screen flashing to black every several seconds

[Kam Leo]

On Mar 31, 2005 10:02 PM, David Curry <dsccable at comcast.net> wrote:
> Claude Jones wrote:
> 
> > For no explainable reason, my graphic interface has gone crazy. It
> > flashes to black for a moment everal several seconds. Nothing else
> > seems to be affected. If I'm typing, words keep getting put in the
> > doc. Downloads continue, etc... I loaded some of the latest
> > patches/updates last night. Apart from that this machine was idle all
> > day. It's up on the net with Firestarter providing pretty strict
> > rules. I just tried downloading/installing the latest ATI Radeon 9200
> > video driver from ATI. I searched the list for similar behavior, but
> > couldn't find anything. What could have changed in my absence??? Have
> > I been hacked by someone?
> >
> Claude, have you tried switching to a console window to see if the
> periodic flash to black occurs there as well?  Try ALT-F2 to see if the
> blackout continues and then ALT-F& to switch back to your X window.
> 
> Have you recently applied X.org updates to your system?
> 

Is this happening when you are typing in a terminal window?  If so, it
is the bell setting for your terminal session.  Just click on Settings
-> Bell and select another value.