I have been using an old Windows desktop (Asus motherboard, i5 CPU, 120 GB SSD, about 8 years old) to run my Home Assistant server without issues for a few months. I decided I wanted to switch to Ubuntu so that I could run an Ad Guard DHCP server.

I first installed Ubuntu 22.04 along side Windows. I would continuously run into freezing after using Ubuntu for a maximum of 5 minutes. It would often happen when I open a folder or sometimes it would happen without me even touching the mouse. The screen would stay on and sometimes it would display a distorted error message or no error message at all. If there was an error message, it would say "Sorry, Ubuntu has experienced an internal error. If you notice further problem, try restarting the computer." The screen would stop changing completely and all inputs were unresponsive.

I concluded that this must be an issue with my dual boot set up with Windows, especially since I had only allocated 25GB to Ubuntu. So I re-installed Ubuntu (same version) but this time I got rid of the windows partition. I am still experiencing the same freezing issue.

I have tried running sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade. /var/crash is completely empty. I have tried running memtest86 (no errors found after several passes). I have used Gnome disk utility SMART self test to check the health of my SSD. The result was that the SSD is fine. I'm now wondering could it be an issue with my motherboard?

The weird part for me is that Windows was working just fine but Ubuntu can't run 5 minutes without crashing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.