unity flickers and flashes constantly with any movement of unity 3D graphics

[Dominic Blakey]

SInce a load of updates within the past couple of days, Unity has been unusable. I have had to revert to using Ubuntu Unity 2D.
When ever I make the launcher appear, or move the cursor over the menu bar at the top, there's a flash as it does the effect to reveal the menu. I believe the flash is the colour of my wallpaper, which is one of the stock wallpapers.

I think Unity 2D doesn't suffer this problem due to the fact there are no effects when the launcher and menu items appear.

I'm not completely familiar with the Ubuntu OS, so cannot provide much more technical knowledge than what's already been provided.

I have been using Ubuntu 12.04 for about 1.5 Months. I haven't suffered with this problem up until the recent updates in the past few days.

I am happy to run any easy tests or changes, or give more information about my system, as long as it's easy to find out.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.8.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-20.32-generic 3.2.12
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-20-generic i686
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 1.95-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,snap,vpswitch,grid,compiztoolbox,gnomecompat,move,place,mousepoll,resize,imgpng,regex,session,wall,animation,workarounds,expo,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Mon Mar 26 21:37:27 2012
DistUpgraded: 2012-03-09 19:11:17,423 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
MachineType: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-N014
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-20-generic root=UUID=21e5baa5-c2ec-4847-89e1-9d929ad6fa4f ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-09 (17 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 11/30/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: EN014IMS.10B
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: MS-N014
dmi.board.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
dmi.board.version: REV:1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: MS-N014
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrEN014IMS.10B:bd11/30/2009:svnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:pnMS-N014:pvrREV1.0:rvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:rnMS-N014:rvrREV1.0:cvnMS-N014:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: MS-N014
dmi.product.version: REV:1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.2-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.32-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.2-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2