System freeze
 

Once in a while my system freezes completely, only resolve is a hard reboot. this happens usually when the computer is working hard, but not always so. a friend told me it is the kernel that freezes, and that it could be a hardware problem. anyone know a way to figure out which component, if any, is bad?

I have a compaq pressario 2100 laptop with amd 2400 cpu, 512 MB ram and Mandrake 10.1 OE.

One likely cause for this behavior would be overheating. What kinds of temperatures do you see? Anything in the low 40's C (110 - 115 F) would be fine; if you're in the mid-50's or 60's C then I'd be willing to bet that heat is almost certainly the culprit.

You should also check RAM by using a utility such as memtest86 -- J.W.

I read somewhere that AMD's run at higher temperatures, and I certainly hope so, since I never see such low temps. the fan usually stops when the temperature approaches 60 C. most of the time, I have between 60 and 75. if it is supposed to run below 40, there is some major errors in programming.