My whole laptop crashes when I try to play videos

Pareeeee · 06-29-2020, 11:18 AM

A while back I was given an old Windows 7 laptop and resurrected it with MX Linux.

Whenever I try to play videos (in VLC or MPC) the whole system locks up. I can't even get to console with ctrl+alt+f2. I have to hard crash the whole system.

I am somewhere between beginner/intermediate so I'm not sure all the info you need to be able to help me. In the meantiome, I have gotten the basic system info from Terminal and attached it below. Let me know what else you need!

Thanks!

Code:

System:    Host: (username redacted) Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-amd64 
           root=UUID=71b6e607-7d29-4183-97b8-6aee16ff83e5 ro nouveau.modeset=0 quiet splash 
           acpi_backlight=vendor 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19.2_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire 5742Z v: V1.11 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Acer model: Aspire 5742Z v: V1.11 serial: <filter> BIOS: Acer v: 1.11 
           date: 12/15/2010 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 31.6 Wh condition: 46.4/47.5 Wh (98%) volts: 11.1/10.8 
           model: PANASONIC Li_Ion_4000mA type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Pentium P6200 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Nehalem 
           family: 6 model-id: 25 (37) stepping: 5 microcode: 7 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 bogomips: 8511 
           Speed: 931 MHz min/max: 933/2133 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1247 2: 1308 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Vulnerable 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
           STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
           driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0046 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: intel resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile v: 2.1 Mesa 18.3.6 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio 
           vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           chip ID: 8086:3b56 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom Limited NetLink BCM57780 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe 
           vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: tg3 v: 3.137 port: 3000 bus ID: 01:00.0 
           chip ID: 14e4:1692 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Broadcom Limited BCM43225 802.11b/g/n 
           vendor: Foxconn T77H103.00 Wireless Half-size Mini PCIe Card driver: wl v: kernel 
           port: 3000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:4357 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 596.17 GiB used: 11.55 GiB (1.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD6400BEVT-22A0RT0 size: 596.17 GiB 
           block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 34.18 GiB size: 33.39 GiB (97.70%) used: 11.47 GiB (34.4%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: /boot raw size: 512.0 MiB size: 487.9 MiB (95.30%) used: 82.1 MiB (16.8%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 3.91 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda1 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
           1: deb http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 198 Uptime: 16m Memory: 3.54 GiB used: 1.49 GiB (42.2%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36

fatmac · 06-30-2020, 04:27 AM

Judging from that info, there shouldn't be any problem, so maybe the ram is faulty(?).

In the mean time, try just removing & re inserting the ram sticks a couple of times, to clean the terminals, it's a long shot, but might help.

Edit: Other possible cause that I can think of is a sudden temporary break in power supply, which would leave it frozen.

Pareeeee · 06-30-2020, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac

Judging from that info, there shouldn't be any problem, so maybe the ram is faulty(?).

In the mean time, try just removing & re inserting the ram sticks a couple of times, to clean the terminals, it's a long shot, but might help.

Edit: Other possible cause that I can think of is a sudden temporary break in power supply, which would leave it frozen.

Thanks, I'll give the RAM thing a try. It's just strange that it only happens when playing videos...which I think would rule out power supply.

wpeckham · 06-30-2020, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pareeeee

Thanks, I'll give the RAM thing a try. It's just strange that it only happens when playing videos...which I think would rule out power supply.

If running videos makes both more use of memory and more use of power than your other operations then you have not really ruled them out. I agree with the advice to reseat the memory and see if that helps.

sp331yi · 06-30-2020, 08:23 AM

+1 RAM
Max it out, while you're at it, as a suggestion.

Are you running a SSD, or not?

Welcome, @Pareeeee

Pareeeee · 06-30-2020, 10:29 AM

I tried taking the RAM out and plugging it back in. Didn't help. This time when I tried to play a video it froze but the mouse could still move, and I managed to get to console and bring the desktop back with "startx".

The attached image is what was on the screen after coming out of console (I had to photograph it with my phone since any time I've ever seen this message, it disappears if I press any button). I have seen this message before, but usually after the laptop comes out of sleep. This is the first time I've noticed it while trying to play videos. I just duplicated it twice.

Also interesting to note - I can play YouTube videos via the browser without any issues.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sp331yi

Are you running a SSD, or not?

Just a 640GB HDD.

sp331yi · 06-30-2020, 01:35 PM

Probably a bad DVD/ROM optical drive. Since streaming is no problem, it points to hardware, IMHO. Do you have an external optical drive available to try?

Pareeeee · 06-30-2020, 02:10 PM

I don't think CD/DVD ROM is the problem because the files I am trying to play are saved onto my desktop from my camera.

wpeckham · 07-01-2020, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pareeeee

I don't think CD/DVD ROM is the problem because the files I am trying to play are saved onto my desktop from my camera.

In that case the critical hardware may be your main storage or the controller for that storage. I also want to know if this is a rotational drive or SSD. Would the same thing happen attempting to display the video if it were being loaded form a USB storage device? Please test.