This affects me too. Oddly, if I swap to using gnome-shell instead of Unity this fixes this problem.
For the moment I've changed to using gnome-shell since this happens too frequently. This problem started occurring for me with the last round of trusty updates using the utopic HWE - apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-intel: Installed: (none) Candidate: 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.6 Version table: 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.6 0 500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.uk2.net/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1342675 Title: Random characters in screen text suddenly disappear To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1342675/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs