Random freeze in old Laptop
 

Hello to everyone, this is my first post in this community, I'm a bit competent user of linux, I don't have troubles in install the most part of the distributions and configuring the most part of the hardware or installing software even without the packages (maybe just things like virtualbox), and after some time to leaved aside I will try to reconnect with this.

The last weeks I have been trying to reinstall a Linux distro in my laptop Asus X553S these are the specs:

• 8 GB Ram

• Pentium Processor N3700 4 cores, 1.6 GHz

• Hard drive 20 GB for root partition, 100 GB home partition, 2 GB Swap

• Integrated intel graphics card

• Wifi Bluetooth card Realtek RTL8723BE

I tried to use Mageia and Zenwalk (currently instaled), in both cases occurs a "random freeze" it is a complete freeze, no mouse, no keyboard, no audio/screen events, it is required a hard reset with power button, no one special task before the freeze (looking files, using web browser, etc.), usually takes a few minutes (around 10 to 15 minutes), but in other scenarios occurs very quickly (2 or 3 minutes of usage), the RAM is not an issue their usage rarely is above to 1 GB.

I discard a hardware issue because Windows runs fine, the freeze occurs even in live mode, and I executed Memtest without issues, actually around two years ago the machine had an Antergos running fine (unfortunately during one update I left the computer unplugged, the batery drain out, and the SO was useless, aditionally the distribution is discontinued)

In the log files (messages, syslog, dbus and Xorg), nothing strange appears, and actually the first time that I tried to install and use Linux there, I had the same troubles (even with Ubuntu family distros, only with Antergos I could help it that issue).

One of my major suspects points to cpu-freq tool, something consistent is if I set the lower fixed freq, the freeze delays in appear, but setting it in default options reproduces the freeze relatively quickly .

Any idea or suggestion in order to still investigating? (I would like to know the root cause before to go to the Arch family again, or try another family like Gentoo or Void).

That's an ancient laptop. My first guess is a hardware problem. Heatsink clogged with dust, heat sink paste dried out elderly fan causing the cpu to overheat. Install the lm_sensors package. Run 'sensors-detect' once to find your sensors. Then just run 'sensors' to get the temperatures. I'll bet your cpu is overheating. Just power up and check every minute or two. You'll spot the trend, and the threshold.

If you really want to cook things, pick a directory with some 100MB in it, and run mksquasfs on it, e.g. 'mksquashfs ~/Downloads/'. That uses 100% of every thread your cpu can manage.

Hi, I don't think so, the temperature reported by lm-sensors is about 55~60 Cº, and I don't need to use intensively or for a long time to get the freeze (a few minutes is enough), even I set the fans to full velocity with the same result, and as I mentioned currently is installed a Windows and could be running for hours without any issue (in this situation the case could be a bit hot, but not freeze from the SO).

Yes, it is most probably a hardware error. Need to check hdd, ram, battery and probably clean (remove dust).
If you think it is a software error just run a live cd without installation and see if that works. I can't believe that all linux distributions will freeze the laptop in the same way. Also I don't think you can do that with cpu-freq tools.
Windows uses different part of the hdd (or another one?).

What (exact) version of M$Windows is currently running 'fully perfectly' on it? 21H2? 10.0.19045.2006 ?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ant...4.iso/download
What version worked okay? Hopefully you could (find&) download it and run it again. If it hangs, you then must face the fact that your Hardware has gotten ill!!!

I like the idea of running
*in single (init 1 or 3 or init=/bin/sh) https://github.com/plougher/squashfs-tools
I. E. try: mk big squashfs with NO GUI running.

REISUB? (Be sure it's enabled!) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key
Can you ping it from another system when it's hung? Likely not.

Maybe give (live) MX21 & Ubu22.04 a try.

IDK cpufreq-* but try this Web-research:
cpufreq intitle:freeze|hang

Ideally in single-user mode so the GUI doesn't do all kinds of things in the background, at the lowest/highest speed, try some things that heavily saturate both CPUs (maybe even one at a time?)...

And even if you absolutely do not believe in it, look into the cleaning suggested. (Aka 'swallow your pride', for the sake of Asus's life;))

@allLQ'ers: Does Linux use the hardware in some [stressful / unique CPU instruction(s)] way that M$Windows (version ?) does not? (I humbly have lots to learn!!!)

P. S. It's 'better' than all of my 10 laptops!!!

It's slightly odd that you appear to be refusing advice after asking for advice.

I'll exit the thread at this point. There is general agreement that what you have is a hardware problem, which basically condemns any box of that age. If you want to isolate your problem, work is required on your part.

Fix for the issue, adding an additional parameter to the boot loader
 

I leave the issue for some time but some months later, I found something interesting around half year ago:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109051

I applied the fix described, adding a new parameter (intel_idle.max_cstate=1) for the boot loader (in my case is Elilo, but also works with grub), and finally I got a stable distro (also I replaced Zenwalk by Salix, but is still a Slack family), as I don't use many often my laptop probably I will leave it with the Salix distro for some time.

Just for info ,the syntax is the following for elilo.conf (are published a lot of examples with grub), put it in the end of the file.

I forgot to update the thread in the last months, sorry, also reading again my description probably I should have to add more details about the case.