SUSE 11.2 "hangs" randomly with Dell Dimension Desktop

**apriest** · 24-Oct-2010, 21:21

I love openSUSE (using 11.2). I have it installed on a Dell Dimension 2400 (2.4G Celeron CPU, 2G RAM), but I have a huge problem. It will randomly freeze during operation. I'll be able to move the pointer with the mouse but unable to click anything and I have to hold the power button down to shut it down and restart. The problem seems independent of the program I am using or what I am doing with the machine. I have not been able to recreate the problem. One more detail. The same problem occured when I had Ubuntu 9.10 installed on the same machine.

Any ideas?

**caf4926** · 24-Oct-2010, 21:29

It will randomly freeze during operation

I have not been able to recreate the problem

I'm not quite sure what to make from that
But when you say randomly, do you mean randomly once a day, or once every 10min?

If it's frequently random, you could leave a terminal open running 'top' and see if you can catch any obvious indications from that.
Check .xsession-errors too

**smpoole7** · 24-Oct-2010, 22:13

It's possibly the Intel graphics. I had a similar problem with my Compaq/HP laptop, but typically only when I was doing graphic-intensive work (running Celestia or Google Earth or editing graphics, for example). I haven't had the problem on my laptop since I upgraded to OpenSuse 11.3 and changed to Gnome. Maybe the drivers have been improved.

**gropiuskalle** · 24-Oct-2010, 22:32

You could take a look into /var/log/messages, it often provides info about such errors.

**apriest** · 24-Oct-2010, 23:02

Good info smpoole7 and gropiuskalle. caf4926, I too thought I was a little vague there. By "randomly" I meant that the problem has no noticeable pattern. First I thought it would happen within 10 minutes of booting, but no I had it running a few programs (firefox, bluefish, the terminal) for hours without an issue. Then, when my daughter played an online flash game it froze. Upon reboot I opened firefox, and it froze in 5 minutes (no flash involved that time). I began, of course, to assume it was firefox, so I kept it running without using firefox and my wife found that the Kpatience game she was playing was frozen.

**oldcpu** · 24-Oct-2010, 23:17

A Dell Dimension 2400 is pretty old. I hope to replace my mother's Dell Dimension 2100 in a couple of weeks (although her Dell is a lot slower : 900MHz CPU and 512MB RAM).

You could run a memory test and let it run over night to see if there may be a hardware memory problem.

**caf4926** · 25-Oct-2010, 00:45

Originally Posted by oldcpu

A Dell Dimension 2400 is pretty old. I hope to replace my mother's Dell Dimension 2100 in a couple of weeks (although her Dell is a lot slower : 900MHz CPU and 512MB RAM).

You could run a memory test and let it run over night to see if there may be a hardware memory problem.

The OP quotes a somewhat improved spec than your Mom's old box Lee.

OP: Please make sure you don't use desktop effects and avoid full screen flash. Take note of the other comments posted re: identifying the cause

**oldcpu** · 25-Oct-2010, 02:38

Originally Posted by caf4926

The OP quotes a somewhat improved spec than your Mom's old box Lee.

Indeed !! In fact I stated so myself. But lets not get lost on that and ignore the suggestion I made.

Freezes can be difficult to track down. My experience in general is a freeze (that can not be easily pointed to software) are due to (in no particular order):
(1) bad graphic driver or graphic hardware
(2) bad ethernet driver or ethernet card hardware
(3) bad memory

A surf indicates the Dimension 2400 has a version of Intel Integrated grapics:
Documentation

and a further surf suggested it is the Intel 865G which I think is the Intel GMA 3000 ? I'm forced to guess/assess via a surf here, because this important information was not provided. It would be nice to have it provided.

One could surf to see if the Intel driver associated with the Intel GMA 3000 has any problems with the current kernel.

But we need specifics here, and not generalities. In the mean time, I still think it a valid and good suggestion to run a memory test overnight while everyone is sleeping. It does not hurt and it may provide useful information.

**oldcpu** · 25-Oct-2010, 02:48

Originally Posted by oldcpu

My experience in general is a freeze (that can not be easily pointed to software) are due to (in no particular order):
(1) bad graphic driver or graphic hardware
(2) bad ethernet driver or ethernet card hardware
(3) bad memory

I should have 'amplified' (2) or modified it with a (4) bad wireless driver or wireless hardware (in addition to bad ethernet driver or ethernet card hardware).

**oldcpu** · 25-Oct-2010, 02:52

apriest, do NOT forget to followup gropiuskalle's suggestion:

Originally Posted by gropiuskalle

You could take a look into /var/log/messages, it often provides info about such errors.

... after such a freeze, you could also boot to a liveCD and in addition to looking at the /var/log/messages, copy the /home/user/.xsession-errors file and also the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file that are on your HARD DRIVE (and not the one's in RAM from booting to the liveCD). Booting to a liveCD is necessary is to get the version of those files BEFORE the liveCD boot. ...

Fortunately /var/log/messages is continuous and not over written by a reboot (but rather is added to).