CPU usage spikes and mouse flicker

[Tejeev Patel]

I am experiencing cpu usage spikes with xorg where everything will lag for about a second. Seems to happen every minute or few.

Other possibly related symptoms:
  Seeing flickering of the mouse pointer when it's over certain interactive fields or just at the top of my laptop monitor.
  Experiencing screen tearing in a diagonal line across second monitor
  When I set up the second monitor, backgrounds fail to display. Changing background fixes.
  Sometimes the second monitor just starts flicking off and on.

Setup:
Just upgraded from 16.04 to 16.10 (didn't see any of this on previous version)
Using a second monitor connected via display port
USB mouse and keyboard connected.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+13ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.8.0-22.24-generic 4.8.0
Uname: Linux 4.8.0-22-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.3-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Oct 18 20:09:40 2016
DistUpgraded: 2016-10-15 18:08:14,205 ERROR got error from PostInstallScript ./xorg_fix_proprietary.py (g-exec-error-quark: Failed to execute child process "./xorg_fix_proprietary.py" (No such file or directory) (8))
DistroCodename: yakkety
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 bbswitch, 0.8, 4.4.0-43-generic, x86_64: installed
 bbswitch, 0.8, 4.8.0-22-generic, x86_64: installed
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0416] (rev 06) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [103c:1909]
 NVIDIA Corporation GK208GLM [Quadro K610M] [10de:12b9] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company GK208GLM [Quadro K610M] [103c:1909]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-07-26 (84 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
LightdmDisplayLog: resize called 2560 1440
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP ZBook 15
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.8.0-22-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro apparmor=1 security=apparmor quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to yakkety on 2016-10-15 (3 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/28/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: L70 Ver. 01.34
dmi.board.name: 1909
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 94.55
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrL70Ver.01.34:bd10/28/2015:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPZBook15:pvrA3009CD10002:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1909:rvrKBCVersion94.55:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP ZBook 15
dmi.product.version: A3009CD10002
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.13.0+16.10.20160818.2-0ubuntu2
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.70-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 12.0.3-1ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 12.0.3-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.18.4-1ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.2-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.7.1-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.12-2
xserver.bootTime: Tue Oct 18 14:59:35 2016
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:
 Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
 Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
 NOUVEAU(G0): [XvMC] Failed to initialize extension.
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.18.4-1ubuntu6
xserver.video_driver: modeset

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 16.10 (yakkety) reached end-of-life on July 20, 2017.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.