Hey everyone, I'm in a bit of a bind with my Linux desktop. I'm not a complete newbie, but my system administration skills are pretty limited. I rely heavily on this machine for work since I do almost everything from home.
This morning, I launched Chrome to get started, and my CPU usage skyrocketed across all 8 cores for about 10 minutes. Even after that calmed down, every new tab I opened was causing spikes again. Then later in the afternoon, I suddenly lost internet access entirely. I couldn't even ping other devices in my local network, and I was on a VPN when all my connections dropped. After some frustration, I rebooted the system, but Chrome triggered the same CPU spikes and I still couldn't connect to the internet.
I powered down the machine, let it sit for a few minutes, and started it again. Internet still wasn't working, which made me suspect the 10Gb network card I had installed. I switched to the onboard Ethernet port, and that got me back online. However, my system monitor (gkrellm) doesn't show the Ethernet device even though it's enabled in the settings. It seems to be working fine otherwise.
I'm starting to worry about potential issues with the motherboard or the CPU since they are over 9 years old. The 10Gb Ethernet card is about 2 years old, the primary NVMe drive is around 18 months, and the memory is about the same age. My video card, an NVIDIA RTX 3090, is showing up fine in `nvidia-smi`.
What tools can I use to diagnose the root of these problems? I'm financially prepared to replace the CPU and motherboard if necessary, but I feel like the other components should be fine. I'm also a bit apprehensive about whether my primary NVMe would work seamlessly on a new motherboard and whether I'd need to update the memory. I'm not in a rush to replace anything unless it's truly needed. I appreciate any advice and assistance!
2 Answers
Have you checked if there have been any recent updates to your system? Sometimes, an update can lead to unexpected performance issues. Just a thought!
Regarding your system monitor not showing the network device, this could be a recognition issue due to recent changes. If it appears in `ifconfig`, you should be fine. Just make sure it recognizes the device even if it doesn’t show in your system monitor.
Yeah, I checked `ifconfig`, and it shows up there fine, including the 10Gb card, but it doesn’t have an IP assigned.
No major software updates have been done in quite some time. I haven't changed any hardware either for at least 18 months.