Hmm, I really hope it is not h/w problem: Intel core I5 2.4 Ghz 4 gb ram 128 gb ssd. Do you still think it's a h/w problem?
I do not know, it depends on how many stuff you have loaded at the same time. But... well, to be honest, seeing your computer, I do not really think it could be that...
Running top shows many running processes (that's normal?).
Yes, even on my configuration, which aim to be very lightweight, top gave me many things, I guess most are kernel relative.
The top few are things I use eg. brltty cpufreq etc. so looks pretty reasonable. Thanks, Dan
And when you start one of your freezing softwares, and still look at top, does it takes bit amount of RAM/CPU? I'm not experienced enough with gnome, but maybe they are really heavy to load. But it sounds strange anyway to simply run a software is able to freeze a computer with a ssd, 4G of ram etc... Btw, seeing other people's stuff make me thing mine is sooo outdated :D (but it runs well so I do not mind)