I don't know if that's unusual for a laptop.

garlin · Jul 2, 2025

I'm stumped. If video playback and a GPU test doesn't make the blocks appear, then I have no more ideas other than running a quick repair.

Code:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

A Guy · Jul 2, 2025

Something I've seen, seems to affect Chromium based browsers though I see you mentioned Firefox

In a Chrome browser type or paste

chrome://flags

Search for Angle and change from Default to OpenGL (This happens to be Vivaldi)

If no help, just change back to Default

Good luck

A Guy

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

garlin said:
I'm stumped. If video playback and a GPU test doesn't make the blocks appear, then I have no more ideas other than running a quick repair.

Code:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth sfc /scannow

I should probe for your stump point earlier

. This command sequence seems to have solved it with all four browsers. I'll have to check again tomorrow. But if this holds...

Followup: I just saw one block during the install of PowerToys.

gunrunnerjohn · Jul 2, 2025

I'd send it back! You've spent more time that is warranted on a new laptop trying to sort this out.

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
I'd send it back! You've spent more time that is warranted on a new laptop trying to sort this out.

How does that help me?

gunrunnerjohn · Jul 2, 2025

highstream said:
How does that help me?

Not at all, I suggest you keep it and live with the squares!

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
Not at all, I suggest you keep it and live with the squares!

What squares? Try reading before posting. I haven't seen one this morning in an hour and a half.

cheaterslick · Jul 2, 2025

highstream said:
What squares? Try reading before posting. I haven't seen one this morning in an hour and a half.

So the issue is solved?

Reboot the machine and check again to make sure...

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

cheaterslick said:
So the issue is solved?

Reboot the machine and check again to make sure...

How many more times?

cheaterslick · Jul 2, 2025

highstream said:
How many more times?

Try one more time to make sure the issue has gone away. And you can always re-open this topic if it hasn't.

Otherwise you may have to do a return and see if you can exchange it for a similar model.

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

Will you stop already! You can be sure that if they return, I'll pick up this thread. I've got 30 days, now 28 to return the laptop.

garlin · Jul 2, 2025

If the seller's aware is that you've reported a possible problem and has offered to take it back, I don't see why both parties wouldn't object to testing the PC for a few days to confirm everyone is happy.

For the reseller's benefit, just put the PC through its paces instead of waiting for later.

highstream · Jul 2, 2025

Testing? We’ve done stress tests and I’ll be continuing to use it. Other? I’ll be counting up the hours spent on this and letting the seller know in no uncertain terms, including his incomplete refurb process; the black dots were immediately obvious upon opening Edge.

It seems the hardest problem will getting OneDrive off the laptop. It doesn’t

Small black squares all over screen

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