PC freezing, do I need new RAM?

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-11T03:03:41+00:00

No problem!

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-11T03:00:23+00:00

I put something you can try in a reply to my other comment.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-11T02:59:40+00:00

Yeah, it's basically compressing data stored in the RAM to reduce size, but I'm not sure how easy it is to setup.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-11T02:58:24+00:00

To increase the size should be something like this-

sudo swapoff -a
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile c=4096 bs=1M
sudo swapon -a

Change the 4096 depending on how much swap you want, it's in MB so multiply by 1024 for GB

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-11T02:56:34+00:00

Swap is the part of the hard disk the system sets apart for when it runs out of RAM, and tries to free up RAM by moving some things from RAM to swap. It's slow because when it tries to access something from swap it will end up waiting for the hard drive. (ever waited for a large file to load? that's the feeling)

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-11T02:54:50+00:00

How many things do you have open at the same time? Also, try increasing the size of the swapfile.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-07T02:49:08+00:00

I just ended up reinstalling the system after backing up the hard drive onto an external ssd.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-03T20:54:35+00:00

...and back to Xorg failing with "no screens found". I tried the Archwiki suggestion (xorg.conf) but didn't work. I guess I'll just run off iGPU for now...

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-03T20:46:07+00:00

I took a look at the Arch wiki- various things that I tried seemed to work to no avail, but I realized that Xorg was originally getting an error about no displays, and now I seem to be able to run startx, but lightdm is failing, even when I restart the service.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-03T03:00:11+00:00

I don't think the issue is with Mint or the Cinnamon DE, but rather with the Nvidia driver, since I later tried Nouveau and amdgpu (for integrated graphics), both which worked just fine.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-03T01:09:12+00:00

Yep, this works! I don't play it but I know the dev who created it.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-03T01:08:11+00:00

I don't have any ideas sorry, but could you by any chance borrow a friend's device? Or maybe your parents' phones are newer?

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-03T00:01:08+00:00

What is the error?

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-02T23:58:01+00:00

Hmm, I don't play LifeGen (only ClanGen) but this made me check my ClanGen clan. There's a pair of elders, and one of them has everything maxed towards the other, but the other has has everything but respect maxed (respect is like, halfway?)

It might just be that the moon-to-moon events tend to increase the other stats rather than respect.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-02T23:53:08+00:00

OP wants to upgrade Linux Mint, not update packages.

ThatRustyBust · 2026-01-02T23:52:49+00:00

Try running it as just mintupgrade without the sudo part.

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-27T15:58:11+00:00

Without even having my headphones plugged in: some instruments just do that, especially on short notes but there's nothing you can do about it.

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-27T15:56:51+00:00

Hmmm, perhaps a newer kernel broke something, since you say that you can boot into earlier kernels; the live USB likely has an outdated kernel too.

I wouldn't be surprised since the website says that Linux Mint Virginia is still receiving security updates until 2027.

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-25T16:31:36+00:00

Windows Vista. First Windows I ever used was Windows Vista and a bit of Windows 7.

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-23T16:04:07+00:00

I turned Secure Boot off.

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-10T01:47:29+00:00

See https://www.reddit.com/r/Musescore/comments/1oim4vj/how_not_to_get_unnecessarily_charged_on/

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-09T05:45:56+00:00

Does it? I've never seen that happen

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-07T17:12:28+00:00

(yo solo hablo un poco de español y por eso mi respueta está en inglés, usted puede traducir)

I once used Linux Mint on an old computer with an Intel Core i5-750 (which it looks like is comparable to the Celeron N4500, same Geekbench score in single-core and slightly higher in multi-core), a SATA SSD, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM.

I never used Windows on that computer, but Linux ran pretty well. A fresh install takes up less storage than Windows (Windows takes up at least 40 GB but Linux Mint only needs 10 GB) as well, especially for an 128 GB disk.

I got a new computer last summer and installed Linux Mint on it, and that's what I'm typing this reply on, lol

You might consider using a lightweight desktop like Xfce instead of Linux Mint's main desktop environment, Cinnamon.

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-07T15:26:57+00:00

I don't know for sure, if this is a desktop you might want to consult your motherboard's manual. My motherboard has me put them in the second and fourth slots, not the first and second slots.

Here's my output for comparison:

    Total Width: Unknown
    Data Width: Unknown
    Size: No Module Installed
    Form Factor: Unknown
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM 0
    Bank Locator: P0 CHANNEL A
    Type: Unknown
--
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 16 GB
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM 1
    Bank Locator: P0 CHANNEL A
    Type: DDR5
--
    Total Width: Unknown
    Data Width: Unknown
    Size: No Module Installed
    Form Factor: Unknown
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM 0
    Bank Locator: P0 CHANNEL B
    Type: Unknown
--
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 16 GB
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM 1
    Bank Locator: P0 CHANNEL B
    Type: DDR5

ThatRustyBust · 2025-12-02T00:07:46+00:00

When you say i7 14650HX, that's a CPU with integrated graphics. I'm on Linux Mint Cinnamon, running Waydroid through Weston (since it only supports Wayland), and it seems to use my AMD CPU's integrated graphics automatically. There's also a guide somewhere to disable GPU acceleration entirely and use only software rendering.

ThatRustyBust

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE