[solved] Ubuntu constantly crashing on new Cosmos IX

[dpc25]

Hi all,

Purchased a Cosmos IX with the intention of installing Ubuntu on it. Build specs were:

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 120Hz 45% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 10750H (2.6GHz, 5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 - 4.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive
512GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Battery
Cosmos Series Integrated 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 1 x USB 3.2 PORT + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM


Downloaded Ubuntu MATE 20.04 iso, used Balena Etcher to create the bootable USB, which failed on this laptop. Windows didn't seem to like the USB stick - I got a constant stream of those "Click here to decide what to do with this device" notifications, and Balena Etcher couldn't write the image. Tried this same process on a different laptop, worked without a problem.

So I installed Ubuntu MATE 20.04 on the new laptop, all seemed to work fine. Booted up Ubuntu for the first time and it crashed within seconds. Turned off and on again, seemed to run fine for the whole session. Went to use laptop for work the next day, plugged in external mouse and monitor and it crashed again. Turned off and on again, seemed to run fine. Turned on the next day, wanted to check for any driver issues. Used the built in utility in Ubuntu MATE and laptop crashed. Off and on again. Ran neofetch, crashed again.

Fresh download of Ubuntu MATE 20.04 iso, different USB stick, re-installed OS. Seemed to work fine, played a game, ran perfectly. Crashed on shutdown.
Crashes are well into double-digits now (had laptop since Thursday) and have really not done anything intensive with it at all.

Wondering whether there's some faulty hardware or perhaps no compatible firmware for the CPU or maybe GPU?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Stephen M]

There were certainly some problems with 20.04 but thought they were mainly audio. Have never used Balena Etcher so no idea how good it is but do know some Distros advise to steer clear of things like Unnetbootin, so perhaps another fresh install but with a USB made from something else.

The only GPU problems I have encountered on PCS laptops were driver issues and they usually caused a log in loop but may be worth going with the Ubuntu drivers and dropping the Nvidia to see if that changes things.

 

[dpc25]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your advice! I was actually using the nouveau drivers initially but having switched to the Nvidia drivers seems to have fixed the issue - at least I've not had any crashes since. Hard to say for certain since crashing would happen inconsistently at login, shutdown or on other seemingly random occasions but this definitely seems promising.

So in case anyone else stumbles upon this with the same issue:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-440

(440 being the current latest version), followed by a reboot.

 

[cc242]

I couldn't get Ubuntu to install on my new Cosmos IX, gave up without looking too much into it and tried Mint which installed but had a lot of problems (think with GPU mainly). Tried again with Elementary OS and that installed first time and runs great, no problems at all so far.

 

[dpc25]

So it turns out all the crashes I was having were due to a fault with the connection to the SSD - this became clear after an (apparent) disk failure.

Sent back to PCS, they confirmed this and fixed it. All working perfectly now.

So maybe the nouveau drivers are actually fine, but I haven't bothered switching back after installing the official Nvidia drivers.