Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

[Sorry, it took a while to be able to rerun the test]

>> Bisecting my ~/.emacs, the following form provokes the display error for me:
>> 
>> (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist
>>              '(font . "-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal-*-15-*-iso8859-1"))
>> 
>> On other machines, there is the same ~/.emacs w/o problems. On the
>> machine in question, I have two matching fonts:
>> 
>> -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-120-100-100-c-90-iso8859-1
>> -misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso8859-1

> But if we continue your line of investigation: does removing one of
> these fonts solve the problem with the original ~/.emacs?

It happens for both fonts. I've tested 

(add-to-list 'default-frame-alist
             '(font . "-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-120-100-100-c-90-iso8859-1"))

and

(add-to-list 'default-frame-alist
             '(font . "-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso8859-1"))

Anyway, here is a recipe for reproduction:

1. C-x C-f "a larger file, with a no space in last line, first col"
2. M->
3. C-p
4. Use mouse wheel to scroll buffer up

It doesn't happen always, but often. Depends on redisplay calls, I
suspect. See enclosures, which show a superfluous "(".