Problematic computer
Problematic computer
I have been using a company computer running Ubuntu 22.04. There are frequent and unexplained problems, like segmentation faults, stack errors, files disappearing, computer freezing or not booting, or turning off immediately after I turn it on. I don't know what to do. The IT staff came to my office to check the computer and said "it was all good." I am not allowed to boot from a USB stick or enter BIOS or open the case. I ran a command line memory check several times with no errors. There is an NVIDIA card, but it's running X.org and usually headless. I mostly set up tasks via SSH.
What would you do?
Segmentation and stack errors are most certainly bad memory, I'm 99% sure of it, reboot and run mem test from GRUB if you have the option. The "stack" is the non-dynamically allocated space your program is assigned to run in. Stack errors mean some pointers somewhere are likely getting corrupted and it's trying to access addresses beyond what it's allowed to access.
I can't run memtest unfortunately. The option isn't there and I don't have permission to boot from a USB stick.
If you have root you could theoretically add Memtest86+ to the boot order. There's tools that allow adding boot entries in EFI. You could probably place a Memtest86+ binary in your EFI partition and register it with the EFI firmware. But I'm not suggesting to do it since you could make the machine unbootable and the problem might be on the storage path. I'm just thinking of should be possible.
You could download stressapptest and run that memory benchmark in the normal system.
I'm not sure how well the current version of Memtest does, but when I was overclocking I was told not to use it as it couldn't reliably get memory to crash. (Funny problem to have). The two recommended tools are Windows only, so I found stressapptest as the best alternative.
Sounds like it has a faulty HDD/SSD
Ram and sata cable faults have similar symptons as well.
Idk about RAM but cables can cause that. Still randomly disappearing files sounds more like an issue of the drive itself. Though it should cause the system to randomly freeze afaik. Or it can just be malicious remote control but that's highly unlikely.
As it's running Ubuntu you could provide your IT department with the logs from the crashes, so they can see there is a problem.
If they provided the Ubuntu install it's their job to support it.
That's a good idea. If I can get it to boot today, I will check the logs, thanks!
Bad memory or storage
Do you have a way to reproduce the problem so IT can see it? Have you taken screenshots (or just pictures with your phone) of the problem if it’s hard to reproduce?
I was having a lot of random crashes and weird errors on my Mint install, using the logs, I tracked it down to a SSD fault.
I really didn't want to send it back, since I got it from Amazon and I'm in NZ.... So after a bit of checking I found that the FW on the SSD was not the latest. Updated the FW, went from at least 1 crash per workday, to no crashes in the last 6 months.
My SSD is a WD SN850X 4TB
Find a new company? 😆
I do have an interview scheduled, just saying...
There is an NVIDIA card, but it’s running X.org
'Nuff said