Random Freeze-ups on a System 76 Thelio

[Ted Foster]

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this thread.

Before doing anything else, I'd like to give some background:

• this coming spring, the system will be 5 years old
• it currently runs Pop!_OS 22.04
• this might only be a coincidence, but the problem began about the same time that I downloaded the Mullvad browser, which was earlier this month
• have barely used Mullvad since the download

When it occurs, ...:

• the mouse pointer stops moving, or it might disappear
• if I'm playing a music video, the music will stop, except that you might hear 'bits and pieces' every few moments
• I can't change from one browser tab to another

Temporary resolution: the only thing I've found so far is to do a cold boot of the system.

Things that might have helped so far:

• In the system Settings, the default Power Mode is Balanced ( "standard performance and power usage" )
• Within the last couple of days, after starting the system, I've changed the Mode to Performance ( "high performance and power usage" )
• Also, at this point, I'm doing a lot less with the computer than before.
• Since I changed the Power Mode, I've had only one freeze-up.

System Support:

• Have opened a trouble ticket
• However, the person assigned to this issue has been replying in a 'leisurely' manner, and only by email.
• Having said this, they might be under-staffed, and I understand that.
• Hope that other forum members don't mind offering their advice as a 'support backup'. Thanks again.

 

[theLegionWithin]

if you dont really use Mullvad, I'd suggest removing it from the equation (sudo apt remove, etc), then powercycling and testing to see if you can recreate the issue.

 

[Brickwizard]

you could try from the terminal in order for Debian based distributions

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt update

sudo apt --fix-broken && apt upgrade -y

re-boot when compleate

 

[Ted Foster]

From the terminal command line, used a system utility called "repoman" to remove Mullvad from the system. After that, did a cold boot. We'll see what happens ...

 

[Ted Foster]

The system still freezes periodically, although I've also done the following:

• Dissenter browser: haven't used this in a long time, and I removed this as well.
• VPN change: switched from ProtonVPN to NordVPN
• Also, the system has passed a memory test

On the other hand, overall the system stays up most of the time. As far as it goes, that's good; can still communicate with others via email.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Try updating your laptop's firmware.

Update System Firmware

How to update System76 firmware.

support.system76.com

You can also try contacting their Support, since you probably still have support for it?

System76 Support

Official System76 Support and useful documentation

support.system76.com

 

[Fanboi]

When it occurs, ...:

• the mouse pointer stops moving, or it might disappear
• if I'm playing a music video, the music will stop, except that you might hear 'bits and pieces' every few moments
• I can't change from one browser tab to another

Maybe hardware... Maybe...

Kinda conflicting symptoms:

• Mouse pointer: Could be graphics driver, could be memory, could be CPU.
• Video: Could also be graphics driver, memory, storage, or CPU.
• Browser: depends on exactly what you mean by "can't change [browser tabs]"

OTOH, these are also symptoms that occurred over a decade ago with bluetooth. You'd get the system appear to freeze while a BT headset was connected if anything was playing. You turned off your headset and it just unfroze. Man those day were the pits for me, but they're long gone. I just find it interesting.
This also happened in the quite dark ages with not enough swap, lol.

That all said, it could be hardware. Memory/strorage gone sour. CPU cooling issues...

Some things to try:

• Keep your system monitored (Open terminal with htop running or install conky and set it to float over other windows. Wait for the freeze and hope that there's an obvious clue like a certain level of memory usage or swap or CPU.
• Run memtest86. This is like your number one thing to check when your system goes janky. I've mentioned this before but I got a RAM kit, installed it, was too lazy to test it, and lucky for me it played up pretty soon and I got covered for a replacement.
• Boot live and run a filesystem check on the system partition (and home if you're using locally run stuff). Also check your storage with smartctl.
• Hammer your CPU. I mean you wanna hear them fans blow like and English winter.

TBH, I know little about POP!_OS other than there's a lot of marketing around it. So IDK if there are any quirks to it I dunno about. That's all I can comment on at present. Hopefully there's something helpful there. If not and you've thoroughly tested your hardware, well, I'm not going to say it, since you paid for POP!_OS (in the cost of your machine), but ya know what I'm thinking.

System Support:

• Have opened a trouble ticket
• However, the person assigned to this issue has been replying in a 'leisurely' manner, and only by email.
• Having said this, they might be under-staffed, and I understand that.
• Hope that other forum members don't mind offering their advice as a 'support backup'. Thanks again.

Yeah, maybe because I live in SA I'm used to it, but I don't expect much from Product Support. I never even call Support. Maybe in the US/UK/AU/EU things are better. /joke...ish

 

[Ted Foster]

Update as of 12/30/24:

First of all, a thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread.

• Firmware: looked under system Settings, and updates aren't needed at this point
• System temperature: I don't look at this very often, but Psensor's readings have almost always been in the 40's or 50's
• Hard disk test: tested the OS hard disk, using the Extended version of SMART Data & Self-tests. The disk passed the test.
• Memory tests: first, I ran Memtest86. More recently, I ran Memtester from the terminal command line. No errors were observed from either test.

 

[Ted Foster]

Recently bought a new Linux computer, and it's working ok so far. A thank you to everyone who replied to this thread.

 

[Rob]

I didn't see this thread, but I also would have suggested firmware (which i see you noted there were no updates). I purchased a Darter Pro about 5-6yrs ago, then a Galago Pro maybe 2yrs ago.

My Galago's touchpad became kinda troublesome at the 13 month mark and they made me buy a new one :/ BUT, hey.. it's a 12 month warranty unless you extend it, which I didn't.

It's still my daily - i'm overall a fan and they've been pretty good on support otherwise.

Did they ever get back again to help figure out what was going on?