Unstable system after Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04LTS Update

[macsociety]

Been on Ubuntu Gnome for many years. Finally updated my Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 this summer and what was a fairly stable seldom crashing system has become a unstable and freezing system since updating to Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I freeze couple times a day.

Apps I have running all day are:

Chrome (3 to 4 tabs open)
Firefox (3 to 4 tabs open)
Thunderbird
XChat

Past that I don't get crazy on more apps open than this.

What I experience is some graphic anomalies start to happen on the screen, app windows flickering like mad, and then sometimes an out right freeze that I can only get out of with a hard reboot.

Sometimes I can just quit the applications and start over and I am OK for a bit.

Other times I just lock up and that is it.

I have a fairly old I guess in today's standards Maingear Shift with Gigabyte Motherboard, i7 4770 cpu, 16GB Ram, nVidia 750ti and the About screen shows this in case it helps.

Memory 15.6GB
Processor Intel Core i7-4770 at 3.4GHz x 8
Graphics NV117
Gnome 3.28.2
OS Type 64-bit
Disk 967.5GB

Prior to updating my system hardly ever froze. Now it does couple times a day.

Any tips on what I can look for and maybe fix this? I know that does not give you all tons of info but some that may help.

TJ

[MSGone]

I think that the right answer is to wipe the drive and do a clean install of Ubuntu 18.04.

[kurt18947]

I think that the right answer is to wipe the drive and do a clean install of Ubuntu 18.04.

This seems to be the usual advice. I have done inplace upgrades but started with an "out of the box" system, no ppa, installed-from-.deb stuff or anything else non-standard. I keep a list of extensions and tweaks so it doesn't take too long to create a fresh install.

[Autodave]

+1 with MSGone. I operate between 9 and 13 machines. I realized a long time ago that upgrading rarely works when I did it on 13 machines: one worked perfectly, the rest had from minor to major issues. I only do clean installs now: makes life a lot simpler.

[macsociety]

I take it clean install means wipe out the drive and install to a fresh new empty drive, thus having to copy over emails and all apps one needs to use, along with resetting all up.

TJ

[macsociety]

I decided to install a fresh 18.04LTS on a different 1TB drive and start fresh. Have the old one as backup. At some point may use old drive as 2nd data or backup drive. tj