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On a recent (~2 weeks ago) Ubuntu 20.04 install on a high-end Dell laptop, I keep getting random freezes. My screen flickers and vibrates left and right about 3 to 7 mm, at a sporadic rate of ~ 2Hz. Holding any key on the keyboard stops the flickering. Hard reboot is the only solution.

What could cause this? Is it an Ubuntu 20.04 issue or is my SSD failing? I have no idea, but gsmartcontrol seems to show my SSD is OK. During one of the crashes I captured this image by doing Ctrl + Alt + one of the F keys until I found this screen. I then had to hard reboot. Not even Ctrl + Alt + PrScrn + REISUB works!

enter image description here

Just while trying to write this answer on this computer it has frozen and I've hard rebooted 4 times. In the last hour, 10+ times.

karel
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Gabriel Staples
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    boot a live linux and make a long test with smartmontools. – nobody Aug 17 '20 at 12:06
  • I was able to complete the long test in gsmartcontrol without error in 8 min, and the short test without error in 2 min. I also booted to the Dell diagnostics menu at startup, ran diagnostics, and it passed all standard tests but froze during the long RAM test. I'm thinking either it's bad RAM or a bad motherboard or an outdated BIOS/UEFI firmware. – Gabriel Staples Aug 17 '20 at 15:18
  • I did a bunch of hardware debugging: I'm interested in any feedback to this follow-up question on SuperUser: https://superuser.com/questions/1579994/can-unplugging-your-ram-stick-and-plugging-it-back-in-solve-ram-errors-problems – Gabriel Staples Aug 23 '20 at 05:52

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It seems to have been a hardware problem causing RAM corruption/errors. See my question and my hardware debugging steps I took here: https://superuser.com/questions/1579994/can-unplugging-your-ram-stick-and-plugging-it-back-in-solve-ram-errors-problems/1580224?noredirect=1#comment2407315_1580224.

Removing and putting back in the RAM in the exact same slots as before seems to have cleaned the contacts and solved the problem, allowing the RAM to work properly again.

I thought it was an Ubuntu 20.04 software problem, but this time, I guess not.

Update 2020.09.15: see my comments under the answer linked-to just above. I got the motherboard and RAM replaced too, in the end.

Update 2023.04.19: Replacing the motherboard was definitely the fix! I'm using this computer right now to type this. It has had zero issues since the motherboard was replaced 3 years ago. I've upgraded the SSD from 500 GB to 2 TiB too (Amazon link), per my instructions here (see the "Details and full steps" section), and I've upgraded my RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB (Amazon link: 3200MHz CL 16 16GBx2), and it works great too. Again, the problem before was the motherboard. Luckily the computer had a full-service 2-year warranty and they sent someone to my house in 2020 to replace my motherboard, and it was all free since it was covered under the full-service warranty.

Gabriel Staples
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