Sudden crashing of the pc running on linux mint 20.3

[Dilraj singh]

I have been using LINUX for the past 2 years and from the past one month a problem has a rised in my system which is that the computer will turn on without any problem and it will run everything smoothly. But then suddenly it crashes especially whenever I use Firefox and open images in it due to which black and white lines are running on the entire monitor and all the three lights of the keyboards will be tinkling simultaneously and continuously and no matter what ever I press on the keyboard or mouse nothing changes. But when i restart the pc the problem is sorted and it will work again but sometime it will work for 3 hours withiut no crashing and sometimes it crashes again in after 5 to 10 minutes after booting up.
Till now there is no problem in booting and it turns on every time.

One thing I observed is that whenever this crash happen that the drive having the OS in my PC will sometimes be not recognised i.e.it.will not show up in the boot up screen( i have 2 different drives having 2 different OS one is linux mint and other is zorin which i only use as a backup) and only the ither one which is zorin will show up in boot section and login. But if I turn off all the switches and leave the computer for half an hour and then restart it then the drive (having linux) will be detected again

my specs of the system are:-
G31 motherboard which I replaced in 2020 of CPU is E8400 @3ghz and two 2 gb ram sticks. In total i have 3 ram sticks and have tried every.pattern of dual ram(if i name the ram sticks as A, B and C, then i will make the combinations, AB, BC, and CA and turn on the pc) But the problem still persists. No matter what the glitching is there.

So what should i do?. Should i change the entir motherboard? (Note there are no visible swollen capacitors on motherboard)

The video of system suddenly crashing is given below

 

[Condobloke]

G'day Dilraj, Welcome to Linux.org

My first instinct is that the drive containing Linux mint has a bad connection....maybe even a broken connector?.....

 

[Vrai]

Perhaps you should try running a RAM test. I've seen a faulty stick of RAM cause some pretty odd behavior.
Something like MemTest86+

 

[tinfoil-hat]

Perhaps you should try running a RAM test. I've seen a faulty stick of RAM cause some pretty odd behavior.
Something like MemTest86+

My guess was either this or he runs out of available RAM

 

[Brickwizard]

Welcome to the forums

erm wizard drinks tea and looks at the grounds...think several possibilities in order
cable connection problem between tower and VDU
graphics card on the way out,
graphics driver corrupted on an update
ram problems [not common]
Hard-drive on the way out, this could cause loads of weird and wonderful problems [run a HDD test https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-check-an-hard-drive-health-from-the-command-line-using-smartctl ]

 

[Dilraj singh]

Perhaps you should try running a RAM test. I've seen a faulty stick of RAM cause some pretty odd behavior.
Something like MemTest86+

I did for 3 hours and there were no errors. I will try to run it for more than 8 hours tomorrow maybe i will get some hint.

 

[Dilraj singh]

G'day Dilraj, Welcome to Linux.org

My first instinct is that the drive containing Linux mint has a bad connection....maybe even a broken connector?.....

I checked them and the connectors are alright.

 

[tinfoil-hat]

I did for 3 hours and there were no errors. I will try to run it for more than 8 hours tomorrow maybe i will get some hint.

you should let the test run till it's finished or am I wrong?

 

[sphen]

Nobody has mentioned thermal issues yet. I have seen many systems that exhibit problems when they get too warm. There may be a cracked trace on one of the circuit cards or internal damage to a chip that shorts out when they get warm.

-> Run the computer hard to heat it up. You could open up terminal windows and have them hash large files repeatedly until all of the cores are running at 100%. Point a hair dryer or heat gun from a distance, but do not overdo it. Does that make it fail faster?

Another possibility not yet mentioned is a damaged chip due to electrostatic discharge from poor handling of the circuit cards like the motherboard. That one is much harder to test for.

 

[Dilraj singh]

you should let the test run till it's finished or am I wrong?

It showed passed test 4 times, so i thought it was enough

 

[Dilraj singh]

Nobody has mentioned thermal issues yet. I have seen many systems that exhibit problems when they get too warm. There may be a cracked trace on one of the circuit cards or internal damage to a chip that shorts out when they get warm.

-> Run the computer hard to heat it up. You could open up terminal windows and have them hash large files repeatedly until all of the cores are running at 100%. Point a hair dryer or heat gun from a distance, but do not overdo it. Does that make it fail faster?

Another possibility not yet mentioned is a damaged chip due to electrostatic discharge from poor handling of the circuit cards like the motherboard. That one is much harder to test for.

So how to check for circuit card failure? I am afraid of testing the heating issue as you mentioned as i might accidentally overheat them and fry the motherboard so i will use it, if all other methods fail.

 

[sphen]

That's okay.

Here is another test:
Does it fail like that if you boot from a live version of a different Linux distro on a USB drive, where you ignore the regular boot from the internal drive? If it is stable for a long time without failure, and then a reboot from the internal drive shows a failure again, that might help you narrow it to something in your current installation and less likely to be a hardware issue.

 

[Condobloke]

When a "live" boot takes place.....the OS actually runs in RAM....not the hard drive.

If, as @sphen said above, "it is stable for a long time without failure".....and then a reboot from the actual hard drive show a failure"/.....then, I believe this narrows it down more to being the hard drive at fault for the simple reason that it is not involved in a Live boot.

I would be rechecking the connections to the hard drive and also to the motherboard from the hard drive. Take them off, and then replace them.

 

[bob466]

You have 2GB of Ram...I'm using 2.1GB just surfing the net now...add more Ram.

I have Mint 20.3 running on my Laptop and has 4GB of Ram and 64bit...don't have problems...if more Ram doesn't fix the problem look at the HDD.

 

[Brickwizard]

I already said run an HDD test,

 

[bob466]

I already said run an HDD test,
View attachment 15041

Op might have an SSD who knows...doesn't say...my HDD test is to swap it for another one.

 

[Brickwizard]

Well he said he has swapped the cables round, and the ram, He doesn't say if it's on board or dedicated graphics card, if it's a dedicated card, there is a possibility of a dry joint, so removing it and putting it back should clear any possible problem there, It doesn't sound like a power supply problem [that would affect everything ] so to me, it is sounding more like a HDD/SSD problem smartctl should be able to test both

 

[Dilraj singh]

You have 2GB of Ram...I'm using 2.1GB just surfing the net now...add more Ram.

I have Mint 20.3 running on my Laptop and has 4GB of Ram and 64bit...don't have problems...if more Ram doesn't fix the problem look at the HDD.

No i have 4 gb ram( 2 sticks of 2 gb ram)

 

[Dilraj singh]

That's okay.

Here is another test:
Does it fail like that if you boot from a live version of a different Linux distro on a USB drive, where you ignore the regular boot from the internal drive? If it is stable for a long time without failure, and then a reboot from the internal drive shows a failure again, that might help you narrow it to something in your current installation and less likely to be a hardware issue.

Lemme try this one and will update it after trying

 

[Dilraj singh]

Well he said he has swapped the cables round, and the ram, He doesn't say if it's on board or dedicated graphics card, if it's a dedicated card, there is a possibility of a dry joint, so removing it and putting it back should clear any possible problem there, It doesn't sound like a power supply problem [that would affect everything ] so to me, it is sounding more like a HDD/SSD problem smartctl should be able to test both

There is no dedicated graphics card, only an internal one, cause i only use this pc for college work.