[SOLVED]Random system freezes

Question

Hello,
My Dell Studio 1558 runs ArchLinux with XFCE. Everything is fine except two problems: Random system freezes and slow wlan download speed. I think that those problems might be related.
Since some updates ago my Laptop will just randomly freeze. Unfortunately I cannot remember exactly when it started. The freezes will randomly appear without any regularity or possibility to reproduce. Sometimes it freezes immediately after booting, sometimes after some hours. Heating should be no problem as it also freezes when the Laptop is cold (what a joke )
Sometimes it will freeze several times in a row, sometimes it won't freeze a whole day. It seems that it only freezes if there is Wireless LAN connection available. (I use wicd if that is of any importance.). It feels like the highest freeze rate is while downloading packages for system updates...
lspci tells about the wireless chip:
04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
uname -a
Linux mydell 2.6.38-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 30 08:47:36 CEST 2011 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 330 @ 2.13GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
So, according to the wiki page I use the broadcom-wl driver from AUR. I also tried the DKMS one which, of course, changed nothing. My modules array concerning broadcom looks like
MODULES=(!b43 !ssb !lib80211 !brcm80211 lib80211_crypt_tkip wl)
I ran memtest over several hours to make sure it's no memory problem. No errors in 5 passes. It has an ATI Chip which is powered by catalyst right now... Could be the source of the problem but I guess I'd have to test that further.
Additionally I suffer slooooow download speed over wireless LAN since some periond (can't remember the exact starting point too...). It's not related to my AP, happens in other networks too. I tried several servers too. Max download speed: 148 kb/s :S
I suspect that the freezes and the slow download speed are releated. Maybe a driver issue? I have no clue. I was unlucky to find error reports in the logs after the freezes. Besides, I have no real idea what to search for in the logs. I placed a desklet on my desktop now, to see the exact time and seconds when the freeze appears. I hope I'll be lucky.
Can someone help me or give me some ideas what to do?
Edit:
There was another kernel upate and at least the low speed is gone... strange. Hope the same is for the freezes :S
Edit 2:
Downgrading pm-utils to 1.3.0 did the trick for me. No freezes anymore.
Last edited by McFlow (2011-05-07 15:26:54)

Answer 1

So, the freezes are still there. I also tried the open source ATI driver. My laptop will still freeze randomly. The highest freeze rate was during operations with pacman/clyde. I think this might point to either WLAN or HDD.
I placed a desklet clock on my desktop and I could finally see the exact time when my laptop froze! But I cannot find anything interesting in the logfiles.
This should be the last lines that were written before the freeze occurec in everything.log.
Apr 22 16:49:46 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Successfully called chroot.
Apr 22 16:49:46 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Successfully dropped privileges.
Apr 22 16:49:46 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Successfully limited resources.
Apr 22 16:49:46 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Running.
Apr 22 16:49:46 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Canary thread running.
Apr 22 16:49:46 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Watchdog thread running.
Apr 22 16:49:47 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Successfully made thread 3582 of process 3582 (/usr/bin/pulseaudio) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Apr 22 16:49:47 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Supervising 1 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Apr 22 18:49:47 localhost kernel: [   42.385322] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
Apr 22 18:49:53 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:53 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Last lines from messages.log
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI action undefined: ADP1
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost kernel: [   28.860026] r8169 0000:09:00.0: eth0: link down
Apr 22 18:49:34 localhost kernel: [   28.860452] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
Apr 22 18:49:37 localhost kernel: [   31.674805] r8169 0000:09:00.0: eth0: link down
Apr 22 18:49:37 localhost kernel: [   31.674822] r8169 0000:09:00.0: eth0: link down
Apr 22 18:49:37 localhost kernel: [   31.675249] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
Apr 22 18:49:39 localhost polkitd[3456]: started daemon version 0.99 using authority implementation `local' version `0.99'
Apr 22 18:49:44 localhost kernel: [   39.143241] fuse init (API version 7.16)
Apr 22 16:49:47 localhost rtkit-daemon[3587]: Successfully made thread 3582 of process 3582 (/usr/bin/pulseaudio) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Apr 22 18:49:53 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
Apr 22 18:49:53 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0
My laptop sometimes hangs at boot with this screen. I cannot take some usful information from it. But it seems, that it's also related to networking stuff? But I am not sure if that's the cause for my problem.
I am lost. I have no real idea what to do. I think of using some other distribution in order to see if the freezes will occur there too. I hope this is "just" a driver issue...
Last edited by McFlow (2011-04-24 17:48:27)