My background: Computer programmer and virtual model designer. Experienced in computers. However this is my first attempt to use Linux in any form.

My Hardware:
CPU: Intel i7-3770K
RAM: 16GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 650 Ti Boost
Resolution (A): 2560 x 1600 using Dual Link DVI
Resolutions (B): 1680 x 1050 (rotated sideways like wings on primary monitor) using 1 Single link DVI and 1 HDMI
Primary HD: 240GB SSD
Secondary HDs: 7x HDDs of various sizes ranging from 500GB to 3TB

Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 64bit running from USB 3.0

System boots up, regular or safe mode just fine. Then I get between 1 and 4 minutes to try to accomplish something before it locks up. Mouse still moves, but Icons don't highlight when I mouse over them, clicking on things does nothing, progress bars stop moving, even the clock stops moving.

I tried Kubuntu once before (14.04.3 64bit) and had a similar problem. I assumed it was Kubuntu and tried Mint Cinnamon. Those were my two primary choices based on features.

I know next to nothing about how to troubleshoot linux.

I know to keep track of what I was doing at the time, but there was nothing consistent. One time I was using built in firefox. One time I was trying to set up the install. One time I was using GParted to set up some partitions for the install. One time I was in the graphics settings trying to get the 2nd and 3rd monitor rotated properly so I could use them. All Different jobs. no consistent patterns except time, and even that is variable.

What am I doing wrong?
What can I do to fix it?
What can I do to troubleshoot and figure out what is happening?
What can I test to eliminate other possibilities?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Choices are the media, hardware and software.

Tell us how you made this usb.

Can you access virtual terminals with ctrl-alt-1 (for F1) key while it is locked up?


Bring up a terminal from gui and leave it open running top command.

Some distro's have a resource or system monitor program that may offer clues.

Try something not debian based maybe as mint and ubuntu have it in common.

Ok, I created the USB using "Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.6.3.exe" and the MD5 verified download of "linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso"

Once it locks up, no, I can not access any keyboard commands. Even CAPS LOCK doesn't change the light on the keyboard.

Is Kubuntu debian based? I haven't tried ubuntu.



Ok, tried this this morning.

Ran Integrity Check from boot menu - no errors
Ran Memory Test (for a few minutes, didn't finish - will run fully later when I have more time) - no errors yet.
Bios has 2 options for booting from USB: USB:Thumbdrive and UEFI:Thumbdrive
Tried both - same results

Before it froze, I tried a few things to see what happened.
Tried CTRL+ALT+F2 - worked just fine.
Tried GParted to set up my partitions - worked just fine - even completed the task it froze on yesterday.
Tried Install -- barely got window open before it froze

Tried CTRL+ALT+F2 - no effect
Tried CTRL+BACKSPACE - no effect
Tried CAPS LOCK - no effect - light on keyboard didn't even change - thought that was hardwired, odd.
Waited over 10 minutes to see if it would recover - no effect
Mouse still moves.

Instead of top, open a terminal and make it "stay on top". With Cinnamon maybe you can just right-click on the icon on the taskbar. Resize the terminal and put it where it can be read - maybe on the second monitor. Run this commandGo do something else till it crashes. Take a photo of that log screen and post it so we can see what happened.
Maybe.

If I use "nomodeset" then it doesn't crash with normal use so far. If I don't put it in, it won't boot.

However, I can make it crash every time I click on the button to edit user accounts... Not sure if that is related or not.

I spent an hour last night customizing settings on everything but the accounts page.