Machine Freezes

I am running LinuxCNC 2.7.14 on Debian 7 (Wheezy) on an old Gigabyte motherboard in a desktop tower.
Machine is Pentium 4 at 3.0 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, 150 GB drive.

Installed a few months ago and used sporadically as I got my turret mill operational.
The Debian/LinuxCNC operation was perfectly Ok for me.
Not connected to any networks and no other software installed.
The learning experience was fine and I had started making real jobs.

Recently, started suffering freezes of the cursor, generally after standing idle for some time, but sometimes within minutes of starting.
Cured by cycling the power.

Is it worth troubleshooting, or should I install something else ?

My personal machine is Lubuntu 18 on a new laptop and I would have no problems using the terminal to dig into the Debian installation, if required.

Leadshine drivers from a BOB.
John

Is there anything in the logs that may point to this issue.

Could it be an overheating, CPU heatsink grease may have gone off, or PSU issue ?

Have you tried running memtest from the grub menu, tried reseating the ram and de-dusting the PC ?

Are you using an internal GPU or GPU card, could it be an over heating issue as it could be for the CPU mentioned above ?

Just suggesting some of the basics that you may have already looked at.
I have a similar issue with one of the Dell PCs I own, same CPU @ same speed, but have never really looked into it as there are enough sitting around atm.

Thanks BeagleBrainz, you quite correctly said that I should get off my backside and investigate.
My reluctance was due to having been down this path with an early Lubuntu install, only fixed by upgrading and changing machines.

But, Andy's idea on the USBs will be tried today (morning in Sydney as I write).
This machine has a second data drive that does not need to be there, so that will go.
I should add that the latency times were acceptable, and the mill runs fine.
Never got a freeze in the middle of a run.

Spent time on Debian sites last night, and now have the confidence to open a terminal session.
John.

Hey John another Sydney sider as well

OMG thank you so much for this comment Andy!
I was tearing my hair out!

Had exactly the issue you describe on my lathe, random, intermittent complete UI freezes when running longer looped code.
The system is rock solid otherwise, left on 24/7 never locks up. Manually running code never locks up. But running looped code would sooner or later lead to a complete lock-up and force a restart of the machine. Exactly this issue.

AXIS / LinuxGUI frozen.
No Keyboard inputs accepted.
GCode runs perfectly to end.

Your comment led me to investigate the wireless mouse.
Turns out the wireless logitech mouse had a USB brownout issue that would power cycle the mouse every time the coolant solenoid was activated! I think the usb extension cable that the mouse dongle was plugged into ran too close to the coolant solenoid wiring.

In any case, I changed to a wired mouse and the issue seems to be completely fixed!

Gotta watch out for wireless peripherals power cycling, apparently! :-D

I played around with all the connections, and then it seemed Ok, until a couple of days ago.
Typical freeze.

Initially it would reboot and run for a short while.
Then I had to intervene and drop to the shell.
Then nothing.

Tried the Live Install USB used initially to setup the machine.
It would fail with "cannot mount root".

A neighbour gave me a 2020 vintage 64bit machine without HD.
Tried the Live Install US, and got the "cannot mount root.
So, perhaps the USB is faulty as well.

Back to the mill, swapped the drive/cables to the HDs.
Success, machine boots again and launches LinuxCNC.
But - after an hour it freezes again.

Don't try to unravel my story, I am also confused.

I will get a HD for the new (to me) 64 bit machine and do a new 64 bit install.

Could someone comment please on running a Live Install USB without a HD ?
I thought the live session operated entirely in RAM.

Keep well,
John.

tommylight,
thanks for the advice, makes sense.

Typo in the previous post - the 64 bit machine is 2010 vintage.
Got a HD for it and it seems to work great.
Mystery about the parallel printer port yet to be solved.
I will post separately with the results of installing LinuxCNC.

Keep well,
John.