Intrepid Ibex randomly hangs

First, I would like to say I'm a new Linux user and so far its been a smooth transition. Unfortunately, like the title says Ubuntu occasionally hangs randomly with the cursor frozen. I have to remove the battery pack when this happens and its driving me crazy . Is there a workaround for this? My specs are in my signature and any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Keyboard stops working as well? Does it happen at any specific time, like if you open a type of program?

Also, in ubuntu, ctrl+alt+del doesn't do anything, but ctrl+alt+backspace will log you out and put you back to the login screen. Kind of like a reboot but a lot faster.

 

The cursor just freezes but I can move it around. This happens occasionally when I try to open an app.

 

Move what around? You mean use the keyboard? And which apps?

 

First off, you should be able to just hold down the power button for 4 seconds to turn it off.

Secondly, there should be a file in /var/log called dmesg.0, which contains the system logs from your last boot. Look in there, at the end, to see what errors were logged before it locked.

What is most likely happening is that the X server is crashing for some reason. What graphics changes have you made? Anything?

 

Ill check the log when I get home thanks.

 

Sorry, for being a noob but when I type /var/log it says bash: /var/log: is a directory ?

 

Nevermind, I found the system log but for some reason dmesg.0 is not listed in the file in /var/log. The only thing I see in /var/log is auth.log, daemon.log, debug, kern.log, messages, syslog, user.log, and Xorg.0.log .

 

Try just typing dmesg into bash. If it works, please paste the output here.

P.S.
So we can start eliminating similar maladies, tell us what common jobs the system was doing right before it hanged. Do the hangs really happen randomly, or might there be anything you normally use, such as flash, that is causing it?