Diagnosing freezing/hanging

Question

How can I diagnose random freezing on Ubuntu? I've tried fresh reinstalls several times but the OS still freezes often.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 28 '13 at 16:13

The freezing usually can occur due to HDD failing or/and a problem with graphics card driver.

So first check the HDD for bad sectors. Open the Disks utility and check the S.M.A.R.T and see if disk is Healthy.

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Then you can install an additional driver for your graphics card (if any). This can be done from Ubuntu Software Center → Edit → Software Sources and activate a binary-proprietary driver. Reboot your system for changes to take effect. An example for Nvidia

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Also you can run a memtest from grub menu (memtest86+). Leave it for 30-40 minutes at least an see if any weird - red lines - messages appears.

If the problem persists, you can check some logs for weird - error messages

cat var/log/Xorg.0.log 
dmesg

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