Screen constantly crashes/refreshes

[Otto]

I've just reluctantly upgraded to 17.10 and am experiencing an annoying bug where the display jolts/refreshes randomly once every 10/15 seconds or so.

Specifically, the screen blacks out, appears for half a second upside-down, then blacks out again before returning.

It corresponds very closely to the following errors found initially in syslog:

otto@computer:~$ journalctl /usr/bin/gnome-shell -f -o cat

Window manager warning: Overwriting existing binding of keysym 73 with keysym 73 (keycode 27).
Failed to apply DRM plane transform 0: Permission denied
Failed to read EDID from 'eDP-1': No such file or directory
Failed to read EDID from 'eDP-1': No such file or directory
Failed to read EDID from 'eDP-1': No such file or directory
WARNING: addSignalMethods is replacing existing [0x55ddb578d5c0 Gjs_ShowAppsIcon.dash-item-container] connect method
WARNING: addSignalMethods is replacing existing [0x55ddb578d5c0 Gjs_ShowAppsIcon.dash-item-container] disconnect method
WARNING: addSignalMethods is replacing existing [0x55ddb578d5c0 Gjs_ShowAppsIcon.dash-item-container] emit method

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-32.35-generic 4.13.13
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-32-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.7
Architecture: amd64
BootLog:

CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Feb 19 15:31:08 2018
DistUpgraded: 2018-02-19 11:42:52,000 ERROR Bad upgrade: 'yakkety' != 'zesty'
DistroCodename: artful
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation HD Graphics 620 [8086:5916] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company HD Graphics 620 [103c:81d2]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-11-11 (465 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
LightdmDisplayLog: (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0a2a Intel Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f2:b56d Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: HP HP ENVY Notebook
MonitorsUser.xml:
 <monitors version="2">
 </monitors>
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.13.0-32-generic root=UUID=c0b32388-dd3d-4fdd-9490-e2de1250484f ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2018-02-19 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 07/08/2016
dmi.bios.vendor: Insyde
dmi.bios.version: F.21
dmi.board.asset.tag: Type2 - Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 81D2
dmi.board.vendor: HP
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 87.13
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: HP
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnInsyde:bvrF.21:bd07/08/2016:svnHP:pnHPENVYNotebook:pvrType1ProductConfigId:rvnHP:rn81D2:rvrKBCVersion87.13:cvnHP:ct10:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.family: 103C_5335KV G=N L=CON B=HP S=ENV
dmi.product.name: HP ENVY Notebook
dmi.product.version: Type1ProductConfigId
dmi.sys.vendor: HP
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.13.1+17.10.20170901-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.83-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~17.10.1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~17.10.1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.19.5-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.5-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.10.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20170309-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.15-2
xserver.bootTime: Mon Feb 19 12:08:47 2018
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.18.4-1ubuntu6.1
xserver.video_driver: modeset

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.10 (artful) reached end-of-life on July 19, 2018.

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.