System freezes/reboots due to CPU idling

English Hardware
1

Hey all, first time posting here, hoping this is okay. I wanted to see if someone might have some insight on a problem I’ve been facing.

The Issue

My system has been having an issue where it will randomly freeze/reboot after a period of use. The exact time until the error is inconsistent, and the behaviour (freeze vs black screen vs immediate reboot) is also inconsistent. The error never leaves any trace in journalctl.

This computer always experienced random freezes on OpenSUSE as far as I can remember. I used to just disregard them tbh because they would only occur after a few days of consistent uptime. However, ever since re-flashing my BIOS (which long story but I had to do to fix a boot issue with APIC that spontaneously appeared about a week ago) it’s started to be more like, after 10-40 minutes of uptime, which is far more of a hindrance.

The windows 10 install dual-booted on this machine doesn’t seem to experience the issue from my limited testing.

What I know does and doesn’t work

I’ve narrowed down that the issue is something to do with the CPU and idling. Booting using the flag

idle=poll

seems to prevent it from occurring.

In troubleshooting and figuring this out, I’ve tried a whole host of other flags in various combinations, including

processor.max_cstate=1
processor.max_cstate=0
idle=nomwait
pcie_aspm=off
nohz=off
cpuidle.off=1

Which all seem to, at worst do nothing, or at best only slightly lengthen the average uptime until the issue appears.

In my googling the issue, the best I could find was a vague reddit post saying

For some Ryzen CPUs, you do need to tinker with the power settings so the PSU will provide typical voltage in low power states, otherwise the system could lock up

Which sure sounds like the issue I’m experiencing, but I tried setting
Power Supply Idle Control → Typical Current Idle
in BIOS and that also didn’t help, so either that’s not it or I’m misunderstanding what’s being said/needs to be done there, but I couldn’t find any further details on the subject.

My Question, at this point

Is there anything I could have possibly missed here, is there possibly still a better solution, or am I stuck with idle=poll as my best option? I am also happy to be redirected/referred to other forums/resources if you think they are more suited to answer this question.

System Info
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X on an MSI B550-A PRO motherboard
BIOS is latest stable, built September 2025
Kernel 6.18.1-1-default on Tumbleweed

2

Did you test if the issue still occures, when the system is properly upgraded? The kernel is quite outdated.

Properly upgrade your system via
zypper dup
and report back if the issue still occures.

Also provide the output of inxi -F so we might get a better picture of your system.

3

It used to be random freezes or reboots could sometimes be avoided by increasing RAM voltage in BIOS setup, replacing RAM, or reseating RAM sticks. Whether those might still apply with DDR4 or DDR5 motherboards I’ve never had opportunity to test.

4

Did you test if the issue still occures, when the system is properly upgraded? The kernel is quite outdated.

My last upgrade was December 2025, I wouldn’t have assumed I would have gotten that far behind in 1 month. Nevertheless I am updated to kernel 6.18.6-1-default now and it did not fully fix the issue. With no flags, it still experiences the same problems.

But, interestingly, I did try

idle=nomwait nohz=off

again on the new kernel just to see and it seems to work now? Which is at least an improvement (now the CPU can boost, though it’s still forced to idle somewhat high).

As for the output of inxi, here you go

Long Output 
  Host: DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan Kernel: 6.18.6-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.5.5 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20260122
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Micro-Star product: MS-7C56 v: 6.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Micro-Star model: B550-A PRO (MS-7C56) v: 2.0
    serial: <superuser required> Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC.
    v: A.K0 date: 09/02/2025
CPU:
  Info: 12-core model: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
    L2: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3595 min/max: 2200/3700 cores: 1: 3595 2: 3595 3: 3595
    4: 3595 5: 3595 6: 3595 7: 3595 8: 3595 9: 3595 10: 3595 11: 3595 12: 3595
    13: 3595 14: 3595 15: 3595 16: 3595 17: 3595 18: 3595 19: 3595 20: 3595
    21: 3595 22: 3595 23: 3595 24: 3595
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] driver: nvidia v: 580.126.09
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting,vesa gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch
    resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: swrast platforms: x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.126.09
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.335 drivers: nvidia,llvmpipe surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-smi wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.18.6-1-default status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.5.85 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  IF: enp42s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 2c:f0:5d:db:7f:c4
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.87 TiB used: 1.6 TiB (41.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDA240G size: 223.57 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Lexar model: USB Flash Drive size: 14.91 GiB
    type: USB
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2U9104 size: 3.64 TiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 221.07 GiB used: 178.8 GiB (80.9%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.3 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home size: 221.07 GiB used: 178.8 GiB (80.9%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-4: /opt size: 221.07 GiB used: 178.8 GiB (80.9%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-5: /var size: 221.07 GiB used: 178.8 GiB (80.9%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 34.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 2010 fan-2: 0 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 786 fan-5: 0
    fan-6: 0 fan-7: 0 fan-8: 854 fan-9: 0 fan-10: 0
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.26 GiB used: 6.95 GiB (22.2%)
  Processes: 537 Uptime: 1h 18m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.40

As for

random freezes or reboots could sometimes be avoided by increasing RAM voltage

Yes, I’ve actually done this to treat random freezes before. However it wouldn’t make sense to me for that to be the issue here, given when the issue pops up and what steps appear to resolve it.

7

I experienced this similar situation a couple of years ago. My all-AMD desktop machine would randomly reboot. Your hardware is newer, but it’s AMD. For that desktop machine, I applied a couple of arguments to the kernel boot command line (in GRUB). I actually found the fix posted in a thread in bugzilla.kernel.org (link in my Reply below).

I spent a few minutes to find my Reply from a couple of years ago … and the link to that thread is just below … you might want to do a quick read.

8

Host erlangen is 100% plug&play and never freezes:

erlangen:~ # inxi -SMmCGy222
System:    Host: erlangen Kernel: 6.18.6-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
           Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.5.5 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20260121
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Micro-Star product: MS-7C56 v: 2.0 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Micro-Star model: B550-A PRO (MS-7C56) v: 2.0 serial: 07C5622_L41E321872 Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC. v: A.90 date: 03/17/2022
Memory:    System RAM: total: 32 GiB available: 27.3 GiB used: 16.69 GiB (61.1%)
           Array-1: capacity: 128 GiB slots: 4 modules: 2 EC: None
           Device-1: Channel-A DIMM 0 type: no module installed
           Device-2: Channel-A DIMM 1 type: DDR4 size: 16 GiB speed: 2133 MT/s
           Device-3: Channel-B DIMM 0 type: no module installed
           Device-4: Channel-B DIMM 1 type: DDR4 size: 16 GiB speed: 2133 MT/s
CPU:       Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 4 MiB
           Speed (MHz): avg: 3248 min/max: 422/4674 cores: 1: 3248 2: 3248 3: 3248 4: 3248 5: 3248 6: 3248 7: 3248 8: 3248 9: 3248 10: 3248 11: 3248 12: 3248 13: 3248 14: 3248 15: 3248 16: 3248
Graphics:  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
           Display: unspecified server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz
           API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.3.3 renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi renoir ACO DRM 3.64 6.18.6-1-default)
           API: Vulkan v: 1.4.335 drivers: radv,llvmpipe surfaces: N/A
           API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
           Info: Tools: api: clinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
erlangen:~ #

Show your system.

9

This was already provided…

10

Even with lockdown=confidentiality the reboot occurs.

Here’s the output of sudo journalctl --since=2026-01-24 -p 0..3 -r

Long Output 
Jan 24 13:01:26 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan kded6[2122]: Couldn't find QML Decoration  ""
Jan 24 13:00:47 localhost (udev-worker)[841]: vboxnetctl: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:3 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxnetctl".
Jan 24 13:00:47 localhost (udev-worker)[800]: vboxdrvu: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:2 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrvu".
Jan 24 13:00:47 localhost (udev-worker)[841]: vboxdrv: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:1 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrv".
Jan 24 13:00:45 localhost kernel: 
Jan 24 13:00:38 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 2:a20f10 TIME 1769284837 SOCKET 0 APIC 12 microcode a201030
Jan 24 13:00:38 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 ADDR 7f88d29ace80 MISC d01a000000000000 SYND 4d000000 IPID 500b000000000 
Jan 24 13:00:38 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 7: Machine Check: 0 Bank 5: bea0000000000108
-- Boot 2b22ea52c5994fb5bcd51f71c6e34615 --
Jan 24 12:45:36 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan kded6[2112]: Couldn't find QML Decoration  ""
Jan 24 12:44:57 localhost (udev-worker)[796]: vboxnetctl: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:3 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxnetctl".
Jan 24 12:44:57 localhost (udev-worker)[851]: vboxdrvu: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:2 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrvu".
Jan 24 12:44:57 localhost (udev-worker)[796]: vboxdrv: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:1 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrv".
Jan 24 12:44:55 localhost kernel: 
Jan 24 12:44:48 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 2:a20f10 TIME 1769283887 SOCKET 0 APIC 12 microcode a201030
Jan 24 12:44:48 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 ADDR 7f4b0b311e80 MISC d01a000000000000 SYND 4d000000 IPID 500b000000000 
Jan 24 12:44:48 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 7: Machine Check: 0 Bank 5: bea0000000000108
-- Boot 68dfbe860cf24038920ccb6578c6dae3 --
Jan 24 11:58:48 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan kded6[2201]: Couldn't find QML Decoration  ""
Jan 24 11:58:08 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.
Jan 24 11:58:08 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.
Jan 24 11:58:08 localhost.localdomain nvidia-persistenced[1580]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 457 has read and write permissions for those files.
Jan 24 11:58:08 localhost systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.
Jan 24 11:58:08 localhost nvidia-persistenced[1541]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 457 has read and write permissions for those files.
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost nvidia-persistenced[1526]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 457 has read and write permissions for those files.
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost (udev-worker)[827]: vboxnetctl: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:3 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxnetctl".
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost nvidia-persistenced[1505]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 457 has read and write permissions for those files.
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost (udev-worker)[860]: vboxdrvu: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:2 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrvu".
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost (udev-worker)[827]: vboxdrv: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:1 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrv".
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.
Jan 24 11:58:07 localhost nvidia-persistenced[1393]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 457 has read and write permissions for those files.
Jan 24 11:58:04 localhost systemd[1]: bpf-restrict-fs: Failed to load BPF object: Invalid argument
Jan 24 11:57:59 localhost systemd[1]: bpf-restrict-fs: Failed to load BPF object: Invalid argument
Jan 24 11:57:59 localhost kernel: osnoise: Error registering osnoise!
Jan 24 11:57:59 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 2:a20f10 TIME 1769281079 SOCKET 0 APIC 13 microcode a201030
Jan 24 11:57:59 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 ADDR 7fb0479e2e80 MISC d01a000000000000 SYND 4d000000 IPID 500b000000000 
Jan 24 11:57:59 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 19: Machine Check: 0 Bank 5: bea0000000000108
-- Boot 65fa14a7255c439ab3a65ecb445bed01 --
Jan 24 11:41:59 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan kded6[2090]: Couldn't find QML Decoration  ""
Jan 24 11:41:21 localhost (udev-worker)[818]: vboxnetctl: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:3 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxnetctl".
Jan 24 11:41:21 localhost (udev-worker)[805]: vboxdrvu: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:2 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrvu".
Jan 24 11:41:21 localhost (udev-worker)[818]: vboxdrv: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:1 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrv".
Jan 24 11:41:19 localhost kernel: 
-- Boot 6c01577d568a434bb1f850b1c90048dc --
Jan 24 06:52:28 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan org_kde_powerdevil[2327]: No traced function stack for current thread
Jan 24 06:21:04 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan org_kde_powerdevil[2327]: No traced function stack for current thread
Jan 24 04:20:34 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan kded6[2168]: Couldn't find QML Decoration  ""
Jan 24 04:19:56 localhost (udev-worker)[1442]: vboxnetctl: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:3 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxnetctl".
Jan 24 04:19:56 localhost (udev-worker)[1447]: vboxdrvu: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:2 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrvu".
Jan 24 04:19:56 localhost (udev-worker)[1442]: vboxdrv: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:1 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrv".
Jan 24 04:19:49 localhost kernel: 
Jan 24 04:19:42 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 2:a20f10 TIME 1769253581 SOCKET 0 APIC 13 microcode a201030
Jan 24 04:19:42 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 ADDR 7fb9d9fb8e80 MISC d01a000000000000 SYND 4d000000 IPID 500b000000000 
Jan 24 04:19:42 localhost kernel: mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 19: Machine Check: 0 Bank 5: bea0000000000108
-- Boot d456c074478b49f98107926968944dd2 --
Jan 24 04:00:51 DESKTOP-HU5RDRR.lan kded6[8943]: Couldn't find QML Decoration  ""
Jan 24 03:59:50 localhost (udev-worker)[1477]: vboxnetctl: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:3 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxnetctl".
Jan 24 03:59:49 localhost (udev-worker)[1477]: vboxdrv: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:1 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrv".
Jan 24 03:59:49 localhost (udev-worker)[1479]: vboxdrvu: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-vboxdrv.rules:2 Only network interfaces can be renamed, ignoring NAME="vboxdrvu".
Jan 24 03:59:38 localhost kernel:

Lots of noise, the only thing potentially suspicious is the MCE, but they don’t always happen (though they are happening fairly consistently in this snippet, the reboots happen regardless of the MCE appearing or not though, like Boot 65fa14a7255c439ab3a65ecb445bed01) and they always happen near when the computer first boots, and the system usually only experiences the freeze/reboot much later.

For that desktop machine, I applied a couple of arguments to the kernel boot command line (in GRUB).

Thanks! That’s certainly interesting, though I’m not sure if that specific fix is applicable since my GPU is Nvidia. Maybe something similar exists for them?

11

Show the output of journalctl -b -p3 or journalctl -b -1 -p3 whatver applies.

12

Oooops … sorry about that … for some reason, I thought you have an all-AMD machine (proc and gpu). I obviously missed the NVIDIA gpu component.

13

Don’t worry about it! I didn’t include GPU info in the OP because I didn’t think it was relevant I only included that in the reply once I posted inxi so, at least half my bad.