[Gllug] Linux freezing

Fri May 25 10:35:51 UTC 2007

Hi everyone,

I recently acquired a dual-processor Compaq AP550 Professional 
Workstation from eBay.  I have used either Ubuntu (Feisty) or PCLinuxOS 
2007 on it since I got it.

The problem is that the system keeps freezing.  The system becomes 
completely unresponsive, the mouse will not move, it doesn't respond to 
keyboard input, Ctrl+Alt+Del does not work either.  The only thing you 
can do is simply switch it off.  I am generally a KDE user and have 
noticed it most when using Kopete, but perhaps that's just because I use 
it a lot.  This morning, I tried the live-CD version of Ubuntu, and it 
froze within a minute of opening Firefox.  It always coincides with my 
interacting with the system: I've never left the system, come back and 
found it unresponsive, nor has it frozen during a long compile job, such 
as Qt.

One thing I have noticed is that my dual processor setup was obviously 
not installed properly, because every time I switch on, the computer 
gives me a "1801 microcode patch error" and tells me to upgrade my BIOS. 
  However, the system performs normally when I boot, except for these 
occasional freezes.  I've searched the internet and found other reports 
of Feisty freezing on people, although the nature of the crashes varies, 
but nobody has mentioned this as a factor.

Would upgrading my BIOS cure this?  I've looked on the HP site and it 
seems the updates require Windows to run, and although I have Windows XP 
on my primary HDD, it will not boot since I transferred the drive from 
another machine.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to make that work?

Regards,

Matt Smith
-- 

http://www.blogistan.co.uk/qt/

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