Stability issues, but not before

[briwayjones]

I'm still new to Linux so I don't know how to proceed really when dealing with issues like I would be with Windows.
I'm running 18.3/Cinnamon and I'm having stability issues. They're gradually getting worse. It's starting to get beyond annoying. A couple of years ago I ran Mint 16 & 17 Cinnamon for about 4 months on all the same hardware without stability problems. I don't believe I have any faulty hardware. I came from Win7 and it tends to be picky about faulty hardware and it was doing fine.

At first I thought it might have been the video drivers I was using. The issues seemed to be tied to video intensive stuff. Playing games and watching videos. I've tried both the xserver display and the NVIDIA display drivers and it doesn't seem to make any difference. And I've been having the issues even when not doing video intensive stuff.

Some of the time the screen will freeze except for the mouse. I can still move the mouse around. It will be accessing the hard drive like it's doing something. Sometimes if I do something like hit the windows key to bring up the menu it will come up after 5 minutes or so. Sometimes it won't come up at all. Lately I've been getting more crashes where the screen will freeze including the mouse. But will still get the HD accessing. Occasionally it'll seem to be a complete crash. Screen frozen, no HD accessing no anything. And I get a handful of other random errors. Like when waking up from standby it'll come up with the login screen and then do a reboot. And other goofy things.

Here is the Xorg log file which I think is one of the main log files? Let me know if I need to get any others.

System:
AMD Phenom II x4 Black Edition 3.2GHZ
16GB GSKILL RAM DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT640 2GB

Thanks for any help.

Xorg.0.log.doc

[kc1di]

Hi sorry your having problems,
please go to a terminal and type this command and post the output here, this may help us to help you.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

In older equipment it can be something as simple as removing and reinserting the ram sticks.

[briwayjones]

Hi sorry your having problems,
please go to a terminal and type this command and post the output here, this may help us to help you.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Here you go.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: Quercus Kernel: 4.13.0-41-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   Mobo: Gigabyte model: GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H v: x.x
           Bios: Award v: F7 date: 05/25/2010
CPU:       Quad core AMD Phenom II X4 955 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 25714
           clock speeds: max: 3200 MHz 1: 800 MHz 2: 800 MHz 3: 2100 MHz
           4: 2100 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GK107 [GeForce GT 640] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@59.93hz, 1680x1050@60.26hz
           GLX Renderer: NVE7
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 NVIDIA GK107 HDMI Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
           Card-3 Creative Live! Cam Sync HD [VF0770]
           driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 001-004
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-41-generic
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: de00 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 7081.4GB (38.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD40PURZ size: 4000.8GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD20EZRX size: 2000.4GB
           ID-3: /dev/sdc model: ST380021A size: 80.0GB
           ID-4: /dev/sdd model: WDC_WD1001FALS size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 902G used: 64G (8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 17.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-0
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 53.5C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 220 Uptime: 18:23 Memory: 3351.2/7975.0MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

[kc1di]

I would deffinately install the correct Nvidia driver first of all Nouveau drivers just don't do well with most Nvidia card. According to Nvidia you should be using the 390 driver for that card which is not in the Mint repositories yet. The newest driver in the repository is 384. So there in may lie the problem. This page will tell you how to install the 390 driver on ubuntu/mint https://tecadmin.net/install-latest-nvi ... rs-ubuntu/
good luck.

[briwayjones]

I would deffinately install the correct Nvidia driver first of all Nouveau drivers just don't do well with most Nvidia card. According to Nvidia you should be using the 390 driver for that card which is not in the Mint repositories yet. The newest driver in the repository is 384. So there in may lie the problem. This page will tell you how to install the 390 driver on ubuntu/mint https://tecadmin.net/install-latest-nvi ... rs-ubuntu/
good luck.

That's good to know. With that said though I was using the 384 drivers at first with all the same problems. I switched to the Nouveau driver hoping it would make a difference.

[kc1di]

while the open source nouveau drivers do a great job of trying to reverse engineer the drivers for Nvidia, on newer cards they don't always get it right If you do want to run Nouveau you have to stop the modesetting function by using nomodeset in the boot parameters. And you'll have to do that permanently by modifying the /etc/default/grub file.
and still you won't get all the functions from a newer card. It's usually better to use the correct Nvidia driver for you card.

[briwayjones]

Anybody else have any ideas?

[briwayjones]

I never did figure out what the actual problem was. I ended up doing a reinstall and that fixed the problem.