From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

Hi all,

I've been using Fedora 29 for some time now with no problems, but
recently (the last couple of weeks or so, I can't be 100% sure) it has
taken to locking up randomly for no apparent reason, even when I am not
using the machine. This happens at least once a day, and can be within
an hour of starting up or 12 hours+ later.

Hardware is a Dell Latitude E6420 with a 500GB drive and 4GB RAM. The
computer is solely running Fedora, there is no dual booting involved. Applications that are usually left open are Thunderbird, Firefox and
possibly LibreOffice.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and what I can do about
it..? I am not a programmer or developer, just a simple end user.

Interestingly, my partner is running an identical system and is not
having any problems at all.
--
Ria in Aberdeen

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

On Sun, 10 Mar 2019 20:01:23 +0000, MissRiaElaine scribbled:

Hi all,

I've been using Fedora 29 for some time now with no problems, but
recently (the last couple of weeks or so, I can't be 100% sure) it has
taken to locking up randomly for no apparent reason, even when I am not
using the machine. This happens at least once a day, and can be within
an hour of starting up or 12 hours+ later.

Hardware is a Dell Latitude E6420 with a 500GB drive and 4GB RAM. The computer is solely running Fedora, there is no dual booting involved. Applications that are usually left open are Thunderbird, Firefox and
possibly LibreOffice.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and what I can do about
it..? I am not a programmer or developer, just a simple end user.

Interestingly, my partner is running an identical system and is not
having any problems at all.

Have you run memtest86 [*] on the machine? It is possible that you're experiencing a failing memory module.

Another possibility could be overheating due to dust in the fans. Check
the fans and air filters, and use a can of compressed air to clean out
the dust. While you're at it, also check whether all memory modules,
cables and plug-in cards are properly seated.

Yet another possibility could be a failing power supply. A sudden drop
(or spike) in voltage on a particular line can cause random lockups.


[*] For good measure, it should be left running 24 hours. If it does
nor report any errors, then that is no guarantee that there's
nothing wrong with the hardware. If it /does/ report errors, then
there most certainly _is_ a hardware problem.
--
With respect,
= Aragorn =
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

On 10/03/2019 21:45, Aragorn wrote:

On Sun, 10 Mar 2019 20:01:23 +0000, MissRiaElaine scribbled:

Hi all,

I've been using Fedora 29 for some time now with no problems, but
recently (the last couple of weeks or so, I can't be 100% sure) it has
taken to locking up randomly for no apparent reason, even when I am not
using the machine. This happens at least once a day, and can be within
an hour of starting up or 12 hours+ later.

Hardware is a Dell Latitude E6420 with a 500GB drive and 4GB RAM. The
computer is solely running Fedora, there is no dual booting involved.
Applications that are usually left open are Thunderbird, Firefox and
possibly LibreOffice.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and what I can do about
it..? I am not a programmer or developer, just a simple end user.

Interestingly, my partner is running an identical system and is not
having any problems at all.

Have you run memtest86 [*] on the machine? It is possible that you're experiencing a failing memory module.

Another possibility could be overheating due to dust in the fans. Check
the fans and air filters, and use a can of compressed air to clean out
the dust. While you're at it, also check whether all memory modules,
cables and plug-in cards are properly seated.

Yet another possibility could be a failing power supply. A sudden drop
(or spike) in voltage on a particular line can cause random lockups.

[*] For good measure, it should be left running 24 hours. If it does
nor report any errors, then that is no guarantee that there's
nothing wrong with the hardware. If it /does/ report errors, then
there most certainly _is_ a hardware problem.

Thanks, I'll check and report back.
--
Ria in Aberdeen

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

On 10/03/2019 21:53, MissRiaElaine wrote:

On 10/03/2019 21:45, Aragorn wrote:

[snip]

Have you run memtest86 [*] on the machine?-a It is possible that you're
experiencing a failing memory module.

Another possibility could be overheating due to dust in the fans.-a Check
the fans and air filters, and use a can of compressed air to clean out
the dust.-a While you're at it, also check whether all memory modules,
cables and plug-in cards are properly seated.

Yet another possibility could be a failing power supply.-a A sudden drop
(or spike) in voltage on a particular line can cause random lockups.


[*] For good measure, it should be left running 24 hours.-a If it does
-a-a-a-a nor report any errors, then that is no guarantee that there's
-a-a-a-a nothing wrong with the hardware.-a If it /does/ report errors, then >> -a-a-a-a there most certainly _is_ a hardware problem.

Thanks, I'll check and report back.

Update, it appears to be an overheating problem, installed a temperature monitoring app and CPU temperatures are getting up to over 70-#C at
times, so I'm planning on putting some new Arctic Silver 5 on it and
hopefully that will help. In the meantime, I've jury-rigged a fan, it's somewhat difficult when the laptop is on a docking station (can't
believe nobody makes cooling pads for docked laptops) and it hasn't
(fingers crossed) fallen over since.
--
Ria in Aberdeen

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

On 15/03/2019 17:55, MissRiaElaine wrote:

On 12/03/2019 20:01, Aragorn wrote:

Always remember that penguins like it really, really cold. :p

They do..! Just done the re-pasting of the thermal compound and so far
so good, according to the instructions it can be anything up to 200
hours before it's fully broken in, but already the CPU temperature has dropped to 44-46 degrees so it looks like that was the problem. Will
have to see how it goes.

Well it looks like it wasn't a temperature problem after all, just
switched on and the blasted thing has locked up within 5 minutes with
the temperature at 48 degrees. So I'm back to square one, any ideas
anybody..? I should emphasise that the machine is locking up, not
crashing out or rebooting, just freezing. The mouse pointer is still
active, but the clock stops and nothing is clickable.

This is getting to be just a trifle annoying, grrr.
--
Ria in Aberdeen

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

Well, a final update on this. I've replaced the machine with a Latitude
E6430 with 8GB RAM and the problem has gone away entirely, the CPU on
this machine is running at an average of 40-50-#C. Fortunately, Linux
doesn't suffer from the Windoze issue of transplanting hard drives to
another machine, it just works..!

The old machine has already proved its worth in donating parts, such as
the US keyboard (don't like the UK layout) and wifi card (the one that
came in this only seemed to like 2.4GHz and didn't recognise my 5GHz
access point for some reason) and also the bluetooth module, which this machine didn't seem to have either (well it came at a good price..!)

I can only assume it was the graphics processor, as after I'd repasted
the CPU that was running reasonably cool, but the GPU was still way up.

Anyway, problem now solved (fingers crossed..!)
--
Ria in Aberdeen

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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.fedora

On Wed, 03 Apr 2019 16:54:33 +0100, MissRiaElaine scribbled:

Well, a final update on this. I've replaced the machine with a Latitude
E6430 with 8GB RAM and the problem has gone away entirely, the CPU on
this machine is running at an average of 40-50-#C. Fortunately, Linux
doesn't suffer from the Windoze issue of transplanting hard drives to
another machine, it just works..!

The old machine has already proved its worth in donating parts, such as
the US keyboard (don't like the UK layout) and wifi card (the one that
came in this only seemed to like 2.4GHz and didn't recognise my 5GHz
access point for some reason) and also the bluetooth module, which this machine didn't seem to have either (well it came at a good price..!)

I can only assume it was the graphics processor, as after I'd repasted
the CPU that was running reasonably cool, but the GPU was still way up.

Anyway, problem now solved (fingers crossed..!)

I can relate to that. This here is a refurbished desktop, and it too has issues with the on-board graphics adapter, and it won't boot with an AGP
video card installed. And so it regularly locks up solid, and it's all
down to that crappy on-board graphics adapter.

Anyway, glad you got it sorted out. ;)
--
With respect,
= Aragorn =
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