Halp!!! CPU panic!!!

[sMash!]

Twice now over the last seven days, my laptop has suddenly and out of nowhere started to bog down severely. When I run sys monitor, it will show that one of the two cores will be running at or near 100%, and alternate over from moment to moment between cpu1 and cpu2....but when I check processes, nothing is running at more than 4%, totalled together?!? I tried shutting off compiz, restarting the computer several times, disabling wifi and disconnecting the LAN, quitting mintupdate, everything I could think of. It is currently still sitting here in front of me [i'm on my second lappy typing] running about as fast as a PII with Vista on it. Have had absolutely no problems with it over the last month or two, until now, and the first time I had it happen it just cleared up on it's own [after doing all of the above with no meaningful proof any of it was the culprit]. When it isn't happening, compiz runs likes it was made for this laptop though, every effect possible running without a hitch.
Any one have a similar experience, or know what could be causing it? Or can tell me what info I need to provide for others to troubleshoot? Thanks in advance.

LinuxMint 6 Felicia, fully updated
HP dv5-1183cl
c2d 2.0Ghz
Nvidia 9600M GT
4G ram

*edit*-shutting OFF system monitor made a slight improvement. And it isn't overheating, GPU was at a relatively cool 40'C.....

[dlkreations]

Are you running anything specific when this happens, or are you just sitting idle with no other programs running when this takes place?

[sMash!]

Are you running anything specific when this happens, or are you just sitting idle with no other programs running when this takes place?

Don't remember what all was running the first time it happened last week; this time, just Firefox, System Monitor, and Transmission working a torrent. Like I said, first thing I did was shut down all internet appliances from the laptop, physically disconnecting the LAN, shut off FF, sysmon, and Transmission. Then restarted a few times, leaving everything off. No luck; when I re-started sysmon to see what was going on, it opened and showed the 100% cpu cycle and everything was jerky. That's when I shut off all desktop effects too, still no change. It was still so bad while I had sysmon open that when trying to change back and forth to check processes and the cpu, it would hang and do the faded out thing for about twenty seconds each time I switched tabs. Closing sysmon made a small improvement; was able to turn compiz back on and cube ran fine but window effects were slow and application switching was jerky. I'm stumped, it seems to be a freak thing that happens when it wants to, for no obvious reason.

[dlkreations]

This is odd indeed. I am running the x64 version, and while running Firefox, Rhythmbox, Compiz, and GIMP my CPU1 never goes beyond 38% while CPU2 stays pretty constant at about 10 - 15%. I did run MintUpdate and my CPU1 cycled to about 80% then went back down. So I am stuck as to what the problem could be. Maybe check your processes again when this happens and see what is taking your CPU cycles.

btw are you running x32 or x64 edition?

[rlindsey0]

Twice now over the last seven days, my laptop has suddenly and out of nowhere started to bog down severely. When I run sys monitor, it will show that one of the two cores will be running at or near 100%, and alternate over from moment to moment between cpu1 and cpu2....but when I check processes, nothing is running at more than 4%, totalled together?!? I tried shutting off compiz, restarting the computer several times, disabling wifi and disconnecting the LAN, quitting mintupdate, everything I could think of. It is currently still sitting here in front of me [i'm on my second lappy typing] running about as fast as a PII with Vista on it. Have had absolutely no problems with it over the last month or two, until now, and the first time I had it happen it just cleared up on it's own [after doing all of the above with no meaningful proof any of it was the culprit]. When it isn't happening, compiz runs likes it was made for this laptop though, every effect possible running without a hitch.
Any one have a similar experience, or know what could be causing it? Or can tell me what info I need to provide for others to troubleshoot? Thanks in advance.

LinuxMint 6 Felicia, fully updated
HP dv5-1183cl
c2d 2.0Ghz
Nvidia 9600M GT
4G ram

*edit*-shutting OFF system monitor made a slight improvement. And it isn't overheating, GPU was at a relatively cool 40'C.....

What kind of wireless card do you have? If it's an Intel 3945 or 4965, believe it or not, that may be part of your problem. I had similar issues to you, though perhaps not quite so bad. Not only did I have similar CPU issues, but I also built up some huge 2 GB logs somewhere in /var/log. It's something to do with funky Intel wireless drivers in Intrepid and things built on it.

See this thread, especially the link to the patch in the last post. I applied this patch, which supplies improved Intel wireless drivers, and I deleted those enormous logs. I have not had any of those problems since.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=23913

[sMash!]

cant really see any of those logs being "huge" but i'll give it a try. is it safe to just delete all of the ".log" files in there?
and is there a way to tell which wireless cared I have without booting into windows, from Mint? I cant remember what card it is

5 minute update:
downed and ran htop, it shows a disturbing line in the number one slot for cpu%:
/usr/X11R6/bin/x :0 auth /var/lib/gdm/:0 Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7 <----usage varied but was very high, eventually would settle down...then spike again. nothing else running over 3%, most running @ 0%.
also have now discovered to primary problem makers:
1)when running system monitor, tabbing to resoures immeadiately spikes cpu and vastly slows computer, tabbing back to processes speeds it back up (still not showing a major culprit)
2)Firefox now running slow as molassas; while typing this it what I type has a huge delay of actually arriving on screen.

still very stumped here, it was running perfect absolutely perfect and then *blam* this. help!!!

[rlindsey0]

cant really see any of those logs being "huge" but i'll give it a try. is it safe to just delete all of the ".log" files in there?
and is there a way to tell which wireless cared I have without booting into windows, from Mint? I cant remember what card it is

Well, I deleted the 2 GB ones and didn't have a problem.

On my laptop, the wireless card shows up under Network Controllers if you run lsusb in Terminal (or hardinfo, if you have that installed).

[Zwopper]

Have you tried running a "memtest" from the Grub screen?

[sMash!]

just got off work, haven't gotten to tinker too much yet.
yes, one of the first things i did was run memtest; all pass, no fails.
my wireless card is an Intel PRO/Wireless 5100.
currently, laptop is running *almost* normal, just hiccups every couple of minutes for a second.
much strangeness.....desperately waiting for Gloria

since it was mentioned earlier (and i failed to elaborate, sorry) i am running 32bit Felicia, as i understand there are no problems running 32 on dual-core machines and some people actually recommend that there is not much tangible improvement to be had-and possibly some few problems-from installing one of the 64bit distros. am i incorrect, and should probably install a 64bit version? i've had no unsolvable issues in almost two months of running Felicia on this machine, until this popped up.

[sMash!]

meanwhile, back at the farm..............

it's been running surprisingly VERY normal for a while now. and i think i may have narrowed down the gremlin....yer gonna love this...
Gnome System Monitor.
i opened it while everything was running smooth, it opened on Processes and everything was still hunky-dory. but as soon as i tabbed to Resources all hell broke loose--cpu straight to 100%, gray-out of sysmon for several moments. when i finally managed to get it to tab back to Processes, everything quieted down. STRANGENESS!!! any ideas of why GSM on monitoring resources could suddenly become a liability application? is it fixable by reinstalling or anything? thanks for all the input and patience by the way.

*edit*...and now, it does the same whenever Firefox is working a page again, or when i'm doing something like typing this........CRAP