[SOLVED] Periodic freezes

[DenisHillier]

Hey, kubuntu 9.10 is freezing (i.e. any animations stop, pc ceases to respond to any input, leaving no option but to switch off and on again, although interestingly I still get a blinking cursor) every 20 minutes or so regardless of what apps I may be running. I never had this problem on 9.04. Ran a defect check on the installation cd and it didn't find anything. Any suggestions?

The only error message that might be relevant I can find on startup is this kernel message:

[ 6.920931] 0000:00:04.0: Error EEPROM read 0.

I would quote from the log made upon the crash but I'm not sure how to do that, syslog only shows logs from the last startup. Sorry to be a patience-trying noob. Apart from this nothing else seems amiss: wireless and sound are functioning fine and graphics are glitch free.

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: Periodic freezes

I would try disabling things (programs, hardware) one at a time to see if it affects the problem, particularly any video driver or other kernel modules you added.

If it's a new install, you might want to just install again. Go slowly with any modifications so you can determine what may have triggered it.

Use system backups to give you the ability to roll back the installation to prior states...
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_...rating_Systems

And when it locks up, you can press Alt-SysRq-S to do an emergency sync (protects your filesystems, then Alt-SysRq-B to reboot.

[DenisHillier]

Re: Periodic freezes

Thanks for the reply. I disabled wireless and that seems to stop it freezing but the internet is the main thing I use this PC for. Hell, it's the reason I installed GNU/Linux on it in the first place, since I gather it's a good deal more secure and less virus-prone than Windows. I'll start googling around for pointers on what to do next but if anyone does any advice please do so share.

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: Periodic freezes

Yeah I would research that wireless card extensively to see if others have encountered the issue. If there are alternate methods for installing the driver, you could try those. If it's a desktop PC, one option would be to throw a new wireless card in it. They're fairly cheap. Just make sure you get one that is happy with linux. Even laptops can use plugin wireless cards - a bit of a klunky solution. Again, make sure it's linux-friendly.

You could also try a different kernel, maybe by just using an older Kubuntu such as Intrepid or Jaunty.

Also, be sure to submit a bug report on that driver. The maintainer might help you troubleshoot it.

[DenisHillier]

Re: Periodic freezes

Such simple, helpful advice. You're like the backup for my common sense .

[DenisHillier]

Re: Periodic freezes

This may be tempting fate but I'm going to tentatively say I've fixed the problem. Turns out I was barking up the wrong tree. Rifling through my BIOS setup I discovered my CPU was set to overclock all this time (no idea why, there's nothing I do on this laptop which requires 1.5GHz rather than 1.2). Put it back on default and I've had no crashes since (touch wood). Thanks for your help.

On a sidenote, it appears plausible that this thing came out of the box with the processor set to overclock. Is it just me or is that bloody ridiculous?

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: [SOLVED] Periodic freezes

Good thinking to look around in there! It's funny how these kinds of things can go.