System Freeze with 6.1 & 6.2 Kernels

Since many years I am running Fedora Linux on my Thinkpad T61 without any issues.
The T61 is still a perfect device for daily use (Mail, Office applications, Internet Browsing, Watching Videos).

I am always using the even release versions (i.e. 32/36/38) and do a fresh install once a year when the new even version comes out.

But starting early this year, about mid of January 2023 I was facing frequent freeze problems with the 6.1 kernel.
Downgrading the kernel to one of the last 6.0 versions (in my case: 6.0.17) solved the issue.
So I kept this version until I installed Fedora 38 two weeks ago in the hope that the freeze problem was fixed in the new release.
However, I was again facing system freezes. Sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after about an hour.
The system became totally unresponsive and cant’t be accessed via ssh.
I checked the log, but there where no messages. Additionally I tried various kernel parameters in grub, but no one changed the situation.
And: I tried Mate and Xfce. The freeze occured in both installations.

Like in F36 I downgraded the kernel to the 6.0.17 version from F36 now and the PC runs like a charm w/o any freezes.
Here’s a screenshot showing the F38 system up and running for a whole workday (almost 13 hrs) with the old 6.0 kernel:

I am totally lost about the root cause.

Does anyone have an idea or can provide me with a kernel parameter that solves the issue?

Due to security risks I would like to use a current kernel version.

See: Backports and long-term stable kernels.

There have been Fedora LTS kernel coprs, but all I see now is Fedora Vanilla Kernel COPR that requires disabling secure boot. This may be helpful pinning down the version where the problem was introduced.

Maybe someone using the same hardware hass already found the change that causes your problem. Chances are that person will not be using Fedora. It may be worth checking which distros and kernel versions are reported for your hardware on [Linux Hardware](https://linux-hardware.org] reports for your system.

You can also try searching the web for discussion of errors you find using journalctl.

The strange thing is: there are no errors reported in journalctl.

Just made another test with the last installed 6.2 kernel (6.2.15-300.fc38.x86_64 x86_64).
The system got freezed and became totally unresponsive after 26 minutes - see this screenshot which I had to take with my phone:

As shown at the bottom right, the clock stopped at 16:39.

Then I rebooted and issued the command journalctl -b -1 -r:

[haegar@fedora ~]$ journalctl -b -1 -r
Mai 19 16:34:13 fedora systemd[1335]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.xfce.Xfconf@2.service.
Mai 19 16:32:33 fedora wpa_supplicant[1117]: wls3: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 74:42:7f:55:cf:43 [GTK=CCMP]
Mai 19 16:30:01 fedora systemd[1]: Finished sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool.
Mai 19 16:30:01 fedora audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=sysstat-collect comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mai 19 16:30:01 fedora audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=sysstat-collect comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mai 19 16:30:01 fedora systemd[1]: sysstat-collect.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mai 19 16:30:01 fedora systemd[1]: Starting sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool...
Mai 19 16:28:35 fedora systemd[1]: run-credentials-systemd\x2dtmpfiles\x2dclean.service.mount: Deactivated successfully.
Mai 19 16:28:35 fedora audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=systemd-tmpfiles-clean comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mai 19 16:28:35 fedora audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=systemd-tmpfiles-clean comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mai 19 16:28:35 fedora systemd[1]: Finished systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service - Cleanup of Temporary Directories.
Mai 19 16:28:35 fedora systemd[1]: systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mai 19 16:28:35 fedora systemd[1]: Starting systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service - Cleanup of Temporary Directories...
Mai 19 16:24:13 fedora systemd[1335]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.xfce.Xfconf@1.service.
Mai 19 16:23:25 fedora kernel: perf: interrupt took too long (4952 > 4945), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 40000
Mai 19 16:22:33 fedora wpa_supplicant[1117]: wls3: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 74:42:7f:55:cf:43 [GTK=CCMP]
Mai 19 16:20:01 fedora audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=sysstat-collect comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mai 19 16:20:01 fedora audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=sysstat-collect comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
Mai 19 16:20:01 fedora systemd[1]: Finished sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool.
Mai 19 16:20:01 fedora systemd[1]: sysstat-collect.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mai 19 16:20:01 fedora systemd[1]: Starting sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool...
Mai 19 16:19:21 fedora systemd[1335]: Finished systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service - Cleanup of User's Temporary Files and Directories.
Mai 19 16:19:21 fedora systemd[1335]: Starting systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service - Cleanup of User's Temporary Files and Directories...
lines 1-23 

The last message was from 16:34:13.

I have no idea what happens here.
Kernel 6.0.17 is absolutely stable, but none of the 6.1 and 6.2 kernels.