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Random Freezing?


Lord Kenneth
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Interesting thread. My symptoms are somewhat different, but they're there, with variable frequency, since Mandrake 8.x. I too have a nVidia card (GF2 MX440) on an Asus mobo with Via chipset (Asus A7V266).

 

When I lock-up, it would be typically while using Mozilla, while actually doing something (scrolling, or typing in a form -- believe it or not, right now I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish this post without a crash), alhough recently I got Quake3 lock-ups too. When a mozilla lock-up occurs, I can still move my mouse pointer around, but no widget or GUI element is responsive.

 

In the past the only solution was to alt-sysrq-S/U/B since I can't access my computer remotely, and alt-backspace (restarting X) or ctrl-alt-Fn (changing virtual console) wouldn't work. I checked with "top" in batch mode however, and I can confirm that when those lock-ups happen, X is using somewhere around 98% of the CPU. Quake3 lock-ups feature a frozen video and a looping sound, and X uses around 70% of the CPU.

 

At least now with the 5336 drivers, I'm not forced to reboot -- alt-sysrq-K works well (it didn't before). It happens a few times a week, now under Mandrake 9.1 with updates installed. Still this elusive bug, well, bugs me since a long time and I'm on it. I'm currently running Mozilla with strace -o -ff B)

Edited by neutro
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Its still killing me!

However I find the fact it almost always happens in a bowser, ANY browser points to a NIC problem....

Its not exclusive to browsers but it sure seems to irritate it!

 

My Graphics card is a shared memory one. (its on a shuttle)... how about everyone else???

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However I find the fact it almost always happens in a bowser, ANY browser points to a NIC problem....

 

Hmmm interesting observation.

Come to think of it, I got problems only with Mozilla, but then again, I don't use other browsers much, and with... Quake. Only when playing online.

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I use nvpart now and that solved it ..no lockups anymore ..for more than a month now and I use my computer a lot ..maybe ven more, I can't remember when I had a lockup :) really ... it's something with the via-motherboard I believe. It's almost certainly video-related(agp I think).

 

Using nvpart did it for me. There is also a patch for the newest nvidia-driver for via-motherboards I believe ...

 

So, I would suggest try not the latest driver, but the one before it ..4496 or so I think. And use nvpart (liek mentionned in a previous post in this topic). The change/adding mentionned above has to be done /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file in de "Device"-section.

 

Mayeb not using a precompiled interface, but letting it decide when you install the driver can also help some EXTRA maybe (..use the expert-option for this).

Edited by Michel
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I always tought that it was video-related too.

 

Yet I use nvpart (Option "NvAGP" "1"), and got the problem (with variable frequency) with every version of Mozilla since before 1.0, and with the nVidia drivers 2960, 3123, 4191, 4349, 4496, 4620 and now 5336.

 

The via-related problem in 5328 prevented X from launching, and 5336 includes the fix.

 

The thing is, maybe we don't even talk about the same problem. Since it's a random problem, it's very difficult to track down.

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Just for the record, my freezes are no longer random :P

I am now able to trigger them at will.

I just installed Mozilla Firefox (0.8), and if I go in the options and play around for a few seconds (typically scrolling down the font list), the will happen.

Now I can run strace at will on Firefox with the -o -ff options so that all is logged. Now all I need is someone with the expertise and time to go through 33 MB of trace data :lol:

 

(Seriously anyone know what I should be looking for, in order to at least identify where, generally, lies the problem -- network? video driver? etc. -- so that I can ask the right persons / write a bug report)

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Same thing as the thread's author. I freeze while using FireFox (0.8). It could be when I'm actively surfing or just letting it idle

 

AMD 2600+

512 DDR

Chaintech 7NJL3, onboard NIC

GeForce FX5200 128mb graphics card

 

MDK 9.2, under KDE... whatever version it came with on CD... ;-)

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Hmm.. I wonder if it has anything to do with the mouse driver??? It always seems to freeze while I'm doing something, like scrolling...

 

Anyone else notice this?

 

It doesn't have anything to do with firefox on my system, It just froze without me ever touching a browser...

 

Damn it! It was so stable before, too... :(

 

Hopefully changing the mouse driver will fix something...

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He he welcome in the club. Is it crashing only while using Firefox? If so then the obvious answer would be not using Firefox ;)

 

As I said before, I'm not sure we're even talking about the same problem. For example, in my freezes, I see my mouse pointer fine and I can actually move it around. However I can't:

 

- Click on anything (user interface is frozen)

- Restart X with ctrl-alt-backspace

- Change virtual consoles with ctrl-alt-Fn

 

What works for me is using kernel key sequences (alt-sysrq-key). With the latest (5336) nVidia drivers I usually am able to get out of a freeze with minimal damage by doing alt-sysreq-K, which kills the current console (kdm then restarts X in the next virtual console available).

 

Am I wrong if I say that everyone with such a freeze problem have

 

- a nVidia card

- a AMD cpu?

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Am I wrong if I say that everyone with such a freeze problem have

 

- a nVidia card

- a AMD cpu?

 

It certainly seems that way.

 

To me the problem is the nforce chipset which is a AMD chipset.

(I have my own problems becuase this causes all sorts of errors with the enterprise kernel. The nforce makefile seesm detrmined to only work for vanilla kernels and I tried just downloading the vanilla source and changing the extraversion and adding HIMEM - (After piddling about over the kernel headers being in the wrong place etc. ) when i try and make the nforce drivers I get all sorts of symbol errors....

 

Is anyone else using an onboard nvidia with shared memory ???

 

This happens to me on the shuttle FN41G / 1GB RAM with onboard nivdia graphics and the nforce2 chipset. (NIC/sound/USB)

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My crash doesn't just happen in X, it's happened in plain command line, too, so somethng's up.

 

I run memtest for awhile and my comp eventually seems to freeze. I hope that's not the problem, bad memory-- I paid 120 for this stick of Corsair RAM-- and it works fine in windows!

 

I'm going crazy.

 

I have an nForce2 chipset, AthlonXP 2500+, 512MB RAM, A7N8X-Deluxe.

 

I am going crazy. Let's see if it freezes now... I installed athcool and I'm going to see if power savings is the culprit.

 

Other possible culprits to similar freezing, from my investigations: ALSA, some "CPU Disconnet" thing (?), memory issues....

 

Everyone put down what hardware you're using, the nature of the crash (mine is COMPLETE crash, no response from anything, nothing works, hard boot is only way to get back in). Perhaps is we see a pattern we can send an e-mail to someone to get this fixed.

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