Comment 39 for bug 1833281

I experience this too. Ive tested using Kernel version Kernel 4.17 rc8, Kernel 4.16.8, Kernel 4.12.8, and Kernel 4.14 across Manjaro Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Opensuse leap 15 and Fedora 28.

Steps to trigger:
-Open firefox with many tabs, or any other high memory usage program
-Wait a second
-System freezes. Sometimes the only fix is a hard reboot

Other findings:
-I notice really high cpu load averages if the system unfreezes
-If the system is not frozen, it is highly unresponsive on high memory usage when swapping
-Hard drive indicator light stays solidly on when system is frozen (excessive hard disk use)
-The reason the system freezes is because it is swapping

Tested on a
Intel i5 520m with 4gb ram/ 4gb swap (Lenovo t410)
Intel E6400 with 3gb ram/ 3gb swap

This bug is really hard to deal with because it usually requires a hard restart. Please fix ASAP if possible