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ubuntu 10.10 crashes regularily

Asked by Richard Williams

When running ubuntu 10.10, 64bit, on the second hard disk, and running any kind of video (flash, hulu, etc)
after a period of time (say 3 times per day) the computer will suddenly lockup.
The mouse and keyboard are then inoperative.
It takes a power cycle or hardware reset button to restart the system.

In a similar vein,
Ubuntu 10.10 will often reboot again, after being selected on the grub menu screen, after a reboot from windows 2000.

However, ubuntu 9.4, on the first hard drive, and running any kind of video (flash, hulu, etc) does not crash.
Infact, 9.4 will run for weeks with out any crashes.

My cpu is a 64bit, my mother board is a 64bit, etc.
My system has 2 gigs of RAM.

I like the features of ubuntu 10.10, so would like to fix this crashing problem.

Do you know of a reason for the crash(s) that I can fix.

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Theodotos Andreou (theodotos) said : 		#1

I would suggest to stick to 32 bit version since it tends to be more stable. Also ulness you have any specific reason to use 10.10 I would suggest to downgrade to 10.04 since it is a LTS (Long Term Support) and generally more stable than newest versions.

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William Pritchard (wdnp2) said : 		#2

I installed Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS on a Fujitsu Siemens PC 399Mhz and 256MB of memory to see if it could be brought back from the dead. It worked and connected to my windows network and I have learnt about Ubuntu on the way. However after some weeks it crashed for no apparent reason and I was left with Grub and a blinking cursor and unable to boot the operating system. Time was short so I again installed the system from the disk. It again worked well for some weeks but crashed again leaving me with Grub and cursor again. I booted to the most recent kernel using the grub2 help page and am again working OK. Apart from possible hardware deficiencies can you explain the reason for this problem?

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Theodotos Andreou (theodotos) said : 		#3

Is it possible that the disk become full after a while. I suspect that such an old system will have a very small hard disk. Also I suggest on older systems to you Xubuntu which is a "lighter" version and designed for such systems.

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William Pritchard (wdnp2) said : 		#4

No, disk capacity is OK I fitted a new 160GB drive when reviving the system.

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Theodotos Andreou (theodotos) said : 		#5

Then it could be a RAM problem. The minimum requirement for 10.10 is 1GB RAM although it can work with 512MB. But 256MB RAM could cause problems. Xubuntu on the other hand has only 256MB RAM requirements and could be more optimal for your system. Lubuntu is even lighter and reportedly it can go as low as 180MB RAM but it is still in active development.

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William Pritchard (wdnp2) said : 		#6

Unfortunately the maximum RAM is currently fitted to the machine-not much by current standards.
Thanks for the suggestion of Xubuntu I will look into the possibility.

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