Linux Distro - Xubuntu Crashing/hanging
 

*******Before answering I would greatly appreciate if you could please, please read the entire post, I know its long but I am really in a predicament, Thank you****************

It's almost been six months since I have been using Xubuntu and unfortunately it has not been a good experience :(.

The thing is that after almost 3-4 weeks of the initial usage the OS started crashing/Hanging without any specific reason. All of a sudden the screen would go Black and then reappear after 3 seconds and all fonts and other icons would really get messed up. I checked various forums and posts on the internet but could not find why this was happening so I reduced the OS usage and went back to my Windows 7 Dell Inspiron Notebook, (I am actually writing this post from my notebook).

After another 3 weeks or so when I again restarted using Xubuntu. The system constantly got hanged and would not respond after I worked for 10-15 mins while there were constant screen blackouts as mentioned above as well. It also sometime hangs right as it boots up.

Furthermore when I continue using Xubuntu even after the screen blackout, my system's response time becomes really slow and browsing static webpages is even troublesome so working on other software is out of the question. Now my system configuration is not very blazing as well Its an HP-Evo-D150 with 512mb RAM and 2.67 GHz Pentium 4 but I researched Linuxquestions.org before using the distro and people here recommended me Xubuntu seeing my Desktop's modest configuration.

Can someone suggest what exactly may be going wrong for my system to behave in such a manner. I mean I was using Xp before and even though it din't run exquisitely it was such that I could do a couple of administrative tasks but with Xubuntu I cannot even check my mail due to the latter problems. I am not in anyway suggesting that Xp is better then Linux, No way! but is it something wrong with the Distro, some bug or something else that's making my OS go berserk?

Lastly when I was installing Xubuntu I hanged right at the final screen of the installation. I was literally about to click finish when this happened and I asked on Linuxquestions.org if this would effect anything but seeing that I was able to run the OS without any problem initially, many suggested it was nothing to be concerned off. I want to know whether this may be the cause that the OS is acting abnormally when updates are later installed.?? Also I need to know if the distro and my Desktop configuration are compatible or not and whether I should move to some other Linux ??


Thank you so much for hearing me out
Waqas

I am taking a wild shot here. So, please use your best judgement in deciding whether to use this suggestion or not.

It is entirely possible that it is a graphics issue. I do not think you having problems at the last installation step was the root case of the problem though. Further, given your system's modest capabilities, I would recommend downloading Lubuntu and see if that works better since lxde is lighter than xfce in general.

Another potential avenue towards troubleshooting is to check various log files particularly the xorg log files to see if there are any indications towards the problems you are facing.

Hopefully this gives you a start. Good luck.

Sometimes an older laptop will start freezing up, locking up or boot to a black screen if the heat sink inside the laptop has become dusty or the fan begins to fail.
I just went through this with an old Toshiba laptop--

To check if your computer is overheating you can run this command to check the temp and than run the command a few minutes later to see if the temp is rising.
Checking the logs that nonamedotc mentioned is wise. Trying Lubuntu is indeed lighter-
Ensure that you download the correct version for your systems architecture! 32bit vs. 64bit--
http://lubuntu.net/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu

When you have the black screen do you get any kind of an error message?
Also you mentioned that your Dell is old. How old?

When I write this It gives me a message saying that no sensors we're found so I did

and all scans showed that no sensors were present in my system.

Out of options, I took a blower and manually cleaned the system but the problem still remains and my PC is still responding very slowly and I just now had a Black screen. Regarding weather I get any error message or not, well there is no error message but the screen blacks out for 3 seconds and then reappears making all icons and other GUI display messed up.

If nothing works out I would move to some other distro for but right now can you tell me how can I view the log files and what should I be looking for in it ?

If it's a graphics issue how do I fix it, and what would I be looking for in the log files and how do I access them ? Sorry but I am a noob in all this and have used windows all my life. Can you please help me out ?

Waqas

The xorg log files should be in this path:
/var/log/xorg

I have 2 and they look like this:
I opened my xorg and this is what the first few lines look like:
If you can't open the xorg file by right clicking on it than try this:
*(AS Root)
You will have to use the terminal and the text editor nano to view the file or files.
Like in my example:
Or right click on the file and open with gedit-

Here are a few webpages I found on the topic to help.
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=84684
https://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_rn=...265ed69af94e88

Thanks for all the instructions, I found the log files and I think their was an compatibility issue with Xfce and my PC. I also read somewhere that Xfce is not lightweight anymore with constant updates and other fixes so Lxde is probably better suited for me atm. Thanks for the suggestion and the help the heating issue was also a relevant factor. But nonetheless thanks for all the help. I am ultimately marking this thread as solved!!

Waqas

;) You're Welcome-

Have a good week!