Ubuntu Freeze Issue After SSD Upgrade

So you updated to a SSD and enjoy the 10-15 sec bootup time but are getting annoyed by your system hanging now and then? Don't return your ssd yet, since it might be fixable with adding a little boot option. But be sure to especially read the part regarding SATA 1 incompatibility because in that case you might not have any other option than returning it and buy a different one.
 

When it actually happens

• you might have noticed that it the hangs occure especially, when you do a lot of stuff at the same time
• it's actually forceable you can watch the progress to the system lockup by doing the following:
  • start  gnome-system-monitor (you can also type gnome-system-monitor in a terminal window)
  • go to the resources tab
  • watch the memory and swap graph while doing the following
  • open up a lot of programs or tabs with heavy web pages in a web browser
  • at the point when the memory and/or the swap is full you'll experience the lockup
  • not having changed the swap space during Ubuntu 11.10 installation manually might add to the problem, because then it might be only as big as the physical memory
  • alternatively it might also happen after transferring a given number of MBs and might show after e.g. 500MB while copying a file of 1 Gb
     

How to fix it (1. attempt)

• you'll have to boot with an additional boot option, just follow these easy steps:
• open up a terminal window (in gnome press: CTRL + ALT + T)
• paste the following command hit enter, enter your password
  • sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
• find the following line (maybe there's allready something added inside the quotation marks)
  • GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
• and add libata.force=noncq so it looks like this
  • GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="libata.force=noncq"
• To apply the changes, exit the editor and paste the following line, hit enter, enter your password:
  • sudo update-grub
• Reboot and enjoy all the benefits of your shiny new SSD!
• If this didn't help and you want to undo this change, just edit your /etc/default/grub again, delete the inserted "libata.force=noncq", save it, execute "sudo update-grub" and reboot. 
• Explanation: What you actually do here is to change how your ssd is accessed. Switching off ncq can take the 'pressure' off the ssd a bit, but also makes it a bit slower. Sometimes this helps if you are experiencing freeze issues, sometimes not (other options underneath)
   

How to fix it (2. attempt)

• If the above fix seems to haven't helped a lot, and you are able to force the freeze issue like descibed above, the far better fix might be to enlarge your swap space. Especially if the swap isn't much bigger than your memory, this might just do the trick. 
• you can achieve this two ways, either bootup from a Ubuntu Live CD on the same computer or connect the SSD to another computer.
• start "gparted", e.g. by typing "sudo gparted" in a terminal window, if it isn't installed, install it by typing "sudo apt-get install gparted"
• in gparted choose your SSD 
• right click on the partition preceeding the swap space, click resize and make it a couple of gigabytes smaller 
• now right click on the swap partition and add the leftover space you just created to it
• apply all changes by clicking on the green check mark symbole
• boot from the ssd to check if it helped

Other fixes

• sata3 to sata2 fix:
  • if you use a sata3 ssd with a sata2 controller, the ssd might try to switch back and forth between sata 3 and sata 2 and makes the system hang during this action. to fix this you'll have to lock the ssd to sata2, so it's the only standard left to use.
  • bought an OCZ ssd? in this case you can make use of their bootable cd, that makes use of a minimal linux desktop to configure your hdd.
  • how to lock your OCZ ssd to SATA2 speed is explained here. if you scroll up in the thread you'll also find all the info regarding the bootable cd.
     
• performing a firmware update
  • often the first answer you'll get from a support agent but with ssds it seems to actually quite dramatically helps with issues. 
  • before performing a firmware update try to find out, wether your issue is actually named in a changelog. if it doesn't the risk of updating the firmware and something going wrong is bigger than that it really helps.
     

SATA 1 (SATA 1.5 Gbit/s) incompatibility

Most SSDs work perfectly with SATA revision 2.0 (SATA 3 Gbit/s) and SATA revision 3.0 (SATA 6 Gbit/s) and locking it to SATA 2.0 most of the times isn't really necessary. With SATA 1 (or correct: SATA revision 1.0 (SATA 1.5 Gbit/s)) it is a different story. If you already tried all of the above fixes and nothing worked for you, consult the technical specifications in the manual of your mainboard or computer and double check if your system might be equipped with only a SATA 1 compatible chipset. Because in this case there might be no other solution than a hardware upgrade to make this particular ssd work in your system. But there should be also some SSDs out there, maybe especially the non SATA 3 ones, that are capable of switching down to SATA 1. If you planning on upgrading a SATA 1 system with a SSD you should extensively search through forums and consult the manuals on the manufacturer's website. If you live in a country, where you can send a product back or return it in a shop even if you just don't like it, you should time your order in a way that leaves you enough time for testing and returning. 
 

Faulty hardware

The very last explanation for your problems might also be a hardware defect. This defect must not necessarily be connected to the ssd but rather the controller on your mainboard that is responsible for accessing the ssd. Since a ssd demands much more from this chip, it is possible that an old defect now shows much more obvious than before. To be even more detailed: most of the times it is not even the chip itself, but rather the soldered connection that got cracks over the years. This actually happens if heat deforms the mainboard to a point, that the solder physicly breaks, what can only be seen under a microscope. Google "resoldering" or "reballing" and watch some videos to find out more about this possibility and how to fix it. BE CAREFUL since the chance is very high that you destroy your mainboard completely, but if you are planning to throw it out anyway it might be worth a shot. If it is still working kind of ok, you are trying it anyway and it breaks: we warned you!