System falls very often

[Patyk]

Dear friends

I have problem with my older notebook and any OS.

Notebook Dell Inspiron 1525 (2x 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM).
This notebook is aprox. 8? years old. I have it for my little son (6years old) for learning with NB/PC(typing, reading, controlling the HW etc. Simply, basic stuff for kid.

I wanted install Mint 17.3. 64-bit But the system very often freezes. Most often with FireFox (youtube). The screen is locked(as the RAM is full). I used on the panel system-info so I could see, when the system is frozen, If the processor or RAM or HDD worked on max. It never worked on max. RAM was used only about 1GB from 2GB.

So I installed Win7 Ultimate 64bit. After a while I gave blue death. I had used chkdks -F(fixing errors), but no error on the HDD have been found. From different PC I checked disk with HDD regenerator 2011. No error.

So I installed Win7 Ultimate 64bit again and the blue death with restarts there were again. It happened sometime after 2 minutes, sometime after 2 hours.... Sometime on YouTube(FF), sometime on installing fixes...

So I tried live DVD Mint 17.3 64bit and the problem was same as the system was booted from HDD.

So I installed Mint 13 32bit(actual system now on the NB). No, when I watch YT through Firefox, the problem is like this: Suddenly, after few minutes of watching YT, black screen with some very long text appearers and only what I can to do is the hard restart.

Could anyone tell me please, what you need from me to post here for checking? Some log file or something from Terminal....

Thank you for your patiences.

[gm10]

Crash/bluescreen means a hardware issue, likely overheating since watching youtube possibly without hardware acceleration (8 years old computer that possibly never got the CPU fan dusted off and/or the thermal paste refreshed?), or equally likely a flaky PSU that cannot deliver a stable current.

Could be something else entirely as well, but the two above are the most likely culprits.

[Patyk]

Last week I have cleaned whole NB inside. The thermal paste is new(Artic MX-4). It is true, before the temp.wend up to 75°C and the fan was still on. Now it is about 55°C max and then the fan starts to blow and the temp.goes down to 40°C.

Last crash it happened just on duck duck web search page. I have made the pictures. Because of focusing on litters there are two images.

Tomorrow I will measure the voltage from source....

Thank you

Correction: I have deleted the info about dried of capacitors. I had forgotten about the source is not inside of NB but it is the supplier on the flour

[trytip]

for your laptop i would try mxlinux the 386 version which is much lighter than any mint version today. i would more recommend antix linux which is extremely lightweight but you may have hard time with the desktop which is not really a desktop but more of a window manager. you can still download both and try. i would stay away from 64bit even if the laptop handles it

[Pjotr]

Please generate an overview of your system like this:
- Launch a terminal window (this is how to launch a terminal window);
- make the terminal window full screen, to avoid chopped lines;
- Copy/paste this command into the terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

(if you type: the letter F is a capital letter)

Press Enter.

Copy/paste the output in your next message.

[Patyk]

mamita@mamita ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: mamita Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.6.3) Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Machine: System: Dell (portable) product: Inspiron 1525
Mobo: Dell model: 0U990C Bios: Dell version: A11 date: 03/10/2008
CPU: Dual core Intel Core2 Duo CPU T5550 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 7315.84
Clock Speeds: 1: 1828.964 MHz 2: 1828.964 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) bus-ID: 00:02.0
X.Org: 1.11.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card: Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.24
Network: Card: Marvell 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller driver: sky2 ver: 1.30 port: de00 bus-ID: 09:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 160.0GB (4.2% used) 1: /dev/sda ST9160301AS 160.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 39G used: 6.3G (18%) fs: ext2 ID: swap-1 size: 1.05GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 3.15GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 132 Uptime: 9 min Memory: 350.6/2004.1MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.6.3 Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.33

[Patyk]

I have measured the output voltage and there is 19.7v. On the label there is 19.5V. So 19.7V is ok.

[Pjotr]

A few remarks:

- I advise to switch to the lightweight Xfce edition of Mint 19.1, 32-bit (your current Mint 13 is unsupported and therefore very insecure):
http://mintmirror.math.washington.edu/l ... -32bit.iso

- Format in EXT4, not in EXT2 like you have now;

- Remove both the swap partitions you have now (one would have been enough anyway, but Mint 19.1 creates a swap *file* by default instead of a swap partition);

- After the installation, do these speed tweaks:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... -mint.html

- If you still have problems then, check the health of your hard disk (with the application Disks) and of your RAM (with Memtest).

[Patyk]

Thank you Pjotr

Ext2 and LM 13 is just for testing. Before (LM17.3) I had Ext4+17.3. 64bit. I just try diff.variability for diagnose the problem.
Since yesterday I have downloaded and on the usb-key 19.1 32bit.

I use the older 13 version because it is much lighter than the newer versions. I used 17.3 32bit on small notebook acer aspire one(1GB RAM+1.6?GHz CPU). It worked whole days without problem. Just the system was very slow. So I inst.there back 13 and the netbook works ok. I do not use it for Internet. Just reading e-books.

So it is the reason why I test now the LM13 on the DELL NB. It is lighter. I do not have any data on the NB, co security is not problem... But in future I will change to supported distro.

The swap part.- OK. I did not know the Mint creates swap file by itself.

HDD should be ok. I have tested it by HDD Regenerator 2011 and chkdks - no sector is bad. RAM are ok too(tested by DELL diag.tool).

[gm10]

The swap part.- OK. I did not know the Mint creates swap file by itself.

It's just the default, it wouldn't in case of your existing swap partitions, there's nothing wrong with keeping them (if you want to).

[Patyk]

Ok
I have to say new info.
I have done new memtestes. Thirst past with some mistakes(please, see pict.). Then I tested both modules separately(one module took off the slot). And both pasted ok. So I tested again both together and now it past ok too. Probably it happened because of this:

First thing I have done with this NB was memtest. The test pasted ok. But I had steel problem with the NB(frozen screen, or blue death, or sudden restarting of NB). So I cleaned the NB inside and changed thermal paste for CPU and checked HDD for bad sectors. I disassembled NB and took off both modules from slots. And probably I putted one of them back by wrong way...

Now I test the NB aprox.3h and it look fine. If anything, I will write again.

I am sorry I posted this problem here to bad section. It is HW problem(probably) and no Mate...

For now, Thank you

[Hoser Rob]

... I use the older 13 version because it is much lighter than the newer versions....

It won't seem lighter or faster when you get hacked. NOTE I say when, not if.

[Patyk]

I know it. Actually I use it only for FF and with Youtube. If anybody wants hack it, I do not care. Today it "plays" without any problem. Tomorrow I will change the OS to mxlinux 386 as it was adv.to me. I have got it already on the stick. And of course I will change to ext4.

I have ordered new RAMs(2x 2GB). So I guess this will improve it a lot.

thank you friends