The following issue is completely independent from
1.) window manager (tried kwin, compiz etc.)
2.) xorg/mesa etc. version
3.) linux distribution independent (tried ubuntu, opensuse and others)
4.) linux kernel independent (tried 3.0 - 3.10rc6)
5.) Nvidia driver independent (tried everything from 303.x - 319.23)
The issue does not appear using nouveau driver or windows 7 on the same hardware.
I have also tried to troubleshoot by using all possible settings in Nvidia X Server Settings dialog, but nothing seemed to work. Often a similar problem was solved by
1.) Disallowing OpenGl Flipping
2.) Disabeling Dithering
3.) Preferring Maximum Performance
but that did not work for me. I have also messed around with xorg settings, kernel boot parameters etc but nothing worked.
The issue is the following: I experience a single flicker in random time intervals (sometimes there are 10 minutes in between, somtimes 1 hour, sometimes it happens every two minutes).
The flicker looks like a blackout at the split of a second, or like a brightness flicker. The intensity of a flicker is different, sometimes it seems really brutal sometimes it is only slightly noticeable.
Reproducing is very difficult, as it sometimes happens in idle, sometimes during working. It is especially noticeable using a white background (like in a text editor or webbrowser), so someone would have to
use the laptop over a longer period of time in order to run into the issue.
My hardware is a Dell Precision M4600 (latest BIOS A13) using Nvidia Quadro 1000M Graphics.
Output of lshw: http://ubuntuone.com/34DQPYkOcXZW9o0PwJEuzL
Output of dmidecode: http://ubuntuone.com/1MQqhRY8hFIbE74baFLiPa
Output of nvidia-bug-report.sh (was recorded after a flicker): http://ubuntuone.com/7Cw27etUkCWOt60yu49FEa
Output of nvidia-bug-report.sh (second time, was recorded after a flicker): http://ubuntuone.com/5XmDCBoRD0qszbWJ0XZWii
I have sent a mail to linux-bugs@nvidia.com containing exactly the same information.
I would be glad to hear your thoughts!
Thank you very much!