new linux user, getting random freezes

[gnomerocks]

I am dual booting windows and Ubuntu 9.04, and for the most part i am loving linux. But, i seem to have run into a problem, and have no idea how to get it resolved.

My problem, is that my laptop, an acer aspire 5100, suddenly and without warning locks up, the screen goes to either a random solid color, or sometimes weird random patterns that look like areas of "tv static", and areas of black mingled together. I can only guess my video card, a ati radeon xpress 1100m, is freezing up inside linux. In windows it works fine, and i can leave it plugged in doing bit torrent downloads for days. I am pretty sure its not video card itself going bad since windows has no issues with it.

If helps to know, i do not, and have not, had desktop effects turned on since i first got Ubuntu installed

release 9.04 jaunty, kernel linux 2.6.28-14-generic, gnome 2.26.1

system:
memory: 3.0 GiB (2 sticks 2 GB DDR2 each, factory matched pair)
processor 0: AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-50
processor 1: AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-50

phoenix bios bios 3.13
Ubuntu is running on a primary partition, ext3, 2 GiB swap area primary partition.

Any help here would be great. It stinks that i can hardly use linux becuase of fear of locking up and loosing all my progress. Until i get this resolved, it is back to \/\/|/\/|)()\/\/$ i go.

[philcamlin]

id say driver issue ?

[gnomerocks]

system > administration > hardware drivers only is showing a alt driver for Atheros "madwifi" driver. No video driver listed.

[t4thfavor]

I have the same laptop, I use it rarely, but I never have an issue, is there a specific thing your doing when this happens?

I would be willing to make changes to my system to help you out with your problem.

Are you using any external devices?

What extra programs do you have installed?

I run mine with Visual effects enabled and have no problems.

Please let me know what's going on, and I can look into reproducing some of the problems.


I do know that it took 2 installs for mine to boot right, and I am NOT dual booting with Windows.

[gnomerocks]

I have the same laptop, I use it rarely, but I never have an issue, is there a specific thing your doing when this happens?

I would be willing to make changes to my system to help you out with your problem.

Are you using any external devices? mi brand wireless laser mouse, maxor OneTouch4Plus usb HHD, usb cooling pad

What extra programs do you have installed? 7zip,rar, ubuntu restricted extras

I run mine with Visual effects enabled and have no problems. waste of cpu.

Please let me know what's going on, and I can look into reproducing some of the problems.


I do know that it took 2 installs for mine to boot right, and I am NOT dual booting with Windows.

one thing i forgot to mention is that it sometimes does this on startup, just as soon as the mouse cursor is visible and the desktop is still loading. Other times i can use linux for upwards of 6 hours no problem. As far as what i am doing when it happens, usually transmission downloads, or browsing in firefox. I keep about 5-8 tabs open all the time. Cpu usage and memory usage are around 20-25% cpu, and 8-10% memory during these "download parties".

[t4thfavor]

I will use mine a bit tonight, and see if I can make it happen, other than that I can tell you I have only factory installed ram, 1GB.

I put 2GB of Samsung pc4200 in it, and its been running for

21:23:22 up 3:41, 2 users, load average: 0.62, 0.52, 0.40


Most of the time I was away, but the screen did sleep, and wake up properly. I am using it tonight for general screwing around, I will post back later and let you know if I have issues.


EDIT:
I had one problem, I think it was due to the graphics card overheating while sitting on my lap. It was black and white vertical bars on the screen, I ended up hard rebooting, and then haven't had an issue since then. uptime of

23:33:27 up 2:02, 2 users, load average: 0.56, 0.94, 1.12

I think if it was sitting on a table that it wouldn't have happened.

Im going to leave it on overnight, and see how it goes.

[PiEp]

I am having the exact same problems with my Acer Aspire 5100 laptop: random freezes, sometimes shortly after booting, sometimes after hours of use. Seems something is wrong in the drivers department.

I have tried turning off Visual Effects, no effect.
I have now set the sound devices to use OSS. Will let you know if it helps.