HP locking up

[Derek Trotter]

I have an HP Pavillion p6-2003w pc.  This tinyurl 
http://tinyurl.com/b36tanr takes you to a page at HP that will give you 
details about what's in it if the following isn't enough.

Motherboard
AAHD2-HY (Holly)

Processor
AMD E2 3200 Processor

Memory 4 GB
Speed: PC3-10600 MB/sec
Type: DDR3-1333

Video graphics HD 6370D

Sound/Audio Integrated Realtek ALC 656 Audio

Networking
LAN: 1000-Base-T
Interface: PCI Express x1
Technology: Realtek RTL8111E gigabit ethernet controller

Hard drive 1 TB

CD/DVD disc drive SuperMulti DVD Burner drive

Memory card reader 6-in-1 multimedia card reader

Power Supply Internal 300W (100V-240V)


The problem is that it's been freezing at random.  It was really bad on 
Kubuntu 12.0.4 64 bit.  It was like the bad old windows 3.1 days. I 
never knew when it would lock up.  Sometimes it would run all night 
without any problems.  Other times it would lock up a few minutes after 
I rebooted it the last time it locked up.  Sometimes the image on the 
monitor would just freeze.  Other times the monitor would go to a 
background of either blue or gray with thin vertical lilnes.  I upgraded 
to Kubuntu 12.10 64 bit and it was a little more reliable.  Once it 
locked up and when I rebooted it, the sound card no longer worked.

Is there some bug with this machine? Is there some problem with ubuntu? 
  I'm wondering because last year my other computer behaved similarly. I 
posted the problem to this list and someone told me my problem was a 
defective nvidia card.  They made a bunch of chips that didn't get along 
with something in windows versions after xp and versions of ubuntu 
after, I believe 8.04.

Any help will be apreciated.

Thanks
Derek