2016-04-12

My Dell computer features 2GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and a 32-bit/33MHz integrated GE graphics card, Model 82845G. Ubuntu 12.04 crashes frequently on this machine but not on my other machines with the same hardware capability. Linux can freeze suddenly while I am posting a message at this website or when I am writing a message in Thunderbird. The Thunderbird symptoms are double printing, sudden color changes of headings, and a frozen system clock.

I'll appreciate any help or advice from this forum.

Julianvb

Hi Julianvb...

Some ideas for things to look at/for...

HARDWARE:

1. Check your memory for errors using Memtest86+.

2. Check your hard drive for errors using the manufacturer's diagnostic utility or Ubuntu's S.M.A.R.T. monitoring tool. Please see Ubuntu's wiki page here. Most likely you have this package installed and if that's the case, simply run the desired commands mentioned. If you would like help in finding the manufacturer's diagnostic tool, please post back with the manufacturer of your hard drive along with the model and model number.

3. If this is a desktop system, open the case and look at the motherboard. Any capacitors that look swollen or the top is pushed upwards? Please see here for more information. Also, try reseating the memory modules (sticks) and any cards.

4. Check the heatsink and fans of your CPU and GPU. Are any of them clogged with dust or not working? What temperatures are they running at?

5. If your system is a Desktop, test your PSU (power supply,) if possible. You can use a tester like this one.

SOFTWARE:

1. Take a look at the various system logs mentioned here. Are there any errors or does anything stand out?

2. How or when did this problem start? As soon as you installed Ubuntu or after you installed or uninstalled a program or driver?

Some of the hardware recommendations above are quite technical in nature. If you are inexperienced and/or uncomfortable with performing them, please consider taking your system to a reputable technician/computer repair shop to have this done.

Hope this helps...

Regards...

1 members found this post helpful.

i'm not sure about this info.
so you suspect the gpu/driver responsible for the crash?

please post output of

That might be rambus memory too but not that it matters. Can't hurt if all other tests fail to improve it to reseat all that can be reseated.

Like a 20 year old computer?

Looks like a 12 year old. Just like my emotional state of mind.

Hi, Everyone,

Thanks for your great advice. I normally don't rely exclusively on this old machine. I keep playing with it in order to learn something new as I am a retired diagnostic electrical engineer and simply love to debug things.

I've just run Memetest86+ for 11 hours (6 passes) error-free and all the capacitors look good physically. I'll try to see if I can duplicate these symptoms by running this computer's other operating system, namely Windows XP.

ondoho, I did somewhat suspect the VGA card. But my Windows XP test should easily give me a definite idea about it. By the way, when I ran lspci, I failed to get much useful info on the card.

Thanks again. I'll post back as soon as I can.

Julianvb

I've just run fdisk and found the hard drive to be good. Bad blocks reported no errors. However Ubuntu's System Testing app passed only three parts of the Graphics Card test, namely resolution, minimuom_resolution,and display, but failed compiz_check.

Testing the computer's Windows XP operating system turned out to be harder than I had thought as it is now practically unusable. When I tried to test the hard drive using SeaTools, Windows XP would not install it. Ubuntu 12.04 is definitely way ahead of Windows XP or even Windows 7 as far as I know.

Conclusion: the system's RAM and hard drive seem good but the (integrated) video card is certainly questionable.

Julianvb

well i can only repeat my request from my previous post.

2016-04-15

Hi, Everyone,

I re-installed Ubuntu 12.04 only about half an hour ago and the system crashed soon shortly after I opened up Thunderbird. I tend to think that I have a hardware problem with this old Dell Dimension 2400 desktop.

Julianvb

ondoho,

Can you elaborate on your latest message? I don't readily grasp it. Thanks.

Julianvb

He wants

from what I can tell.

1 members found this post helpful.

^ yes, that's what i meant.

2016-05-01
Hi, Everyone,

When I last tested my Dell desktop with Browser Linux, everything worked fine. But when I reverted to Ubuntu 12.04, my various system recurred immediately. I couldn't help but conclude that the computer's power supply was all right and that some integrated hardware had gone awry. I finally donated this machine to Goodwill as it would be counter-productive for me to spend additional time on a defective (old) motherboard.

Thank you all so much for your generous help and advice.

Julianvb