Proxmox freezing after a few hours

[aurelle]

Hi everyone,

About a year ago, my Proxmox VE 7 instance started freezing regularly without any clear cause, and I’ve been unable to resolve the issue despite extensive troubleshooting.

The Problem​

When the system freezes, the following happens:

• The hypervisor and all VMs become unreachable from the network.
• If a GPU is connected, the virtual console freezes, and the TTY’s blinking cursor stops.
• The machine becomes completely unresponsive, requiring a hard reset.

Freezing occurs after a few hours, sometimes days, but without any discernible pattern or event triggering it.

What I’ve Tried So Far​

Here’s a list of everything I’ve done to diagnose and resolve the issue:

1. Upgraded to Proxmox VE 8 and ensured all components are updated to the latest stable versions.
2. Updated the motherboard firmware to the latest non-beta version.
3. Installed kdump to catch kernel panics, but no evidence of kernel panics has been recorded.
4. Ran MemTest86 for a week—no errors reported.
5. CPU Stress Testing: Booted into a live Linux environment and ran stress-testing tools (mprime) for a week with no crashes or overheating.
6. Drive Checks:
   • Verified all drive health via S.M.A.R.T. data—everything appears normal.
   • Unplugged all SATA drives except the one running Proxmox.
7. Reinstalled Proxmox VE on a new drive.
8. Swapped or removed both NVMe drives.
9. Moved the machine to a different location in the house to rule out electrical issues.

Observations​

• The issue occurs even with a clean Proxmox installation without VMs or containers, ruling out any specific VM as the cause.
• Changing hardware components seems to slightly affect the frequency of the freezing but doesn’t solve the problem.
• CPU hardware error logs appeared in system logs months before and after the freezing began but have not reappeared in the last 50+ boots.

System Specifications​

Here are the core components that I haven’t been able to replace:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5950x
• RAM: Kingston Fury 2400MHz DDR4 (4x32GB)
• Motherboard: Asrock B550 Taichi (specs)

I’ve reached a dead end and would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions for further troubleshooting. Have I missed anything, or is there something else I should try?

Thank you in advance for your time and support!