Screen flickers and the computer's not responding

[pokiaka]

This issue is driving me crazy:
It happened at Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS), and now in Linux Mint 13 (Maya) MATE.

Every 5 minutes or so, usually when I click my mouse (right, left and middle click), the screen flickers and freezes (as the title suggests).
I can still move my mouse and click on things, but nothing is responding. not from clicks nor from keyboard hotkeys.
Also the cursor symbol freezes (won't change from arrow to IBeam etc.)

And if I wait long enough the cursor changes to random things
The only way for me to get the computer responding back again is hard-restart.

I should note that when I experienced it on Ubuntu 12.04LTS I downgraded to Ubuntu 11.10 and everything was fine there.
I'm not sure what to do, can you help me?

[2F4U]

You are probably experiencing a crash and I would suggest that you look into the system log file if you can find any hint on the crash. It may also be a good idea to post your hardware specs and what graphics driver you are using.

[dcstar]

You are probably experiencing a crash and I would suggest that you look into the system log file if you can find any hint on the crash. It may also be a good idea to post your hardware specs and what graphics driver you are using.

And find out how long it takes for the CPU/Graphics chip to overheat using the later distros.