Comment 68 for bug 729979

I have the same problem on my new system with Mint Linux 13 using Mate. I don't think it is a memory issue, i have plenty. When i check my .xsession-errors file is see this message that correlates with the blanking problem

 mate_bg_crossfade_start: assertion `fade->priv->fading_pixmap != NULL' failed

I have seen similar bug reports related to the bg_crossfade. Could this be the culprit?