Puppy randomly freezing.
 

Today I have experienced Puppy freezing a number of times. It only seems to happen while browsing the internet At first I thought that it was an issue with the Firefox 0.8b beta, which for some reason today has been crashing after 5-10 seconds of being open, so I installed Opera, however, the computer just froze again while using Opera to browse.

The only thing that I have done today is remove a 1GB PC3200 stick of RAM from my laptop and replace it with the RAM that came with the laptop (two 256MB sticks of PC2700 RAM). I don't know why Puppy would be acting this way. Yesterday I had no problem using Firefox or doing anything else for that matter and now today I am getting random freezes. Is there anyway to find out why this is happening?

edit: Okay, it isn't just when browsing, it just froze while I was navigating files through ROX.

Greetingz!

Well, if you have suspicious RAM, grab a memtest86+ ISO and run it for an hour or so. However, it kinda almost sounds like flash might be to blame...try avoiding sites that use flash, then go and hit up YouTube or something and see if it locks-up on you again.

Do your syslog logs show anything?

I am quite new to Puppy, where would I find my syslogs?

I think that flash may indeed be the problem. I have been using Dillo for the time being and general file browsing and using the e-mail client and the system hasn't froze on me once. However,
once I install Firefox and try to browse, after about five minutes the entire computer locks up and I have to hard-reset the computer. The odd thing though, is that whenever I disabled flash from the plugins menu the browser still locks up after the same duration of time. This happens with every browser I have downloaded (Firefox, Opera, Chromium).

What is the next step I shoudl take? Dillo is alright for general web browsing but it is sorely lacking the features of most modern browsers.

*sorry double post*

Look for a file named /etc/syslog.conf (or maybe "syslog-ng.conf") and see what it mentions. You may get lucky and find a /var/log/messages file, too.

Then this may not be a flash problem. Try testing your RAM as I mentioned before.

Does anything else cause a problem? Maybe try doing something CPU-intensive, like running stress?

I tried testing my RAM with memtest86+ and it came back with no errors at all.

After using Dillo and various apps for about an hour the computer actually did freeze. So, I don't think it is a flash issue. Somehow I am thinking it could be due to the laptop overheating perhaps? The fan is quite erratic and I have read that overheating can cause laptops to freeze.

I am not near my laptop right now (at a friend's place, on her computer) but I will check my syslog.conf when I can. However, since I am using a LiveCD USB version of Puppy will a syslog even be created? Once the computer locks up I have no choice but to manually power it down so I can't create a pupsave, which I assume must be necessary for the OS to log errors that may occur.

I will also run Stress when I get back home as well.

As far as I can tell, I am thinking it must be some sort of hardware issue. I also have a LiveCD version of Ubuntu and it froze while browsing the internet as well. I just thought it might have been a flash issue on that end as well.

I got this laptop on craigslist for trading a broken newer laptop I had, however, since I have had this laptop I have been having a lot of issues that seems hardware dependent. When I first got the laptop it shut itself off randomly the first thirty or so minutes into use and would not power back on for another hour or two after that. Also, the HDD has completely failed as well, hence having to boot Puppy or Ubuntu from either a USB drive or from a LiveCD. Lastly, the fan has been having issues too. I think the laptop is just old and at the end of it's time frankly, it is almost six years old now, which is pretty old for a laptop.

If you suspect it's a thermal issue, you can do one of two things (that will several cans of compressed air)

Newbie-Level
Shut off the laptop, and use a can of compressed air to blow-out every opening you see.

HardCore-Level
Get a screwdriver, 2 shot glasses, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a bag of Q-tips, and about 4 cans of compressed air.
Field-strip the laptop down to the boards, clean it all w/ compressed air and alcohol.

WARNING:
Don't try to "cheat" by using any sort of vacuume or anything like a hair dryer. Sensitive electronics die when hit with static electricity. For an example of static electricity, put on some wool socks, rub your feet on the carpet for 20 minutes, then lick a door-knob.
That split-second-sensation that you're being thrown across the room is exactly what a printed circut board (PCB) feels when it gets shocked.
The bonus is that you'll live after licking the door-knob (the PCB not so much).

You might also try removing the ram, swapping location, and basically reseating it.

Right on guys, thanks a lot for all of the suggestions. I will try these out as soon as I am back home (I've been spending time with a friend of mine the last week or so). I really appreciate it. Hopefully I'll be able to fix this, I am hankering to get back to learning C and doing some more coding.