GPU Hang (i915) on Intel Skylake (G3900) with any Linux distro – even on desktop idle

Hardware Support
1

I have a desktop PC with:

  • CPU: Intel Celeron G3900 (Skylake, HD Graphics 510)
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte H110M-S2PV-CF (BIOS F20)
  • RAM: 4GB DDR4
  • OS: Zorin OS 17 (Ubuntu 22.04), kernel 5.15.0-122-generic

Problem: The system completely freezes (black screen, no response, hard reset required) randomly. It happens during gaming (Minecraft), but also sometimes when the desktop is idle with no apps running. The only way to recover is to press the reset button.

Kernel log shows:
i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] GPU HANG: ecode 9:1:87f9fff9, in java [7337]
i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] Resetting rcs0 for preemption time out
What I've tried (nothing worked):

  • Different kernels: 5.15 LTS, 6.2, 6.17 (same issue)
  • GRUB parameters: i915.enable_psr=0 i915.enable_fbc=0 i915.enable_guc=0 i915.reset=2 i915.enable_dc=0
  • Disabled all power saving features in BIOS
  • Updated BIOS to latest version (F20)
  • Tried different distros: Zorin OS, Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21.3 (same freeze)
  • Removed all overclocking, ran memtest86 (no errors)
  • Temperature is normal (never exceeds 55°C)

Important: This never happens on Windows 10/11 (same hardware). On Windows, the game might crash, but the system never freezes.

Question: Is there ANY way to make this hardware stable on Linux? I know the i915 driver is open source. Is there a kernel patch, a different driver branch, or a BIOS setting I'm missing? Or is this hardware simply incompatible with modern Linux?

2

What stands out to me is:

Windows OS may be able to recover... enough to not freeze. But this statement suggests the problem exists on Windows OS, but with a bit of a different outcome.

The things you have tried all should be applicable normally.
That none of them worked and that you have crashes similarly on Windows OS, if not a freeze, suggests less a Hardware issue and more a bugged Firmware issue.

3

Gnome is a heavy desktop to play games with 4 GiB RAM. You could try Zorin 17 Lite instead.

Choose
Zorin-OS-17.3-Lite-64-bit-r2.iso

Disable fast startup in Windows power management.

In Zorin Core switch to Xorg if you are on Wayland. Logout and at login click on your username then a cog wheal appears at the bottom right corner. There you can switch between Xorg and Wayland. Zorin Lite uses Xorg by default. Xorg is often better for older hardware.

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4

Welcome to the Forum!

With Your Hardware Specs, I think, You should use something with a more Lightweight Desktop like xfce or You should think about to built in more RAM.

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