Hardy totally hangs at any time

[eamner]

Hello. I hope this is the right forum to post this. This problem is driving me crazy.
I recently upgraded to hardy (8.04) and updated it to the latest kernel. I even upgraded to the latest kde (4.1).
I had several problems upon installing (with sound, video, etc), but I already solved them by myself.
The problem is that at any time -even before I made the upgrades- my computer totally hangs! My keyboard and mouse are just dead and I have to press the "reset" button on my computer. If I work all day with kubuntu, it happens at least 6 or 7 times a day. It happens at any time: when I'm using adept, when I'm working with the Konsole, when I'm playing a game, etc. I'm afraid this is going to hurt my computer, so please help me.
Previously, I had kubuntu 6.06 and this NEVER happened with that version (neither I had the mentioned problems with audio or video), so I'm a little dissapointed with hardy. But I want to give it a chance.
My computer is Pentium 4, 3ghz, 2 gb ram. I have a dual boot, with 2 different hard disks: sata 80gb with WINXP, and IDE 30GB for kubuntu.
If you need any log or additional info, just tell me. I'm not a guru on ubuntu, so tell me how to give you the info.
Thanks in advance.

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

This is one reason why i like having lm-sensors and hddtemp (and nvidia-settings) installed... to keep an eye on problems.

top

should let you know if something is constantly hogging resourses... same info as System Monitor... just a little more compact and easy to keep up all day to evaluate.

Have you installed lm-sensors and/or hddtemp (since you are worried about damaging your computer)?

[dibl]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

This won't fix the problem, but if it works it will give insight into the nature of the problem (X server issue, probably):

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3088251.0

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

Have you installed lm-sensors and/or hddtemp (since you are worried about damaging your computer)?

No, I haven't. But I'll look for them right now.
Dibl, thanks for the tip. I'll try it next time.
I'll keep you updated about my progress...

[garry_3peace]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

I ever encountered this problem. My problem at that time was the swap mysteriously not active. When I typed "free" it showed my swap is zero. Later I found out the problem. Here is the link for the complete story :
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...5546#msg125546

Until now I still don't know who or what change the swap setting. Really strange...

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

I ever encountered this problem. My problem at that time was the swap mysteriously not active. When I typed "free" it showed my swap is zero. Later I found out the problem. Here is the link for the complete story :
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...5546#msg125546

Until now I still don't know who or what change the swap setting. Really strange...

Hello again. I revised your post and, interestingly, I've found my swap memory isn't being used. I checked through the System Monitor, and if I type "free", I get this:
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2042152 861452 1180700 0 41536 556392
-/+ buffers/cache: 263524 1778628
Swap: 1277128 0 1277128

I checked the output from /dev/disk/by-uuid, and it says:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2008-09-15 07:41 1fe38003-4739-4200-bc2b-c026211080be -> ../../hda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2008-09-15 07:41 2AA8BBCDA8BB9633 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2008-09-15 07:41 d5af7fea-ba49-3081-2f91-bfcd6e64f3fc -> ../../hda5

My hda5 at /etc/fstab is:
# /dev/hda5
UUID=d5af7fea-ba49-3081-2f91-bfcd6e64f3fc none swap sw 0
...so i think this part is correct.
Could the swap memory be the problem? My computer still hangs up at any time....
There's another thing I noticed. At the moment my computer freezes, the fan coolers work like crazy... and by the way, the "rseiub" trick, didn't work...

[CVPunk]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

There's another thing I noticed. At the moment my computer freezes, the fan coolers work like crazy...

Is it just your CPU fan spinning up? You could be having a heat issue with your CPU, which could be very serious. I've had broken heatsink clips on pc's at work that would make the heatsink not seat properly on top of the CPU, and the computer would freeze and shut off.

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

Is it just your CPU fan spinning up? You could be having a heat issue with your CPU, which could be very serious. I've had broken heatsink clips on pc's at work that would make the heatsink not seat properly on top of the CPU, and the computer would freeze and shut off.

Well, the temperature is not that bad. The fans usually work hard when there's a lot of processing going on, but I'm not sure how this is related to my problem. The cpu fan works hard also in windows when I work with critical applications (I have a dual boot) but my computer never freezes in windows. Only in kubuntu. And this never happened with kubuntu 6.06.
I still haven't tried kde 3 with hardy, though... Recently I updated to kde 4.1.1, but still have the problem.
Isn't there any log file that could point me to the cause of the problem? I'm really worried about my computer. My hard disks could be damaged if I continue pressing the "reset" button.

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

Hello. I'm back with the same problem. Last month I upgraded to Intrepid Ibex, and I was hoping that my problem would be solved with this new version, but it wasn't. My computer still freezes at any time.
Please somebody help me to find a solution. My computer just freezes and I always have to "reboot" it, pressing the reboot button. This problem is very frustrating. Is there any log that I could check and paste here so you can help me?

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

What kind of video card and which driver are you using?

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

What kind of video card and which driver are you using?

Hello kjjjjshab, thanks for your answer. I have a NVIDIA geforce PNY 7300 GT. And right now I'm using the "nvidia accelerated graphics driver (version 177)".

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

But I also forgot to mention that this happened even before installing the nvidia driver....

[kwill]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

Did you manage to fix the problem?

If not try running 'top' in a console, when it locks up, see if anything is running 100% cpu. I have had that happen. Can take a couple of minutes or longer to clear.

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

Hello kwill, thanks for your response.
I haven't fixed the problem.
I'll try your idea and will answer as soon as possible.

[eamner]

Re: Hardy totally hangs at any time

kwill, you're absolutely right! after 10 or so minutes, the system came alive again...
Unfortunately, I couldn't check the top command, because the screensaver was running at the time of the hang up.... I'll disable the screensaver and try to check the cpu load again. In the meantime, did this same thing happen to you? how did you fix it?