A QUICK REFERENCE TO RANDOM CRASHES

Nothing’s more infuriating than random computer crashes. If it is reproducible, you have somewhere to start looking, but if it happens at any time and using any software, where do you begin?

If it happens regardless of the software you are using, it may be a hardware problem. If you have a spare PSU, try swapping that. Desktop PSUS can vary greatly in quality, and the cheaper ones can cause the sort of power glitches that will crash a computer. They can also damage components that cost several times more than a new PSU. If it’s a laptop, the battery may be on the way out. If the computer doesn’t run reliably on battery power alone, look for a replacement battery.

The other common culprit is faulty memory – not all of it, just a few bytes. Most of the time things work fine, until something uses those bytes and boom! Testing memory on a running system is unreliable as you cannot test anything the system needs, so use Memtest86+. This is a bootable system that uses the absolute minimum of RAM for itself, leaving the rest available for testing.

Memtest86+ runs a comprehensive series of tests and takes a while to run, but even that is not enough. Because such problems can be transient, there is a chance of faulty memory passing on a single run, so let it run for at least two passes and preferably overnight.

If neither of these show anything, you may have a problem with some core software. If you use a popular distro, that is unlikely without others also being affected. One other possibility is a dirty mains supply – voltage spikes or drops can trigger a reboot. Some sort of power smoothing, like a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) can eradicate such issues. A UPS is a wise investment if you use your computer for any sort of work, as such crashes seem to always happen just before you were about to save or back up!