Comment 21 for bug 1530405

I started experiencing this very issue about 3 months ago. My server, Dell XPS 8700, would lock up repeatedly over the course of a day but stay "active", meaning my email server wouldn't crash, for a week sometimes even though I could not log in. This server is at the latest standard upgrades of 14.04 LTS, so whatever kernel version that is. I can say this based on trying to troubleshoot via the internet's recommendations, I have replaced the PSU, to no avail. The thing that appears to have solved the issue is to remove the video card, thus rendering the nouveu driver inoperable. In the past four days I have not seen one NMI Watchdog Soft Lockup error in my syslog. Granted I have to run my video through the built in video card, I am fine with that.

I know there is a lot of logic in an OS kernel and I am just one case but perhaps this will provide some insight when troubleshooting this issue.