Computer locking up after several days' uptime

[Chris G]

On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 12:28:53PM +0300, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> A new Ubuntu user has 8.04 installed on an LG laptop. I do not have
> the machine nearby to check what the specific hardware is, but it is a
> fairly modern unit.
> 
> He is reporting that after three days' uptime the computer locks up.
> He did not have this problem in Windows. I asked if he could leave the
> machine running without programs for a few days' time to see if it is
> the OS or an application, but this is a work machine so he cannot do
> that.
> 
> Where can I begin troubleshooting? It may actually be a while before I
> get to the machine physically, so whatever I can ask over the phone or
> via SSH would help. Thanks!
> 
Is it actually hung or just very unresponsive?

I have found that a memory leak in Adobe Reader (acroread) when run
from Firefox effectively hangs my machine if left to run, the swapping
makes it impossible to do anything.  Even a console login as root
fails because it times out between entering the user name and the
password.  The only way out is a hard reset.

-- 
Chris Green