Yuck ! Probably the most frustrating type of computer problem. Those brutal shutdowns will cause additional problems soon.
Originally Posted by
CalG
I've used the system monitor application, and have never seen swapfile activity displayed there, just a flat line along the bottom. (Symptom 1?)
My machine has 512 ram and after some time in a normal session some swap is always in use.
I have seen the processor indication maxed out with just the sys monitor application active.(symptom 2) Everything else "sleeping". That seems strange.
Yes it does seem strange. Wrong even. You might find running the command "top" in a terminal more informative.
Can someone help a newb ?
Maybe but not likely. Some scatter shot troubleshooting;
Install all available updates (but don't accept any system UPGRADE)
If you're using the fancy desktop effects (compiz) shut them off.
Try running with nothing plugged into USB if possible.
Look in System>Administration>Hardware Drivers. Sometimes proprietary drivers help, other times they're a problem (not very helpful I know)
It could be a start-up option command is needed but not sure which one, if any.
As already mentioned, some frighteningly sharp people read the emc-users-mailing-list. The Ubuntu forums are also good, though not if this problem is truly emc specific.
Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.