Computer has started freezing frequently - memory or graphics card?

[zathras]

Hi,

About a month ago I started working from home. I am a junior web developer - typically I have VSCode open, am in and out of video calls and have a couple of browsers open with many tabs. It freezes almost every day. Being in a video call and doing a few other things at the same time seems to increase the likelihood.
Before I go to a shop I'd like to get an idea of what could be causing this.

Kubuntu 20.04
Operating System: Kubuntu 20.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68.0
Qt Version: 5.12.8
Kernel Version: 5.4.0-90-generic
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 6 × Intel® Core™ i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz
Memory: 7.7 GiB of RAM

memtest does not seem to be on my GRUB menu - is it possible that it isn't installed? Pressing 'shift' on starting doesn't do anything, when I press 'ESC' I get a menu with 3 choices - let me know if details of what they are would be helpful.

I'm wondering if the issue could be because of my graphics card? I have a vague memory of their being little driver support for my Nvida GeForce GT 730 when I first installed Kubuntu on it last January.

I only know a little about hardware and Linux (in case you hadn't noticed).

Thank you

[jlittle]

memtest does not seem to be on my GRUB menu - is it possible that it isn't installed?

The memtest that was on the grub menu in the past was a BIOS programme, and the UEFI version is not free. You can:

1. install memtester
2. boot from a memtest86+ USB in BIOS compatibility mode
3. get Linux to do a memory test on startup

I've never successfully managed to do 2 or 3, and I don't know how good 1 is.

It freezes almost every day... what could be causing this.

Well, the obvious is overheating. I'm sure others will chime in with how to check this, and the advisability of cleaning the fans.

[claydoh]

Freeze, as in you need to manually shut down, or incredibly, immensely slow, stutters, or similar?

VSCode open, am in and out of video calls and have a couple of browsers open with many tabs. It freezes almost every day. Being in a video call and doing a few other things at the same time seems to increase the likelihood.

Aside from temperatures, check to see if you are using swap when this happens, test this out using a system monitor.
Some systems seem to like hitting the swap far too early. This can be adjusted, if it is the problem.

[zathras]

Thank you both for your replies. I explored your suggestions over the weekend and I believe the issue is with ram memory. I have 8GB.

jlitte:
1. The inside of my computer was incredibly dusty. I cleaned it with compressed air and it is now pristine in there
2. Memtest did not report any issues - all tests passed. This was a relief!

claydoh:
- When it freezes I need to use REISUB keyboard shortcut or manual shut down, to turn it off. I haven't found anything else that works

- Im using `top` command in terminal to monitor the system. Right now it is currently using 198MiB swap memory.
I don't know enough to say whether it is using Swap too early. Do you? Could you recommend any good material on this?

Below is the status of the system whilst running the minumum processes needed for my new job:
MiB mem: 7896.5 total; 155.3 free; 6708.6 used; 1032.0 buff/cache.
MiB Swap: 2048 total; 1826 free; 221.8 used; 766.2 avail Mem


Thanks again both. Hope you had a nice weekend.

[claydoh]

MiB Swap: 2048 total; 1826 free; 221.8 used; 766.2 avail Mem

Ideally, you wouldn't be using any swap at all here, though do have things somewhere gobbling up your memory.
With 6708.6 used and only 1032.0 in cache, just a small number of browser tabs could send you into extremely heavy swap usage.
look at what applications or processes are munching on your memory.

swap usage can slow things down to an incredibly slow crawl, as it is using the hdd to supplement RAM, and flooding it with reads and writes.
I have not discovered exactly why, but some systems seem to like hitting that swap very early, sort of like it is over-reacting or something

Something to test is to adjust the swappiness level of your system, and see if this helps.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sw...I_change_it.3F

This can be tested to see if it helps, and made permanent if it does.
If setting to to 10 as per the above doesn't help, using 0 won't help either, and your issue is somewhere else.

[zathras]

look at what applications or processes are munching on your memory.

I don't think there is much I can do because I am only running the processes I need to do my job. There is a chance work will contribute towards or maybe pay for the cost of new RAM

Have found some RAM from Kingston that is on sale and is compatible with my motherboard and CPU... Fingers crossed.

I have also tested my SSD using HDSentinel and it is in perfect health apparently. A friend mention that a fault in the SSD might have been causing issues when it swap is being used.

[claydoh]

Then look for smaller things that can help. I think adjusting the swappiness should help at least some.
Without knowing what specific items are sucking your ram, it can be hard to help diagnose. Maybe you can use some tab-suspending addons for your browsers, or you have a lot of desktop widgets, or some other ways to cut down the ram. Particularly browser tabs.
Maybe you have some completely unrelated process or app and a small memory leak?
Many places to investigate.