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Mark76
September 7th, 2010, 08:23 AM
I'm putting this here because I'm not sure whether it's something to do with Ubuntu or not.

Basically I've been experiencing the following two symptoms

Mouse and keyboard freeze and become unresponsive (cursor won't move)

Random self-rebooting.

Anyone know why these things might be happening?

del_diablo
September 7th, 2010, 08:39 AM
Give you computer "the makeover".
That means cleaning it, and upgrading BIOS.

chessnerd
September 7th, 2010, 08:48 AM
Mouse and keyboard freezes can be caused by any number of things. For example, when my computer comes out of standby I can't use the keyboard until I open a new application of some sort and type in it (no, I've never tried to fix it, I just let it go). Without more to go on I have not clue.

Basic advice - If the mouse and keyboard are wireless, make sure the batteries aren't dying. If they are wired, make sure they are plugged in firmly.

Random self-rebooting? Well, I'm not sure what might cause this.

Basic advice - Run updates to the system, update the computer BIOS. Check the system log to see if there is any reason why it might be shutting down randomly. Make sure everything is plugged in properly.

If none of this works, we'll need more information about when this occurs. If you have no idea, then you might want to back-up your system and reinstall Ubuntu to see if that fixes it.

HermanAB
September 7th, 2010, 08:54 AM
Most computer problems are due to the PSU. So, take a guess and replace something, then see if it works better.

earthpigg
September 7th, 2010, 08:56 AM
It could be overheating due to not being cleaned in ages.

Physically open it and clean it out with a can of air.

If you are a smoker and smoke around your computer (or if a previous owner did), then you may need to do more.

Remove the hard drive(s), optical drive(s), Power Supply, CMOS battery, and anything else with moving parts or stored electricity that i missed. Set that stuff aside.

Go purchase some distilled water.

Individually dip each part not mentioned above (motherboard, ram, etc) in the distilled water and gently remove the tar with your fingers.

Set everything out to dry for two weeks.

Reassemble.

(Yes, I have actually done this. For my mother's computer.)

Lensman
September 7th, 2010, 09:00 AM
Most computer problems are due to the PSU. So, take a guess and replace something, then see if it works better.

Herman has some good advice. There are any number of reasons that could cause your symptoms, from overheating to bad capacitors, but as a rule of thumb, the stranger the problem is, the more likely it is PSU related.

del_diablo
September 7th, 2010, 09:00 AM
Another tips: Run dmesg after the "locking" has happened.
In the last 10-20 lines, there tends to be quite nasty and obvious things.

Johnsie
September 7th, 2010, 10:00 AM
Sounds like an overheating issue. Clean out the dust and check to make sure the fan is working properly. If there are any broken blades on the fan then replace it. Also, replace the PSU and check that the memory is inserted properly.

Are the reboots occurring in Windows, Ubuntu or both? If it's Windows XP then do the following:

Right click my computer
Click Properties
Click Advanced
Startup and Security -> Settings
Uncheck the 'restart automatically' box


This might stop the reboots but wont fix the underlying problem.

lisati
September 7th, 2010, 10:09 AM
My first thought was the possibility of overheating related problems. A cleaning won't hurt. My laptop gets grubby quickly, and my being a smoker doesn't help.

cascade9
September 7th, 2010, 10:10 AM
Give you computer "the makeover".
That means cleaning it, and upgrading BIOS.

+1. That would be my first plan of attack, well before buying a new power supply unit, etc..



It could be overheating due to not being cleaned in ages.

Physically open it and clean it out with a can of air.

If you are a smoker and smoke around your computer (or if a previous owner did), then you may need to do more.

Remove the hard drive(s), optical drive(s), Power Supply, CMOS battery, and anything else with moving parts or stored electricity that i missed. Set that stuff aside.

Go purchase some distilled water.

Individually dip each part not mentioned above (motherboard, ram, etc) in the distilled water and gently remove the tar with your fingers.

Set everything out to dry for two weeks.

Reassemble.

(Yes, I have actually done this. For my mother's computer.)

I've done this on computers that didnt have a smoker anywhere near them. Mainly due to 'dust bunnies' getting truned into 'mud bunnies' (or even concrete) thanks to high humidty.

BTW, I add a little metho to the mix. Makes the gunk a bit softer. Works even better with tar.

BkkBonanza
September 7th, 2010, 10:40 AM
To paraphrase Fight Club,

"All computers are dieing in the Sylvia Plath sense".

msandoy
September 7th, 2010, 12:01 PM
This really sounds like a PSU problem. Go into BIOS, and check the actual readings of 12, 5 and 3.3 volts from your PSU. if any of them are low, 5% or more, this is your problem. Just to rule out overheating, check cpu temperatur while you are in BIOS, this is sometimes wrongly reported to the OS. Over 50°C for AMD or over 60°C for Intel at idle is very high, and will cause troubble at loaded condition. Then it's just a matter of replacing the paste between the cooler and cpu.

CharlesA
September 7th, 2010, 12:26 PM
This really sounds like a PSU problem. Go into BIOS, and check the actual readings of 12, 5 and 3.3 volts from your PSU. if any of them are low, 5% or more, this is your problem. Just to rule out overheating, check cpu temperatur while you are in BIOS, this is sometimes wrongly reported to the OS. Over 50°C for AMD or over 60°C for Intel at idle is very high, and will cause troubble at loaded condition. Then it's just a matter of replacing the paste between the cooler and cpu.

Heh, never trusted those voltage reading, as they've been (slightly) off on every machine I've owned, so I verify with a multimeter.

My bet is it was overheating.

Mark76
September 7th, 2010, 01:13 PM
Give you computer "the makeover".
That means cleaning it, and upgrading BIOS.

I have nothing to clean it with (other than a good shake) and I have no idea what to do with the BIOS.

cascade9
September 7th, 2010, 01:19 PM
I have nothing to clean it with (other than a good shake) and I have no idea what to do with the BIOS.

'Cans of air' (a 'gas duster') should be fairly cheap, and avaible at a fair few places.

I dont bother with cans of air in mosts cases myself, a cotton bud dipped in metho will do the job. If the heatsink is really filthy, I tend to pull it off, remove the fan, and give it a good scrub in hot water, dry it out, and replace it. To do that you would need some new thermal paste......its not a job that everybody would want to do though. However, its probably a good idea to do that, after a few years thermal paste can go hard and dry, then it acts more like a blanket than helping the heat transfer to the heatsink.

As for the BIOS, try getting the dust bunnies out before you go updating the BIOS IMO.

neu5eeCh
September 7th, 2010, 01:51 PM
Mouse and keyboard freeze and become unresponsive (cursor won't move)

Random self-rebooting.

Anyone know why these things might be happening?

Probably your hard drive going bad.

Johnsie
September 7th, 2010, 03:47 PM
Some of those cans of air randomly squirt out a liquid on some occasions. We use them for our keyboards in work. The liquid dries pretty quick but I have no idea what is in it. Could possibly damage hardware?

LowSky
September 7th, 2010, 04:50 PM
Some of those cans of air randomly squirt out a liquid on some occasions. We use them for our keyboards in work. The liquid dries pretty quick but I have no idea what is in it. Could possibly damage hardware?

no, but it can cause frostbite to your skin.

sydbat
September 7th, 2010, 05:22 PM
Cans of air? What a scam waste of money.

Just shut the box down, unplug it (if it is a laptop, take the battery out too), open it up (again, if a laptop, open as many areas as you can without completely disassembling it) and vacuum it out (use the crevice tool). I've been doing this for over a decade, every 6 months (on my own AND client computers) and have never had a problem.

cariboo
September 7th, 2010, 07:37 PM
If you are going to use a vacuum cleaner on your computer, make sure the thing is grounded properly, I've seen big fat static sparks jump from the tip of the vacuum cleaner to the circuit board, destroying it. Canned air is much safer.

The liquid you see coming out is just freon, it won't hurt anything.

red_Marvin
September 7th, 2010, 10:15 PM
The liquid you see coming out is just freon, it won't hurt anything.

Except the ozone layer... They still use freon? I thought it had changed to propane or some less dangerous gas.

msandoy
September 7th, 2010, 10:23 PM
Well, the damaging effect on the ozone layer depends on the type of freon used. R-22 and R-12 have now been totally banned all over the world, and the less damaging replacements are R-134A, R-417A and R-404A.
To save the environment, use the plastic suction pipe on your vacuum cleaner to prevent sparks.

Old_Grey_Wolf
September 8th, 2010, 12:23 AM
To save the environment, use the plastic suction pipe on your vacuum cleaner to prevent sparks.

The plastic is the cause of the problem. Plastic is non-conductive; therefore, the static charge from the air movement has no pace to go until the plastic is brought into close proximity to something conductive. That conductive material could be you CPU, GPU, or RAM.

barney385
September 8th, 2010, 12:39 AM
The plastic is the cause of the problem. Plastic is non-conductive; therefore, the static charge from the air movement has no pace to go until the plastic is brought into close proximity to something conductive. That conductive material could be you CPU, GPU, or RAM.

Absolutely. That's the same reason you never put a can of gas in the bed of a truck with a plastic bed liner.