Need help with system lock up / freeze

[nuance9]

My old laptop is running Gentoo 1.2

It had been running quite well for a good while, but recently has been locking up. It will lock up any time that I try to emerge something - it always locks up during the download. In fact it seems to lock up during any download. I cannot switch to another virtual console, all commands become ineffective. If the screen has powered down - it will not come back up. I have to do a hard reboot.

I cannot think of anything specifically that I have changed. Not sure what information would be of help in diagnosing the problem - or where to even start looking.

Any help would be appreciated.

- JP

[mooman]

Well, my usual suggestion for stuff like this is to check that your machine isn't overheating...? Laptops tend to run hot already, and if you're emerging, you're getting hit with several whammies: The compiler heats the cpu up, all the downloading heats the nic up, and all the file read/writes heat up the hard drive...

Another stange and unpredictable gotcha is bad memory. This too can be exacerbated by excess heat. If you have the ability to switch out memory sticks, try that. Also make sure the metal contacts on the memory are clean and that they are seated well.

If you can rule these out, then start looking at system /software type issues.

Did the problem get gradually worse or did it just start one day and you just don't recall any changes you made then...?
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Linux user off and on since circa 1995