HP Pavilion dv8 Intermittently freezes on Ubuntu MATE 19.1

Support & Help Requests Hardware
1

Hello everyone, I have just joined the ubuntu-mate community, been Windows free for over 1 month now :smiley:

I have Ubuntu Mate 19.10 64-bit installed on an HP Pavision dv8 laptop. At first, it was really refreshing where I could focus on the work I needed to do rather than wait for the relevant application to start. It was really great for example that when I clicked on videos sent via Whatsapp Desktop (WhatsDesk), the videos played instantly! However I realize that after some time, trying to play a video resulted in the system freezing up, especially when another application was running in the background. I also attempted to Now, I can't even put a finger on what is causing the intermittent slowdown and lockup.

Here is my system info as obtained from inxi -Fx:
System:
Host: loaner4-HP-Pavilion-dv8-Notebook-PC Kernel: 5.3.0-46-generic x86_64
bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.2.1 Desktop: MATE 1.22.2
Distro: Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion dv8 Notebook PC
v: 039D200000241220001020000 serial:
Mobo: Quanta model: 7001 v: 35.1B serial:
BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: F.06 date: 10/26/2009
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: N/A condition: N/A model: Hewlett-Packard Primary
status: Unknown
CPU:
Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7 Q 720 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Nehalem rev: 5 L2 cache: 6144 KiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 25539
Speed: 931 MHz min/max: 931/1597 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 931 2: 931
3: 931 4: 931 5: 931 6: 931 7: 931 8: 931
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GT216M [GeForce GT 230M] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: nvidia v: 340.107 bus ID: 01:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.5 driver: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 230M/PCIe/SSE2 v: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.107
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0
Device-2: NVIDIA GT216 HDMI Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1
Device-3: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam type: USB
driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus ID: 1-1.1.1.3:8
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.0-46-generic
Network:
Device-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] Network driver: iwlwifi
v: kernel port: 7000 bus ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: 00:24:d6:38:ae:38
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 5000 bus ID: 03:00.0
IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: 00:26:9e:90:24:bb
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 85.23 GiB (9.1%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS541010A9E680
size: 931.51 GiB temp: 43 C
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 671.92 GiB used: 85.23 GiB (12.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 62.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 59 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 325 Uptime: 1h 46m Memory: 3.83 GiB used: 2.99 GiB (77.9%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.2.1 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3
inxi: 3.0.36

2

Just a shot in the dark here, but when my Linux systems lock up(assuming they are otherwise healthy,) it's almost always caused by using up all of my memory without realizing it.

You only nominally have 4G of ram, and there isn't a whole lot of it left these days after a couple of hours with a typical web browser open + 1 or two other tasks running in my experience. Try using a memory monitor to see if you're close to running out of free ram around the time when your system locks up.

If you only sometimes run out of ram you might be able to get by with setting up a swap partition if you don't have one already. Of course upgrading your ram(if possible) is the only real solution if this is your problem.