Mildly Infuriating

Usually a sign of a dying gpu. Used to work in a laptop repair shop.

I'm not unconvinced this is just a screenshot of Dwarf Fortress during some kind of weird rain storm in an evil biome.

This looks like ram disconnection or a GPU bugging out (usually a simple restart fixes everything unless you bump and shake it a little)

And definitely re-seating the ram would be a wise move

my assumption is it's most likely ram, I have seen these patterns many times

Reseat your RAM before trying a more expensive fix

GPU.

Update or rollback drivers and see if it stops.

The pattern looks like a GPU, more specifically a problem with VRAM.

This looks like a low to mid range HP laptop, so I question whether or not it even has dedicated graphics.

Systems with integrated graphics share RAM to use for graphics functions.

To test VRAM, one would use Nvidia MATS/MODS or AMD TServer/Memtune. They are not very accessible for the average user.

To test RAM, use Memtest86. This one is free and relatively straightforward.

GPU is dying.

is this issue also on in the bios?

yes = hardware error

no = software error

It's the GPU, almost certainly the solder joints. So how far are you willing to go?

You can pull the MB and bake it in an oven. Fixed a card or two that way, didn't last very long. Damned fine line between too much and too little heat and time. Bon chance!

In related news, MBs can be pretty cheap on eBay.

The mouse cursor showing up correctly rules out a physical connection issue to the screen.

What is supposed to be on the screen right now? Is it just the deskop, an app, a game... ? That might provide more insight.

But I'd guess a hardware issue off the bat. Something with the GPU, or perhaps more specifically with VRAM.

looks like you did a sudo ▓░▒

Its an HP, never buy HP!

You could boot into a live system and see if the problem shows up there. If so, it's very likely the hardware.

It could easily be the GPU drivers or the display cable.

There any many other possibilities, but hopefully it’s one of those two because the fix is is either cheap or free.

Does it happen faster the 2nd time around? Probably a heat issue. Make sure the fans are working and the heatsink fins are clear of dust and debris. Try that first, and run a gpu stress test https://mprep.info/gpu/ but it could also be drivers as others have mentioned, or even a faulty or incorrectly seated ram module.

My intuition is that it is a hardware failure. GPUs can develop issues that show up intermittently. You can try running GPU stress-testing software to check if that's the case.

However, did you recently update your graphics drivers? If you did, try rolling back to an older version.

Are you sure this is merely mildly infuriating?

This looks to me like the RAM is not properly seated. I can't speak for this particular model, but I've seen cases where putting light pressure on one side of a laptop was enough to cause this because the chips were loose in their sockets. Maybe try removing the bottom cover and slightly wigglig them to see if you can reproduce it. I've fixed it on some Thinkpad models by placing a thin piece of rubber between the RAM and the mainboard to hold it in place.

Run a hardware diagnostic

Laptop GPUs are often connected using a ball grid array, which means that there aren't any pins and they just use a ball of solder to make the connection. If the laptop overheats enough, some of the solder may melt and move causing such issues.

any chance it's overheating? did you clean the vents and checked the fans?

Try booting into the bios

Could be either hardware or software.

I'd try updating the bios and video drivers first, failing that it could be a failing video card. It could be the screen too.

To test if it's the screen or the video card, connect it to an external display and see what happens.

My Debian dies this everytime i Start, but it goes away after a few secs, doesn't do that on windows, so software bug is not impossible