My backup Kubuntu workstation began freezing shortly after boot recently. The problem was recurrent for a week or so and then I just switched the damn thing off. Have picked this up again recently to try and fix, because I would like to make use of this machine’s disks.

I ran MemTest86, and that surfaced no errors. Seems as though the RAM is okay and probably the CPU too.

The first thing I tried after the memory test was to remove the WD Blue 250GB SATA SSD M.2 which was in use as a ZFS cache. And this seems to have fixed the problem! Can’t be sure yet, but so far so good. Will continue to keep an eye on things…

Here are some photos for those playing along at home: