Hi,
I'm having a problem with Linux distros (as in the problem has never happened when running Windows).
Long story made short: If I boot into Xubuntu, it will boot normally, work for awhile and then freeze
(seemingly) randomly. If any sound was playing, it loops and then stops. At this point, nothing works
and the computer must be shut down forcefully using the power button. The mouse goes dead (light goes
out) and the keyboard is completely unresponsive. I've tried REISUB - no result.
Long story: I built a new PC (see specs below) a couple of months ago and installed Kubuntu 13.10 at
first. I can't quite remember, but I'm pretty sure it ran fine for a couple of weeks. Then, it would
randomly start to freeze up and become completely unresponsive. The mouse dies and the keyboard
doesn't do anything. If any sound was playing at the time (though it still happens without), it loops
for a few seconds and it stops as well. When Kubuntu 14.04 came out, I installed it. Same problem
(and it was really sluggish). I installed Xubuntu 14.04, and the problem seemed to go away for a bit.
But then it came back again.
I though maybe it was something to do with the Ubuntu base, so I tried Fedora 20 (XFCE spin). Still
freezing.
I've tried the REISUB commands with no result. I've checked the logs and can't find anything at the
times of the freezes (it's locking up so badly that I presume the kernel can't even write anything to
them). I can copy the output of the logs here if needed.
I thought it was maybe the video card drivers, so I've tried multiple drivers (nVidia driver, nVidia
driver from "updates" package, and Nouveau). None of them seemed to stop the problem.
I reset my BIOS (UEFI, UEFI BIOS, whatever you care to call it) and re-seated my RAM. I ran
Memtest86+ and it passed with no errors.
I very highly doubt it has anything to do with temperatures (huge cooler on the CPU and the GPU seems
to be fine as well). Haven't done any overclocking on anything. The problem happens under no stress
(or minimal stress), so I don't figure there would be much to get temperatures up anyway.
I've done some Googling, but there's only so much you can get with "linux freezes randomly". The
complete freezing leads me to think towards hardware issue, but the fact that it never happens at all
on Windows 8 leads me to think software issue (or maybe Windows handles a hardware issue
differently?).
Any ideas of how to diagnose the problem, or even better, what the problem is?
Thank you!
Trevor
System specs:
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 (
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131873)
Video Card: ASUS GTX650 TI 2GB (
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121725)
PSU: Cooler Master i600 (
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171083)
CPU: AMD FX-6350 Vishera 3.9 GHz (
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113327)
RAM: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460)
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 (
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721106)
ODD: (
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204)
OS: Dual booting Windows 8.1 (64-bit) and Xubuntu 14.04 (64-bit)