I completely lost track of this thread. Glad to see things are kind of going better, but not entirely.

I kind of skimmed through the recent posts, I apologize if I repeat anything that has been covered.

I saw you bought a new PSU (or replaced it with another one you had), but you don't list the power or what hardware you do have (in its entirety). It's possible that you don't have enough juice.

Have you thought of sticking a fan directly on the box with the case open? If the freeze ups stop, then you know you have an overheating problem. Unless the thermal paste has COMPLETELY dried up on the CPU. Then it wouldn't matter if you put an air conditioner on it.

Sometimes, Linux just WON'T get along with your hardware. Do what you can to check your hardware against the compatibility list. If you have something that isn't listed, considering switching.

Brandon

edit: For temperature monitoring, look into lm sensors.

Maybe his computer finally broke?

Brandon

lol, no I've been really busy at work and it's working somewhat better now, but with significant slow-downs that I think are a sign of the age of my computer. The new power supply is an Antec Earthwatts (80%+ efficient!) 500W power supply. I only have one card plugged in (the LAN and audio are onboard) and that's my video card. I have a DVD-rom and a CD-RW, one internal hd and one external hd so I know it's plenty of power. I bought a new chasis fan (twice the amps of the old fan-- .26A).

Now my problems are related to setting up software so I'll post those elsewhere. As of now, I've picked out a new motherboard with onboard LAN, audio and video that's on the hardware list, packaged with RAM and an Athlon 64 X2 (dual-core) for about $188. I'm just waiting for the time when I can afford it. I think that will help me immensely with my multi-tasking-- music, browsing (research), e-publishing... I'm actually really wanting to also get a tv tuner card and start recording stuff I don't get to otherwise see, but I can't seem to find any place that sells the ones that definitely work with Linux (http://linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index.php...rds_in_use_now )

Just jumping in here. Just browsed the first page of this thread, but have to agree with the hdwr possibility. I can only give you my experience.

Have installed Mandriva (mandrake) versions on several dozen random PCs over the last 2 years - NO PROBLEMS with only one or two exceptions and in those cases the problems have been hdwr related to either bad memory and/or incompatible video cards.

You are expecting a GUI to work 100% of the time which it normally DOES in Linux. However, when there are crashes, it is usually only the GUI that has crashed and not the OS, unlike Windows in which the whole ship goes down. Now, on the desktop this is an annoyance for you the user, but in critical server situations, it is a MAJOR advantage to have the OS still chugging along.

Now do you see where the stability comes in to play? In real life, most system administrators either disable the GUI or don't install it in the first place for that very reason....so as not to be "distracted" by a graphical component.

Nice to see that you are jumping in with passion, but from what you've rattled off, you are attacking numerous challenges at once and this may not be the best way to go. Take it a bit at a time. Make sure you have googled about your hdwr and linux. This will save lots of time. Linux actually supports a HUGE range of hardware, but there's still so much flying off the shelves that it is statistically impossible for ALL hdwr to be recognized by ALL distros ALL the time. This happens in Windows, it's just that someone (a team usually) has already figured out these compatibility issues BEFORE you see the PC at the local Comps-R-Us store.

I have tried MANY distros and can confirm that Mandriva has an excellent combination of access to cutting edge/conservative software, enough of a user base to ensure plenty of help, a good release cycle, one of the best GUI usability and administrative tools in the Mandriva Control Center , excellent hardware detection and support, and one of the best installers around. Some distros may have one or two points better than MDV, but none all rolled into one. Purchasing the powerpack would be a good way to support the linux cause. The one downside of MDV is less than stellar corporate tech support, but I have been able to solve everything thru the forums.

More tips.

Several other excellent distros are CentOS, PCLinuxOS, Xandros and Kanotix.

Avoid the urge to distro-hop as this will only prolong the learning curve.

If possible, pick up an older PC ( Plll's can be had for under $100) that you can use to trash 'n learn.



Hope this helps

Another suggestion....

Keep an eye out on Craigslist for computers. I got an HP Photosmart A7248N... or something like that on Craigslist. Barebones, but it had a 64X2 +4200 processor, 300W PSU, DVD+-RW and DVD-ROM, onboard LAN, and onboard graphics card for TWENTY ($20) DOLLARS. Obviously the person had NO idea what they had. With some luck, you could find a similar deal for yourself. Just go to yourcity.craigslist.org/sys (in your case, it might be something like indianapolis.craigslist.org/sys).

There's people practically giving away servers. Some guy was selling a Dell Poweredge server that sold for about $10,000 5 years ago for about $75. It was a barebones, but still. As the previous poster stated, you can find PIII's for cheap. Cheaper than $100 in some cases.

Just keep in mind that you will never not have a problem with Linux. It's all about the trip though. Like the previous poster said, try to stick with ONE distro. You'll save yourself a lot of headache. I got on board with Fedora Core 6 and have been using it ever since. They come out every six months and it keeps me happy. Once you get some good foundational knowledge of Linux, it becomes MUCH easier to distro hop.

Regards,

Brandon

Thanks for your help and advice. Even though I kinda want to switch to Fedora, I'm sticking it out with Mandriva cause I like it too.

I looked on Craig'slist and think the people in Chicago are awfully shrewd with their pricing. I'll keep checking it out though-- who knows, maybe something stolen will show up that I can afford, lol.

To be honest, I'd really like to get a laptop for grad school next fall but the finances aren't complying. I've seen how Dell packages one particular laptop with Ubuntu, but I don't like Ubuntu's GUI.

You don't like gnome?, then just install kde, or xfce instead when you get it

The part of me that doesn't like gnome is not a part of me that I let have its way too often-- it's that part in all of us that doesn't like change. So maybe once Linux isn't so new anymore, I'll be ready to change the way my GUI works, but for right now, for sanity's sake, I need KDE. Isn't Kubuntu Ubuntu with KDE?

You can install KDE in normal ubuntu with sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop, all the *buntus are the same, just with a different package selection

Isn't all of this choice wonderful? Linux IS like Burger King. Let's just hope they don't take away the Whopper for a day.

Brandon

edit: Ace, the name of the city you live in is AWESOME.

Yes, it is. That's hands down the best reason to have switched from Windows to Linux... it makes you enjoy sitting at your computer again. I just starting using Hydrogen (drum machine) today and spent several hours playing with it. Now I'm trying to find a sequencer to add music to it.

I've noticed the freezes only come if I'm trying to rip a CD, regardless of whether I use grip or kaudio...

I keep a dual boot, but I haven't booted into Windows in quite a long time.

I keep it around for the occasional design stuff I do in Photoshop or Illustrator. To my understanding, Wine is coming around and is able to support CS2 now. However, I haven't really wanted to try that. I'm content with booting into Windows.

Brandon

Not sure whether this thread is all solved or not, but I vanished because of a family emergency (my mother died). I am back now and following up on things. Read this thread but not closely.

The lockup/release/lockup pattern associated with the burner is probably a bad burner, a bad power connection to the burner, or a power supply that is maxed out and the power to run the burner hardware is just tipping the PS over the edge, resulting in low voltage that hangs the system.

Replacing the power supply apparently has taken care of that issue so either the second or the third of the options was probably correct.

Issues with significant slowdowns can be diagnosed using the KDE System Guard Process monitor, or just with the top command.

When the slowdown occurs, some process will be sucking the CPU if the slowdown is software related. In this case it will show in top or in the KDE tool. This will let you zero in on and solve the problem, perhaps without upgrading the system.

For instance, I had a problem at one point where Amarok was occasionally running away for no reason I could see and burying the system. I wanted to run Amarok, so I changed its priority to +12 (very low) which effectively prevented it from hogging the CPU, and incidentally did NOT affect its ability to play music. The problem vanished with some update or other and I no longer have to do that.

Point is that the slowdown problem potentially is dealt with very simply, once the source is identified.

My condolences on your loss.

The slow-downs while ripping CDs (not burning them) still occurred after replacing the power, and even when I used a different drive (DVD-ROM vs. CD-RW), or different software (kaudiocreator vs. grip). Since I've finished putting all my music back on my hard drive, however, I haven't had this lock-up/release/lock-up issue at all.

I ran across KDE System Guard Process Monitor and ran it about a week ago and it kept popping up warnings that Firefox bin was causing slowdowns of the system. In fact, since then I've noticed how opening new tabs is annoyingly slow, moreso than it was under Windows and I've heard vague statements about Firefox being a memory hog or somehow draining system resources. What can I do from here, now that I know Firefox is causing slow-downs? Should I change its priority, and if so how do I do that?

Thanks so much.

I don't really care to look it up to confirm, but I think the beta version of Firefox is MUCH better. Much less of a memory hog. You may want to look into using that. It's also surprisingly stable for a beta release.

Brandon

edit: I just saw your signature with your setup... seriously look into upping your RAM. I used to run Fedora 7 and a few other distros with 768MB of RAM and an Athlon XP at 2ghz and it would run slow sometimes. I guess time is catching up with the old hardware.

I currently have an AMD 64 x2 +4200 and a gig of RAM with a Nvidia Geforce 8500GT (512MB DDR2 RAM) and Fedora 8 runs almost flawless. With the exception of Gecko (something to do with Firefox... anyone know?) having this ridiculous bug that makes it crash at least twice every day. Waiting on an update for it. Nothing yet.

Also, running the command 'uname -a' will tell you what kernel version you have. Just so you can fix your signature.