Freeze - or rather, I wish it would NOT FREEZE !

[#1]

For a few  days now, I have been having intermittent freezing of mouse action... Very long waiting times for web pages to load, and when the mouse cursor does decide to move, it is very "jerky".. unreliable, and unresponsive, no matter what I try to click on, either on a web page ( refresh, bookmark, file, or X to get rid)  or on the desktop lower task bar ( linux "the panel)  even "force quit" .

Running the following.

Linux Mint 19.1  updated........ With   (Windows 7 pro, fully updated,  running in Virtual Box ..)

Firefox v68.0 (64bit) (latest version)

Thunderbird v 60.8.0 (latest version)

Running on a 500GB hdd, that has had little useage.   Dell Inspiron 5558 Laptop.

Web page loading varies from about 20 seconds ( normal )... to over 4 minutes and often never...

I run Thunderbird in the background all the time I am surfing the net, or whatever else I am doing.  Yesterday, after an interminable wait, I got this "flash screen" . While trying to answer an email..

Clicking on "Stop Script" had no effect whatsoever... it just hung around, until it decided the fun was over..and then disappeared, leaving the mouse cursor in "jerky motion" mode.

Having got over that one... I decided to send a PM to someone...  and then I got the following flash message...

@JonoH  ( may be interested in this thread ) .

Again, no response from "stop script"...  except a long long wait...

I gave up, and did a "Hard Re-boot".. i.e. held down the power button until it shut down..

I then restarted the laptop... being given the option to start Linux Mint 19.1 recovery.. I did so, and after doing that, the laptop seemed to behave as normal,.... however... it has re-occurred again to day...T

I don`t know whether this is related to THUNDERBIRD... FIREFOX, or my Hdd... ( although "Discs" on Linux Mint says the disk is OK and running at 35c  No bad sectors reported).

As for "cookies"... maybe those have something to do with it... so I show this excerpt for those who know about these things.

Anyone with any ideas on how to cure this , would be appreciated.... BUT>..... keep it in simple easy to follow step by step instructions, as I am not a Linux Geek ( yet )....

[#2]

Odd question  have you imposed any limits on VirtualBox? I have mine limited to just about half the available physical memory and half the processor cores. Since doing that, Windows 10 grinds nearly to a halt at times when a "memory leak" occurs (the processor fan "screams"), but Linux is not noticeably affected.

Look under Tools->System in VB manager.

Phil

[#3]

@PeeGee  It is an "odd " question.... as the "symptoms" described above. are happening when I am using LINUX MINT...  ( with the VB not accessed or running ) .

Yeah.. I do get "some" freezing when using the Windows In the Virtual Box.... but then... I kinda , expect it, as i think a lot of actions are "dual" processed... when using the VB... e.g. when I send morse, using the same prog as on Linux.. the sound and textual translation appearing on screen is a definite 1 second delay between keying the morse and its effect on screen and sound. (so the VB side of this is of "no consequence" as far as I am concerned).

[#4]

It happened again, on first start this morning....

I had the splash screen about Thunderbird and Chrome script not working ( calendar )

I don`t use that part of Thunderbird..

What will happen If I delete the "calendar data"  folder ( which contains 1 item )  < local.sqlite    753.7 kb      sqlite 3 database >

Two "Crash report" entries are listed.

There is no mention of "Chrome" in the listing of folders or contents of folders

What if I got rid of current Thunderbird install ( from the original Linux Mint 19.1 install procedure & updated {presumably} with current updates)  and downloaded it direct from the internet .

[#5]

---

@shutter wrote: Yeah.. I do get "some" freezing when using the Windows In the Virtual Box.... but then... I kinda , expect it, as i think a lot of actions are "dual" processed... when using the VB... e.g. when I send morse, using the same prog as on Linux.. the sound and textual translation appearing on screen is a definite 1 second delay between keying the morse and its effect on screen and sound. (so the VB side of this is of "no consequence" as far as I am concerned).

---

I wouldn't have thought it would matter much being it being 'dual processed' as such. Admittedly, I run the VB the other way around with Mint running on it but I don't get such delays. Maybe a driver isn't quite what it should be. Yes, it works but a different one might work better. Delays can be just down to bad drivers. For instance I do know Windows bluetooth drivers can be pretty bad when it comes down to video syncs - mine is about 1/2 sec delay. If I use VLM, I can adjust that delay out but it is a pain to do.

Assuming no problem with the mouse, I think you really need to fathom out what process is soaking up so much processor time. The fact you have several things happening (mouse being just part of the same problem) points to something hogging the processor - maybe in a loop until something times out. Have fun!

Edit: Just seen your last post, fact you don't use the calendar doesn't mean it isn't running. As to updating, I have never removed Thunderbird. I let it update as necessary, if need be via Help. About (you probably know that already   )

[#6]

Do you have the Calendar as a plugin / extension @shutter?

If you don’t use the Calendar simply disable / remove it.

Chrome, in this context is polish, like shiny bits on a motorbike and no relation to directories or products of a similar name.

[#7]

@Anonymous  Short answer.... " dunno".... I just use Thunderbird as it comes.... never " activated " or even "investigated" what that "calendar" is...   Never needed it.... got a paper one in my drawer, which is much easier for the missus to access and understand ! ! .. 

Just disabled it.... !   will see if the freeze still happens..... watch this space....  OR.... go and get on with your life ! ! ! !

[#8]

@shutter Have a look under Tools > Add-ons and see what's there. Check the three categories Extensions, Themes and Plugins. As I said Chrome is bells and whistles so look for that.

[#9]

@shutter  Slightly off the point, I am wondering why you are not running Thunderbird and other main applications on Linux rather than a virtual machine.

[#10]

@daveplus He is.

[#11]

@shutter Have you made progress with this? I just fired up my Mint VM and you need disable Lightning as seen here:

[#12]

A lot of motherboards become unstable when the clock battery is low. If you've not replaced it for ages, now would be an ideal time to do so and test out if it makes any difference. I had a mate years ago who's PC kept doing this to him and it went on for months. Told him to replace the mobo clock battery and the moment he did so it solved it completely.

[#13]

@daveplus   Erm.... see the original post.... Virtual box is runing on Linux...

@Anonymous   Yes, and No !.... I have disabled the calendar thing on Thunderbird... "progress"

BUT>..

Closed down to go to lunch... came back... needed to charge my phone, and also needed to do some work in the shed. ... so booted up as normal... plugged phone in on laptop... left it running for a couple of hourse.  came back to it.d.. with your messages... at 16:45... tried to log in... waited 6 minutes for nothing happening.. all frozen again... got fed up had to do a hard shut down,.. and restart..

So... not really ... no progress ... despite disabling the calendar..

Typing this at 40wpm   ...  the typing stops and starts  and then rushes along to catch up with my typing...

@7up  You may be onto something there.... I actually finished replying to these points at 17:30 and pressed the "post" button... but at 17:55.... I was still waiting for it to post...had to do another reboot...

now 18:05 

While I was away from here... I opened up the bottom of the laptop... and there is a nice hole with a CR2032 battery in there... couldn`t replace it right now... but I did manage to rotate it around in its seating a few times.. to see if that would create a new/cleaned contact area... and booted up.... pages seem to boot faster.. and hopefully will continue to do so...

will get a new battery tomorrow, and replace it... even if it is only to eliminate that from the equation..

Thanks..

[#14]

@7up    and others who may be interested  ! ..

Just got back from ASDA  ( only a couple miles away) .. with TWO new CR2032 batteries  (£6.00)  put one in... easy peasy... got a message saying the time and date needed resetting ... enter setup...  or continue... decided I couldn`t wait... so clicked on Continue.... lo and behold.. after booting up... it was showing correct date and time... ! ! ..

Opened Firefox, to get to this page...  everything seemed to be so much quicker... UNTIL... I clicked on "reply"  to post this.. took a while.. ( about a minute ) compared to other pages opening.. in 20 secs or so .

Anyway.. will see how it goes for the rest of tonight... and see what happens tomorrow..

Hopefully the new battery will have solved it all.........

[#15]

Well... this is weird.... it was all going well.... then I opened up Thunderbird to answer an email... it froze.....  then .. it started flashing pages all over the place... that stopped,... so I tried to close three that I saw on the screen... then I noticed that the bottom task bar  ( the panel ) . was rammed full of little squares relating to Thunderbird...  only thing to do was to do a hard reboot AGAIN..

So.. I thought.... maybe I try  using another browser.... so I opened up my alternative   FALKON ...  no extras... "as is" from the install... Google search page opened quick as a flash... logged in to PN forum... and here I am... meanwhile... I opened up thunderbird and saw the email.. answered it and all seems well with the world... 

Maybe it`s a Firefox thing....  

Will leave that alone tonight... and use FALKON and see what happens tomorrow,... ( or later tonight  ! !  )