Input freezing and/or crashing

[azwli]

I recently fresh installed kubuntu 14.04 on my pavilion AMD64 with new 1TB HDD. I am using the stock PS2 keyboard and a logitec wireless USB mouse.

At random times the input devices become unresponsive requiring me to REISUB. It happens sometimes after several hours of work and sometimes after just 30 minutes. Sometimes the input freezes and after a couple seconds the screen goes black and it goes to the login screen as if it just rebooted. Sometimes it just stays frozen. Sometimes (rarely)it just goes directly to the login screen without freezing. Sometimes the keyboard remains active long enough for me to test if it is working like hitting the caps lock and seeing the light come on.

It seems to do it when I am using the mouse, but not always, I have found it gone to the login screen when I have left it unattended for a while.

This has been going on for a few weeks now and I have not found any solutions from online searches.

I honestly don't know if it is an input driver crash, a KDE crash, or something else. The last couple times it happened, the freeze happened in short stages. first clicking became unresponsive, then the cursor froze, then after a few tries where it worked, the Num Lock stopped responding.\

I have run memory tests and there are no errors. I have tried using a PS2 mouse and had it freeze up.

If there is anyone out there that can point me in the right direction or help me troubleshoot, I would be grateful. It is really becoming a problem.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Am I correct in assuming that prior to the fresh install of 14.04 these issues were not happening? If that's correct, what version was running on this computer before the fresh install? And was this new hard drive not previously used in this computer?

[azwli]

You are correct, it was not happening on the previous version. I believe the version I was using before was 12.04. The HDD is new. I had to completely re-install because I had not created a large enough root partition to upgrade to. Now there is plenty of room in the root partition.

[azwli]

It happened again, and this time it was definitely in stages. things started to get flaky, like when I opened the save dialogue in GIMP with my Wacom tablet pen, none of fields would work. I had to close and re-open it with the mouse. This went on for 5 minutes, then the cursor froze, then the keyboard became unresponsive, then the music that Amarok was playing stopped. It certainly seems like system thing and not just input devices. I have been lucky so far and have been able to have work saved and not lost a critical piece in a crash. it is just a mater of time though. Can someone please give me some place to look for help?

[azwli]

The RAM does seem to get high and goes into swap sometimes. I have actually been looking at the System Activity window during a crash and didn't see a CPU issue. I have 4gigs of ram and can't add more to this machine. It is generally Chrome and Firefox that use up the most, and I generally use them at the same time for different tasks. I don't know what baloo or akonadie are. how do I check on them?

[GreyGeek]

You might also check your CPU temperatures. Also, if you have a can of air, blow it into your vents to clear any dust off of the CPU cooling fins and fans.

[SteveRiley]

Oh no... is someting like Launchpad bug 993187 (a number burned into my brain) coming back? I ask because I'm having similar problems involving USB peripherals. In my case, I can reliably crash my machine -- total hard lock -- when using my USB headset with my VoIP application. I can start a call, and then somewhere between 10 seconds and 10 minutes in, the computer completely freezes. I can't even REISUB. I've tried a number of different kernels between 3.13 and 3.16, I've tried disabling USB power management, nothing helps. It's really frustrating.

[SteveRiley]

In my case, the entire system freezes. The call drops, the second hand on the clock stops ticking, and input devices are non-responsive. I can't even find anything in any error logs.

[azwli]

I am actually leaning towards the whole system is freezing. I am pretty sure alt+tab does not work. I will try it next time, but I have tried ctrl+f1, ctrl+esc, ctrl+alt+esc, nothing works. It is not just slowing down though. it is frozen until I either alt+sysrq+REISUB or I cold boot with the power switch. What is strange is that my usage patterns have not changed and I was not over running memory before the upgrade.

I don't feel like going into the details, but re-sizing the root partition wasn't an option. The HDD was failing and I had to start with a new drive. I was unable to clone the drive because of errors on the drive.

[azwli]

I have had two crashes today and neither one froze. It just goes black screen then brings up the login window. I was watching the ram, CPU and temp read outs and nothing was too high at the time.

[SteveRiley]

Agree that the problems are unrelated. But I feel that if I file a bug, it won't go anywhere. Look at all the chatter on 993187...it was never fully resolved.

[azwli]

Thanks Teunis, I actually only have 4 gigs of ram. The system says that it can't handle more that two 2 gig cards. I have run an overnight memory test from grub and no errors came up.

[GreyGeek]

.... In my case, I can reliably crash my machine -- total hard lock -- when using my USB headset with my VoIP application. ...

What VoIP app are you using?

I asked because I was having an occasional lockup that blew me back to the login screen. Even though I hadn't used Skype in months I purged Skype and haven't had a lockup since.

[verndog]

I recently fresh installed kubuntu 14.04 on my pavilion AMD64 with new 1TB HDD. I am using the stock PS2 keyboard and a logitec wireless USB mouse.

...Sometimes the input freezes and after a couple seconds the screen goes black and it goes to the login screen as if it just rebooted. Sometimes it just stays frozen. Sometimes (rarely)it just goes directly to the login screen without freezing. Sometimes the keyboard remains active long enough for me to test if it is working like hitting the caps lock and seeing the light come on.I....

I also have an AMD64 dual-core, and wireless keyboard/mouse, and 12.04 was the last release I could use without installing the nvidia video drivers.
I'm unsure what video you have, but that was my issue.

[azwli]

I just noticed something interesting in the last crash that might be a clue. This one was one of the screen freeze crashes, not kick right to the login screen crashes. The cursor froze and I looked down at the CPU monitor widget and it was still clocking, but it had flat lined at the top. It kept running for a couple minutes and then stopped. I tried all the ctl and alt key combinations and nothing worked and then did the magic keys thing.

I wonder if this means there is a CPU issue or if it is just that the monitor just stopped recording correctly?

Verndog, are the nvidia drivers something I have to get from their site? I have a GeForce GT 220.