G'day.

I have over the past few days experienced a lot of freezes. The symptoms are that the mouse can be moved and any music playing at the freeze continues to play (usually), but nothing clicked on works. Hitting Ctrl-Alt-F1 takes me to the recovery screen, but whilst I can enter the username, I'm not prompted for a password - it just returns to the username login. The only solution I have found is holding the power button down, which I hate doing. I've just been reminded of the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace combination, and haven't tried that. I've checked pretty exhaustively through the logs, and can find nothing.

My PC configuration is as follows.

inxi -Fx
System: Host: Deep-Thought Kernel: 3.8.0-19-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.7.3)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 15 Olivia
Machine: Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M4N68T-M version: Rev X.0x Bios: American Megatrends version: 0703 date: 03/19/2010
CPU: Quad core AMD Athlon II X4 630 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 22504
Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz 3: 800.00 MHz 4: 800.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA G73 [GeForce 7600 GS] bus-ID: 02:00.0
X.Org: 1.13.3 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz, 1920x1080@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce 7600 GS/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.88 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card: NVIDIA MCP61 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:05.0 Sound: ALSA ver: k3.8.0-19-generic
Network: Card: NVIDIA MCP61 Ethernet driver: forcedeth port: d480 bus-ID: 00:07.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: e0:cb:4e:b9:57:b5
Drives: HDD Total Size: 2160.4GB (23.6% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: INTEL_SSDSA2CW16 size: 160.0GB
2: id: /dev/sdb model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
Partition: ID: / size: 147G used: 8.4G (6%) fs: ext4 ID: /home size: 1.8T used: 467G (28%) fs: ext4
ID: swap-1 size: 16.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0C mobo: 26.0C gpu: 0.0:60C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 2351 sys-1: 0
Info: Processes: 234 Uptime: 1:02 Memory: 5868.9/7986.2MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.7.3 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

Thanks,
Edwin

Other symptoms: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace emulates Ctrl-Alt-F1: takes me to the recovery screen, but whilst I can enter the username, I'm not prompted for a password - it just returns to the username login.

Also network speed got really poor just before a freeze.

Turned out to be a Cinnamon desklet. I had two running - an analogue clock and an audio control. Uninstalled both, and the problem went away.