Thanks for the advice. When it freezes, the screen stays the same, but I cannot do anything (not even move the mouse or shutdown). I'm pretty sure it's hardware, so I'm about to send the laptop back to the supplier.

I had the same issue on my IBM T23 and my Dell C640, random lockup, when locked up have no mouse or keyboard Screen stay froozen, and my DWL-G650 Wireless card continues to blink the lights showing a connection. To correct have to power off the machine.

On thing that did help was to comment out the psmouse driver loading in the etc/module file.

Been playing on my IBM T23 all day an no lockup.

EDIT locked up after 14 hours.

Disro Debian
IBM T23
Dell C640

I installed "etch" on a Thinkpad Z60t - and whenever I attempted to play any audio CD with whatever player - within seconds after pressing 'play,' the entire system freezes. I deleted the weekly release I had installed (11/27/06) last night and re-installed, but with the newest weekly release (10/05/06) - and the same problem.

This edit resolved the lockup problem on my laptop (Thinkpad T30 w/ATI Radeon
Mobility 7500):

Modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Around the lines that look like this:
============
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility M7 LW
[Radeon Mobility 9000]"
Driver "ati"
============

Insert this before "EndSection":
============
Option "RenderAccel" "0"
============

I'm having similar problems with Kubuntu Edgy on a Acer Travelmate C310. Video chipset is nVidia, using the proprietary driver. I've been running Ubuntu in various forms for almost a year on this; the problem only surfaced recently.

It may be hardware related; it repeats much quicker if the laptop has been on for a while (and then rebooted) than if it has sat quiet. Notes from elsewhere seem to indicate that Ctl-Alt-Fx might work with a very long delay; if so, I will post more diagnostic information once I get it.

Yes. I tend to have a similar problem but only sometimes.
I do not have ubuntu installed on the computer in question (dell latitude C840), however I am trying to install it via live cd graphical interface. Sometimes the installer will crash and output the error that is in this bug report:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source...ity/+bug/78214
Other times the system will just lock up and I have to press the power button and reboot. I have absolutely no idea what is going on and have not been able to find any solutions. The only merely helpful suggestion that I have gotten was to download the alternate install and try that. However I have to wait for this to download and in the meantime I have no idea what is causing the problem in the first place. Does anybody have any idea what the problem is?
Thanks.

I meet the same problem too.
Tried Squeeze and Ubuntu 11.04, all freeze when it's idle for whole night.

My thinkpad SL510 is double-booted OS installed, Windows XP works well, so
no problem of the hardware.

Must be something wrong inside Debian!!! especially for laptop.

jazzi

@jazzi
You should start a new thread so someone can help you with your problem.