dual monitor setup - one is freezing

[RobJP]

i have been using linux for about 4 weeks. keep trying different linux distros and it has always been too much hassle to get working properly, but since i last tried 5 or so years ago it has come a long way and i am really liking it... and have settled on mint. yay!

so far i have been able to solve all of the small issues i have come across by trawling the internet, but i am not able to find a solution to this... nothing i find seems relevant.

i have recently setup an old 19" monitor that was on the "loaner" pc as a second monitor. i will try to give as much information as i can which may or may not be relevant... as i am still very much learning!

my main monitor is an AOC 27" and the second one is a BenQ.

i am using the latest mint cinnamon with all updates (including kernel) and nvidia drivers.

on my primary monitor i have the basic applets etc with some minor tweaks. the second monitor has a panel with CPU/mem usage graph, weather desklet (downloaded from the mint repository) and the time/date desklet - modified font size so i can see it from further away (didnt work as the BenQ viewing angles and distances are terrible... anyway...)

my PC is...
27" AOC (using an adapter for VGA as that is the only port it has)
19" BenQ

AMD ryzen 1600
8 gig RAM
MSI B350
nvidia 970 strix

my second monitor has frozen twice once was while playing a steam game and another time i have no idea what i was doing. i can see it, i can move the mouse about on it but the CPU/ram graph freezes in place, the clock applet stops updating and left/right clicks do not work. i tried dragging a window over to the second monitor and it doesnt display on it. but the desktop on my main monitor works fine. i can open things, type, left and right clicks work etc.

i turned power saving off just in case (not that i think that was the issue) and that didnt make any difference.

i have removed the weather desklet as there was a warning saying it may cause crashing/freezing. though seems it odd it would cause the monitor it is on to freeze.

[Mattyboy]

Hello, welcome to Linux and Mint

Whenever asking for help provide an overview of your system using the inxi command in the terminal

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inxi -Fxz

copy and paste the results using the code tags </> into a forum post. This helps diagnose your problems.

Have a read through this blog post https://blog.linuxmint.com make note of what it says about Kernel 4.15.0-24 and nvidia-3.04 and nvidia-340 and compare the results of inxi, these are both current known issues. Eliminate that first.

If you require further help you only have to ask

[RobJP]

thank you for the reply.

the blog post did not have anything relating to this issue. i will keep an eye on the monitor it and see if it does it while i am doing something specific.

and here is the output of inxi -Fxz

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System:    Host: OBDITXI-ryzlin Kernel: 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64
           bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.8 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1)
           Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B350 TOMAHAWK (MS-7A34) v: 1.0 serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1.H0 date: 05/02/2018
CPU:       6 core AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core (-MT-MCP-) 
           arch: Zen rev.1 cache: 3072 KB
           
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 40795
           clock speeds: max: 3400 MHz 1: 1377 MHz 2: 1376 MHz 3: 1376 MHz
           4: 1377 MHz 5: 1376 MHz 6: 1376 MHz 7: 1272 MHz 8: 1272 MHz
           9: 2459 MHz 10: 2336 MHz 11: 1578 MHz 12: 1522 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] bus-ID: 20:00.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) driver: nvidia
           Resolution: 1366x768@59.79hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
           version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.48 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h (Models 00h-0fh) HD Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 22:00.3
           Card-2 NVIDIA GM204 High Def. Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 20:00.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-29-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCIE Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: f000 bus-ID: 1e:00.0
           IF: enp30s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Atheros TP-Link TL-WN821N v3 / TL-WN822N v2 802.11n [Atheros AR7010+AR9287]
           usb-ID: 003-005
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 3016.3GB (10.5% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST500DM002 size: 500.1GB
           ID-3: USB /dev/sdc model: USB_2.0_Drive size: 500.1GB
           ID-4: USB /dev/sdd model: Ultra size: 15.7GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 443G used: 35G (9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb5
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 16.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%)
           fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 31.9C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0:52C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 287 Uptime: 43 min Memory: 1593.4/7990.9MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56 

[Mattyboy]

The 4.15.0-29-generic Kernel is a recent release so your problems may have been related to the older .24. Difficult to say, so monitor usage and as you say, make note of just what happens/whats running when/if it happens again.

You're current system Kernel and drivers look ok to me, but I have read debates over the .29 Kernel.. difficult to keep up with that at the moment

[RobJP]

it has frozen again.

i had firefox with 8 tabs open, steam and i was playing mount and blade warband. i found the logs location but no idea which one may be relevant. i looked at system reports under administration but it listed only a couple of cinnamon crashes from a few days ago (i assume that was when i was setting up the dual monitors and it didnt like me pressing apply twice in quick succession).

the only thing different to last time was no weather desklet.

(note for me to remember if i need to go through logs...22:58)

edit: i may have been alt tabbing when it happened (not sure).

edit 2: i can move the mouse over to the second monitor but when i try to drag a window over, i cant see it because linux assumes the monitor isnt there - linux just gives me the option to tile the window on the right as though the second monitor wasnt there when the mouse reaches the edge of my main display.

second monitor is showing in the displays panel. i can get the monitor working properly again by turning it off in the display options and then turning it back on again.

so whatever file controls the second monitor is crashing?

[lsemmens]

Have you loaded the nVidia drivers or are you using the default drivers from the boot disk? Select <Menu><Administration><Driver Manager> Are there any drivers listed there as requiring installation? That may solve your issue.

[RobJP]

Have you loaded the nVidia drivers or are you using the default drivers from the boot disk? Select <Menu><Administration><Driver Manager> Are there any drivers listed there as requiring installation? That may solve your issue.

i am using nvidia driver 390 (version 390.48-0ubuntu3).

i also have force full composition pipeline on as i was getting really bad screen tearing in games and on videos.

[Mattyboy]

I would run system monitor or

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top

and note what happens at the time of the freeze.... sounds a bit like you're exceeding system resources... firefox is now a bit of a hog. Keep an eye on what your RAM is doing.

[RobJP]

thank you to those that offered help. i think i have worked out what was causing the desktop on my second monitor to freeze.

i slowly changed some of the settings back to the out-of-the-box defaults and after changing the alt-tab options from from 3D to icons/text it seems to have stopped happening. though i have noticed there was an update to something that may have effected it also a few days ago. but i cant remember what the update was.

but either way, its fixed... though i no longer have pretty alt-tabbing

... oh well...

edit: for whatever reason i cannot edit the original post to "solved". i must be be not seeing something (there is no edit button)