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Issue:

The system freezes frequently, and to the point where there is nothing to do but hit the restart button on the case.

This happens in particular when using the browser (Firefox) and almost every time I open Thunderbird(no add-ons).

On the other hand, we play Oblivion game (off-line) with no problems; World of Tanks online game also works through their own client.

I am not very familiar with Ubuntu as I have only just moved from Windows, and I would appreciate it if you could point out some methods to identify the problem.

System:

  • OS: Ubuntu 14.10 64 bit, fresh, single installation from CD
  • CPU: AMD Athlon x4 760k Black edition
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DS2(rev. 3.x)
  • RAM: Corsair CMZ8GX3M1A Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz
  • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 550Ti, with X.Org display drivers (Ubuntu default)
  • Internet connection: Wired

Tried so far:

  • Reinstalling the OS – no change
  • Installing Ubuntu on a spare hard drive – same issue
  • Searching the internet for similar problems yielding no results
  • In recovery mode: 'repair broken packages' – all software is up to date
  • In recovery mode: 'check all file systems' showed no errors, but then again, I have no idea what it was checking - I was looking for clues but found none here
  • In recovery mode: 'run in fail safe graphic mode' was inconclusive as the system freezes at apparently random intervals, so the fact that it didn't freeze in fail safe mode is neither here nor there
  • Changed to different versions of Nvidia graphic drivers, but they caused numerous other problems, so I gave up that idea
  • Having suspected LAN drivers, I checked Gigabyte website for motherboard drivers, but none were available for Linux (on account of Linux using their own?)
  • Started running Ubuntu System Testing, on Default, but that caused a system crash, and after restarting couldn't get past 11%, so I gave that up
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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

After going over the above several times over, I read somewhere that X.org drivers do not regulate the processor usage, but run the processor at full capacity all the time, which can cause overheating. After switching to Nvidia-331 drivers, the system didn't freeze again. I only realised that Nvidia-331 was a recommended driver after finding this command ubuntu-drivers devices. It does have some graphical issues with WoT game, but I'd rather have some psychedelic coloured tanks than burn out my processor.

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