Please help me with this strange system hang issue!

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lap4fsf
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Joined: 10/12/2014

My Trisquel GNU/Linux 6.0.1 (Tautatis, 64-bit version.) was running smoothly. Recently, my CPU seems to be hanging after logging into Trisquel. The hang occurs occasionally only. (I had this issue only 3 or 4 times for the last couple of months.)

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SYMPTOMS (In the order at which they occur.):
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[1] The mouse pointer gets stuck and any window/terminal becomes non-responsive.
[2] The monitor starts to become blurred and later displays some random colour bands/stripes across the entire screen.
[3] Monitor indicator beeps as if there is no signal coming from my CPU compartment.
[4] The CPU Indicator (A red LED which shows CPU status by blinking.) stops working and only the CPU Power switch with a Blue background seems to be on.

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If I turn off the power supply and boot after a few hours, the system is brought up and functions normally without any issues. Sometimes I have to do this for a few times, to at-least see the boot loader screen.

I had updated my BIOS firmware; The upgrade went smoothly and reported success at the end. The symptoms seems to have occurred after this.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions, in advance.

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

How are the temperatures? Could be overheating. Is there a lot of dust build up? Do the fans work?

lap4fsf
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Joined: 10/12/2014

Hi lembas,

>> How are the temperatures?

CPU Temperature [48°C / 118°F]
MB  Temperature [38°C / 100°F] 

>> Do the fans work?

They seem to work. The details are listed below:

CPU Fan Speed      [3013 RPM]
CPU Q-Fan Control  [DISABLED]
Chassis Fan Speed  [N/A]

>> Is there a lot of dust build up?

I had cleaned the CPU compartment using a blower, a couple of week ago. There were lot of dust. Now it should be dust-free. (I shall check it one more time; Your advice seem quite reasonable to me, at this point.)

My Motherboard is ASUS P5KPL-CM.
Let me know if you require further inputs.

SuperTramp83

I am a translator!

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Joined: 10/31/2014

those temps are perfectly normal. It is not a temp overheating issue. I have no idea what is causing the problem you described. Have you installed/removed anything lately?

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Try to check your RAM with "memtest86+" (in Trisquel's repository). If you install it from the repository, you may have to remove GRUB's password to be able to start memtest86+ from GRUB's menu. See https://trisquel.info/forum/cant-boot-vista-after-trisquel-install#comment-82109 for a two-command instruction to do so.

lap4fsf
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Joined: 10/12/2014

>> Try to check your RAM with "memtest86+" (in Trisquel's repository).

I checked RAM using the Test Memory option made available through Trisquel Live CD. (I suppose this is equivalent to memtest86+ package you mentioned earlier; Correct me, if I am wrong here.)

The result is as follows:

****** Pass complete, 0 error(s) reported, press [ESC] to exit ******

>> Have you installed/removed anything lately?

I do not remember installing anything.

But I do apply software updates on a daily basis; All those updates are from official Trisquel repositories only.

amenex
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Joined: 01/04/2015

Have a look at your BIOS settings; reboot and hold down the appropriate function key.

lap4fsf
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Joined: 10/12/2014

>> Have a look at your BIOS settings; reboot and hold down the appropriate function key.

My BIOS settings are all set to their default values. I can boot into my system and am replying your post through it.

amenex
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Joined: 01/04/2015

Today my Lenovo T420 Thinkpad also froze up in the manner described after I deleted an item from the taskbar, but I was able to force a shutdown and reboot, and the hangup did not repeat when I tried to duplicate the remove-item-from-panel task. It's never hung up like that before, and I'm only prompted to make this comment because of the blue background of your power key; mine happens to look green to me, but my spouse and I disagree on the color of her car ...

I also had an IBM-PCXT which started to get flaky after several years, and blowing a huge quantity of dust out of the tightly packed electronics in its case solved that problem. Maybe they still do make 'em like that ...

antiesnob
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Joined: 08/22/2013

It's not a software problem.
Your problem is on your GPU. What GPU do you have? If it's on chip, put thermal compound after cleaning it. If not, put thermal compound on the GPU card after cleaning it and clean the cooler.
If it's on your motherboard you should send it to a place that repair motherboards to check for some problem on the circuitery.

lap4fsf
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Joined: 10/12/2014

>> What GPU do you have?

Intel® G33 x86/MMX/SSE2

Jabjabs
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Joined: 07/05/2014

Came here to say this, I have the same issue if I run Trisquel on a 2010 Mac Mini - the Nouveua drivers just simply didn't support the chipset very well.