I can't explain then why, after I replaced thermal compound, it's working without any problems for over 2 days now without reboot.

seven@openSuSE:~> uptime
3:24pm up 2 days 20:10, 3 users, load average: 0.23, 0.52, 0.61

Have a look here: http://www.softwareinreview.com/cms/content/view/84

Another couple of questions:
 

I noticed that everybody on this thread, like me, is using nVidia cards.

Anybody using ATI video cards and having the same problem?

Anybody using nVidia cards and the generic, non-3D Linux driver in openSUSE 10.3 having this problem?

It seems to me if I am not taxing the video too much, and have only one browser window open and nothing else, or have only one mail client open and nothing else, I do not have a problem. Does this square with anybody else's experience?

I apologize for the second post.

Maybe ...
 

Perhaps when you replaced the thermal compound with some new stuff the heat transfer efficiency increased to the point where you've gone over some kind of threshold and the software is now happy. Just speculating.

I have an older Athlon x86 2100+ which runs REALLY hot, 40 degrees C compared to 27 degrees C on my newer x86_64 Athlon dual core. It has an upgrade from openSUSE 10.2 to 10.3 and I am having no problems whatsoever with it.

The DVD question was to see if the folks on this thread followed the same course as I did in order to get DVD movies going, and, if so, perhaps the issue was with that software. However, I simply loaded the VLC media player on mine and was done with it, so I'm thinking that isn't the problem.

I can't escape the hunch that it has something to do with the 3D video driver, though. I'm typing this post on my older, hotter machine, and every once in a while I switch over to the newer box running on another desk. It doesn't seem to matter how long I let the x86_64 running, as long as I am running just one application on it, it seems to be just fine. It has been running for about an hour now, let me test something ...

Well, I'm running multiple windows in FireFox, playing a .wmv file with VLC, have the My Computer Konqueror window open, have Kooka running, have K3b running ... everthing is running just fine.

I'm stumped.

obutterball,
I think you might be onto something here. But I have never attempted to play nor write a DVD of any kind, and not yet bothered to install any related software; the only use I have made of the DVD system is to install my SuSE. I am still suspicious of Konqueror because it only happens to me while Konqueror is open, and I have a lot less trouble since switching Firefox (where I have never seen it happen). In my case it has never happened while I am not browsing the internet - just while Konqueror is open (even though I might be doing something else). Just thought: is it due to an external person breeching/ try to breech security via Konqueror?
Colin

Konqueror? I'll test it.
 

colinlc:
Yeah, I've pretty much nixed the idea it was something to do with the DVD process.

Later on today, when I get a chance, I'm going to experiment with really loading my box up with some Konqueror tasks so I can test your theory. My understanding is that Konqueror is involved, in the background, with so many tasks on openSUSE that you may be right about this.

If I can get it to hang, consistently, then I'm going to try to use the generic, non-3D video driver for on this machine and see if it still happens.

I just woke up and started my machine.
Invoked Konqueror and went to this site.
My machine has not hung, but
KDE Crash Handler came up with this message:

(no debugging symbols found)
[KCrash handler]
#6 0xf6f3a8c8 in XtAppPending () from /usr/lib/libXt.so.6
#7 0xf71b7c30 in QEventLoop::enterLoop () from /usr/lib/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#8 0xf71b7ac6 in QEventLoop::exec () from /usr/lib/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#9 0xf71a0c1f in QApplication::exec () from /usr/lib/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#10 0x0805a845 in main ()

Any ideas?
By the way, I do not have a 3-D card, so maybe a red herring.

Also (long shot) "think" that my machine has never hung while I have been typing.
Deduction? Mouse? or particular software?
Colin

I have the same problem with my Acer TravelMate 5623 laptop, which has an nVidia Go 7300 graphic card and OpenSuse 10.3. The machine hangs on extended DVD access (both read and write) and also extended hard drive access, so copying large files is problematic.

Disabling ACPI cures the problem, but then I'm unable to see the state of battery charge, which is very annoying. If anyone can suggest a proper cure I'll be deeply grateful.

Crashes
 

My computer is still crashing under Suse 10.3. Here is a line from boot.msg

<5>Kernel command line: root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_HTS424040M9AT00_MPA248Q2DBGZSL-part7 vga=normal ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3

Thought, or hoped it might just be overheating, but someone said his Laptop goes to 85ºC and still works, so that ain't the prob.
Anyone know how to stop the crashes?

Further to crashes
 

My computer crashed, again. Had to switch it off by holding down the off button. When I restarted, it wouldn't work, just a garbled screen, as usual.
So I rebooted into failsafe. After logging in I did startx, which gave me the boot login screen. Since then, several hours now, no crash. A miracle, getting close to Xmas?

obutterball - are you still around?

SuSE 10.1 was fine, but 10.3 hangs with regularity.
In my case it only hangs while on the internet.
Never, I repeat 'never' when I am not software connected.
My machine is always hardware connected, and I had no problems under 10.1, so I doubt
that it is my hardware. (Maybe ethernet card problem?)
Colin

Are you using compiz? It may not be mature. Sometimes there is a hardware quirk in not sticking to standards which need to be discovered and worked around over time. Unfortuately, this isn't uncommon for BIOSes and video devices. It is even worse for laptops. They tend to use less expensive components and are more concerned with reducing power than in the quality of the components.

Disabling acpi and dma are very drastic things to do. I would try disabling lapic first. Modern computers have more interupts and acpi helps set up the sharing of interupts.

You might try finding out if a newer bios version is available for your model. That fixed a screen resizing problem I had years ago on an HP laptop.

Hi jschiwal,
No, no compiz. I do not have a 3-D card.
Never play any movies of any format. No use of DVD reader since installation.
The only graphics pressure I put onto my system is to flip through my still photographs.
Don't use sound.
My system is always connected to broadband, and never had trouble with my kmail.
My system only fails when I am using Konqeror to browse the web (or I think Firefox, but that is not certain).
How about this idea: I have noticed that if I have a lot of tabs and/or windows open in Konqueror then it fails. Maybe Konqueror has a bug in that it is not properly releasing memory when a tab/window is shut down. I can't be sure of this, because my system fell over once when I started up and invoked Konqueror to browse the web.
Colin

I have the same problem. It has to be something with konqueror. My system freezes when I am on the web - not browsing but when it is one page opened and I left it like this - doing nothing - when I am away from my comp. When I am back the system is not responding, I have to use the Power button to shut it down.

Hey, colinlc
 

Yeah, I'm still around.

I've tried everything from using the Linux default, non-3D driver to trying disabling acpi. Nothing seems to work, and I can't isolate a single process which is at fault.

Sometimes I'll go along for 3 hours, running FireFox with multiple tabs and getting all of my email, and nothing happens. Runs like a champ.

Other times I'll open a second tab in FireFox and within seconds the mouse will move but the left button does nothing, and then a minute or so later the mouse will freeze and I'm dead in the water.

The only thing I can say, definitely, is that it is only happening on 64-bit machines, seems to be tied, MOST of the time, to Internet access and nobody I know running an ATI card is having a problem with it.

I am truly stumped.

G'Day obutterball and riba43.
After reading your last response I submitted the bug to Novell.
I asked them to look at this discussion on this site.
I hope it gets to the right people.
I did find a similar discussion on their site but it petered out.
I am still hanging, but less often these days as I have had less
need to browse the web.
Keep in touch.
Colin