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I tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu but both are freezing on my desktop PC. I can still move my mouse pointer but nothing reacts. I can't even switch to tty. (in comparison to the other freezing issues i found where the mouse pointer disappears but tty still works fine). It often occurs when i re-size or try to close a window (i will be still there but frozen) but not exclusively. Using a Intel Quad Core, 4GB Ram and an AMD Radeon Graphicscard. It's no duplicate to the other recent freezing bugs i found on ask Ubuntu (at least if i didn’t missed one) since the behaviour of the freeze is different, i can sill move my mouse, but can't switch to tty.


update i got to tty but wenn i type my login namethere for a while nothing happens then i get this message repeading every 10 secounds or so:

ata3.00: exeption Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen

ata3.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT

ata3.00: cmd 'some hex numbers' tag 'some number between 0 and 28 in this case' dma 4096 in res 'some hex numbers' Emask 0x4 (timeout)

ata3.00: status: { DRDY }

and about every minute this message:

end request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 'some huge number'

Buffer I/O error on sda1, logical block 'some big number'

pointing to harddrive problem, doesn't it?

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  • Did you take a look in the syslog ?! Have a look in /var/log/messages When does the "freeze" start ?! Directly when the display manager comes up, or after you logged in ?! If you can't access the machine at all, take the "SystemRescueCD", boot and mount your machine and have a look in the logs. They would tell you more. I hardly believe that this is a BIOS problem, but I encountered such a problem having in the BIOS UEFI activated.
    – SmileMZ
    Jul 24, 2014 at 15:23
  • it freezed randomly while using the pc. like already logged in for 10 mins everything working fine, then freeze. btw i don't have /var/log/messages
    – Matombo
    Jul 24, 2014 at 15:30
  • I don't know which version you make use of. But I advise you removing the start script for the display manager and install with apt-get or aptitude syslog-ng. It will log all kernel messages.
    – SmileMZ
    Jul 24, 2014 at 15:43
  • i don't think my pc has uefi. can'T say for sure but it's kinda old
    – Matombo
    Jul 24, 2014 at 19:19

1 Answer 1

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I've seen cases like this where the problem was a bad RAM chip or a bad sector on the hard drive. Not enough to crash the system but enough to give the OS a hiccup.

Run Memtest86 on the RAM, and if possible swap out the RAM for a friend's and see how it runs. Best to run the Memtest from a Live CD.

Use a hard disk test utility from the HDD manufacturer to test the drive. You may have to enable SMART in the BIOS setup; it depends on your system. Don't be afraid to go to the manufacturer's website and RTFM.

A much rarer option: the motherboard is dying on you, but it's rare that this happens.

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  • memcheck didn't give an error (used the one comming wiht ubuntu 14.04, started from grub)
    – Matombo
    Jul 24, 2014 at 19:10
  • what do you mean by rtfm?
    – Matombo
    Jul 24, 2014 at 19:17
  • edit initial question with new info, finally got an error message to read, you could be right with the HDD problem. Trying now to change harddrive and install again.
    – Matombo
    Jul 24, 2014 at 20:42
  • RTFM = Read The Flippin' Manual.
    – Cranky
    Jul 25, 2014 at 19:27
  • Here's one other possibility (although I still suspect the HDD): check the case and fans for dirt. I've seen situations where the CPU gets too hot because of poor air flow. It runs for a few minutes then shuts down.
    – Cranky
    Jul 25, 2014 at 19:28

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