Xubuntu installation worked only in safe graphics mode. System freezes randomly. Possibly due to graphics drivers

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Hello,

My parents have an older laptop Acer Extensa 2519 (bought in 2019 for 200-300€).
They had an outdated Xubuntu LTS version (20.04) for a long time and it worked fine. Then I updated to a newer version and the problem started - the laptop just kept freezing at random times without any signs and only hard reset helped. I was not sure why but I just decided to reinstall Xubuntu hoping the problem would go away.

I tried two times to install the latest version of Xubuntu and during the installation it always froze at a some point and I had to do a hard reset. Then I tried to install it in safe graphics mode and it functioned without a problem.
Now we have a fully installed Xubuntu but it still happens that every now and then it freezes and only hard reset helps.

I was checking journalctl for the moments when it happens but there is no clue. Also we have enough RAM and swap space.

It seems like the problem could be with the graphics drivers but not sure what to do.
Would you have an idea?

Thank you for your help.

Martin

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Safe graphics mode usually means booting with nomodeset boot parameter. To make that permanent:

* (collapsed instructions since the question asking how to run safe graphics mode permanently was edited out)
  1. Edit /etc/default/grub (requires root/sudo), add the nomodeset boot parameter to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line. For example, if you left the default GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" boot parameters, change it to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

  1. Run sudo update-grub to apply the change

  2. Reboot the system to start using the new boot parameters.

That said, this is often not the best way to fix this type of issue. What GPU does this system have?

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Thank you. I have done the changes. I hope it will work. If not, I will research further.

GPU is Intel HD Graphics 405. This I found on the Internet.
With command lspci I didnt get any relevant details…

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