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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?

Matombo
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1 Answers1

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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.

Cranky
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