Lenovo G50-30 keeps hanging

[Chris S]

I've got a Lenovo G50-30 which keeps hanging, everything freezes up including the mouse and the keyboard. I just use it for internet access.

If I'm listenting to BBC Sounds then the last word keeps repeating like a stuck record. If I'm watching a Facebook reel it just stops. The laptop has even frozen when I've just been paging down through Facebook (and possibly ebay as well, though I might be confusing that).

The problem occurs with both Firefox and Brave browsers so it's unlikely to be them.

I use 3 mobile broadband and live in an area with poor mobile phone reception. Is it possible that my laptop is freezing because of a bad broadband connection or is it more likely to be a hardware/software fault?

 

[wiggydiggy]

When you say freezes what exactly is happening? My old desktop a Dell Optiplex 790 (2011) will sometimes have a backgroundWindows process completely bork the system and I have to restart - I use Task Manager to see that its a Windows programme that has started hogging all the resources, the symptons will be programmes will fail to launch and anything already running will become very unresponsive.

You could try disconnecting it from the network and working offline to see if its internet, do you have any videos you can watch (Edit - while its disconnected I mean) for a bit to see if still breaks? Try having Task Manager running already to see what is running.

 

[Chris S]

When you say freezes what exactly is happening? My old desktop a Dell Optiplex 790 (2011) will sometimes have a backgroundWindows process completely bork the system and I have to restart - I use Task Manager to see that its a Windows programme that has started hogging all the resources, the symptons will be programmes will fail to launch and anything already running will become very unresponsive.

You could try disconnecting it from the network and working offline to see if its internet, do you have any videos you can watch (Edit - while its disconnected I mean) for a bit to see if still breaks? Try having Task Manager running already to see what is running.

I should have said that my laptop is running Xubuntu 24.04. I can't use Task Manager as the keyboard is unresponsive.

The laptop continues to hang if the MIFI is turned off. This is something that has just started to happen recently. I'm beginning to wonder if my laptop is just worn out.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I should have said that my laptop is running Xubuntu 24.04. I can't use Task Manager as the keyboard is unresponsive.

The laptop continues to hang if the MIFI is turned off. This is something that has just started to happen recently. I'm beginning to wonder if my laptop is just worn out.

Ah I have no idea with xubunto, but if it's hanging with no wi fi on attack then yeah it might be worn out. Try a reinstall dog it first maybe?

 

[DRM]

Try running it on mains, without a battery, had similar on an old Acer, the dead battery was causing the fault

 

[lazybloke]

Hard drive or SSD going bad? Are there tools to probe it for storage errors? You could boot into a Live DVD or a USB distribution to bypass the internal storage and see if there's a difference.

Worth running RAM tests too.

 

[Chris S]

You could boot into a Live DVD or a USB distribution to bypass the internal storage and see if there's a difference.

Good idea.

 

[Chris S]

If anybody is still interested then the problem disappeared when I switched from Xubuntu to Lubuntu. They use the same base code so Xubuntu must have introduced a bug when they developed their variant.

 

[bonzobanana]

It could be your particular hardware was an issue for that software. As a general rule often laptops become more flaky in operation as they age as the cooling system fills with dust and either the laptop slows to a crawl to protect the chips or it just causes random crashes operating at too high a temperature. I remember someone with a gaming laptop who was always having cooling problems causing intermittant crashes because it was a powerful laptop that depends on the cooling system working at full efficiency. Personally I like the cheap Celeron laptops. I debloat them of all the Windows nonsense you don't need and they have no active cooling at all so work really well for general use and super reliable.

 

[fossyant]

If anybody is still interested then the problem disappeared when I switched from Xubuntu to Lubuntu. They use the same base code so Xubuntu must have introduced a bug when they developed their variant.

Does Lubuntu generate more steam to keep the laptop going ? Lol !