Random freezing, audio stutter and hard lockups in certain configurations of a Windows 7 x64-based system with an Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card

Problem: A system with an  Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card experiences random freezing, audio stuttering, blue screens (STOP errors), and/or hard lockups.

Possible reasons: A driver update for the Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card was installed. This driver, offered in Windows Update (id:  20301637) may be causing system conflicts (possibly interrupt/resource conflicts) that cause the system equipped with an Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card to experience lockups, audio stuttering and lockups that require a hard reset.

Solution: Uninstall the update and/or roll back the driver in Device Manager. If you haven’t installed the driver update in Windows Update (id:  20301637), avoid it or install it and be prepared for possible issues.

Special Note: Please note that I was having this issue personally with similar Sandybridge-based systems with the Intel H61 chipset, and you may or may not have issues on different kinds of systems with differing CPU/ALUs, and chipsets, and possibly between 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Part of the nature of system problems is that they may not exist on a different system. I published this problem-solution just as a precaution for anyone who experiences random, momentary freezing, audio stuttering and lockups that has a Windows 7 x64-based system with the Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card and its update (id:  20301637) installed.

Obtain a quick glance of resource usage in Unity (Ubuntu)

I must know about my system’s vitals–CPU cycles, memory usage, disk I/O and network I/O. A trained eye can tell if everything is at its peak or if there could be trouble.

I ran across a small indicator applet that places itself on the Ubuntu Unity panel, much like what was available in GNOME 2 as an option.

To install it, type into a Linux shell window:

sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

After Aptitude (apt) does its thing and installs the .deb package, you can then start the resource monitor by typing in indicator-multiload at the shell prompt. The indicator applet will “daemon-ize” by default and be available each logon from thereon.

By default, it only adds the CPU indicator, but you can add other indicators by clicking on the indicator and selecting Preferences. From there, choose from the various indicators.