Random hard lockups, trying to understand how to diagnose.

[cookiemuncher]

Do a lengthy ie. complete memory test. I had issues that caused my PC to reboot intermittently only when playing games on Windows 11. With normal use, or when using Linux, this issue would not occur. I used Memtest and only showed up after half an hour or so into the test. One of my memory modules was intermittently faulty.

[ansel]

Power supply? You don't mention it, but if it's a similar age as the GTX 960, it's getting old. My desktop's nearly 10 year old PSU failed recently, though it just shut off rather than locking up.

The power supply is about 7 years old, it's something I've kept in mind.

I was seeing this in the logs on boot:

2026-01-26T12:00:51.697844-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697846-05:00 anselpc smartd[966]: Device: /dev/sdb, type changed from 'scsi' to 'sat'
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697848-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 0: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697848-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697849-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 1: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697849-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697849-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 2: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697850-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697849-05:00 anselpc smartd[966]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], opened
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697853-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 3: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697854-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697854-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 4: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697854-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697855-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 5: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697855-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697853-05:00 anselpc smartd[966]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], PNY CS900 240GB SSD, S/N:PNY22382209210107AAE, WWN:5-f8db4c-223807aae, FW:CS900T13, 240 GB
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697859-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 6: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697859-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697860-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 7: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697860-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697860-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 8: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697860-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697859-05:00 anselpc smartd[966]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], found in smartd database 7.3/5528: Phison Driven SSDs
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697861-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 9: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.696704-05:00 anselpc rsyslogd: imuxsock: Acquired UNIX socket '/run/systemd/journal/syslog' (fd 3) from systemd. [v8.2504.0]
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697866-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697866-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 10: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697867-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: min_freq(0) or max_freq(0) or nominal_freq(0) value is incorrect
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697867-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: Failed to initialize CPU 11: -22
2026-01-26T12:00:51.697867-05:00 anselpc kernel: amd_pstate: failed to register with return -19​

I have now updated my BIOS and the errors no longer appear- will see if the crashes continue

[jlittle]

Power supply? You don't mention it, but if it's a similar age as the GTX 960, it's getting old. My desktop's nearly 10 year old PSU failed recently, though it just shut off rather than locking up.

[ansel]

Hi all, I've had persistent issues with my machine hard locking up- unable to provide any input to the system, have to hard reboot. It occurs randomly with no pattern in timing or applications or system usage, and happened sporadically since I switched from windows 10 to Kubuntu in fall of 2025. There's seemingly no trace of the crash or any errors in my logs, from what I can tell.
I'm just a casual/hobbyist user, and I have an okay enough understanding to get by. I am unsure where else to go with finding the cause of the issue. I'm aware of the common ryzen processor issues relating to c-states, but the fixes have not resolved the issue.

Here are my specs:

Operating System: Kubuntu 25.10
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.17.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.17.0-8-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (2x 16GB DDR4)
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
PNY CS900 240GB SSD (OS Drive)
WDC WDS 500G2B0A-00SM50 (Home Drive)


Things I have tried:

Swapping graphics cards, checking cable connections: no change.
memory test, 2.5 hours: all pass.
disabling c-state control in BIOS: no change.
disabling c6 c-state via ZenStates: no change.

It's a bit hard to test since I just have to make a change and wait to see if the crashes continue, which could be hours or days between. Anyway, thank you in advance for any guidance.