Hi,
I struggled with this freezing issue for several weeks without understanding what was causing it. After finally identifying the root of the problem with the help of ChatGPT, I'm sharing the solution here in case it helps someone else facing the same situation.
System
Zorin OS 17.3 Pro
Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable
Vivaldi Browser
Observed Bug
The system was freezing intermittently, especially while watching YouTube videos via the Vivaldi browser.
The screen would become unresponsive, although the system continued running in the background.
Technical Cause
The issue was caused by a bug in the Intel i915 GPU driver, related to a feature called PSR (Panel Self Refresh).
- PSR is a power-saving feature that pauses GPU activity when the screen content doesn't change.
- On some Intel chipsets, PSR can malfunction during screen refreshes, especially when playing videos or switching graphical content.
- This results in
flip_done timed outandcommit wait timed outerrors in system logs, leading to graphical freezes.
Logs showed errors like:
i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* flip_done timed out
[CRTC:98:pipe A] commit wait timed out
Solution
The issue was resolved by disabling PSR at the kernel level using a GRUB boot parameter:
i915.enable_psr=0
This stops the buggy power-saving feature and allows the GPU to operate normally without freezing.
How to Apply the Fix
- Open Terminal and edit GRUB configuration:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
- Find this line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
- Modify it like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.enable_psr=0"
- Save the file (
Ctrl+O, thenEnter) and exit (Ctrl+X) - Update GRUB:
sudo update-grub
- Reboot your system:
sudo reboot
Result
After rebooting with i915.enable_psr=0, video playback works smoothly with no more system freezes.
This fix is stable and can be kept permanently.