LinuxQuestions.org
Welcome to the most active Linux Forum on the web.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - General
User Name
Password
Linux - General This Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 09-28-2008, 05:22 PM   #1
nanawel
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2008
Posts: 3

Rep: Reputation: 0
Question Micro-lags/freezes every ~3 seconds under Xubuntu 8.04


Hi all,

I recently set up a PC from different old parts I picked up:
- Motherboard MSI MS-6309 v2.1 (Chipset VIA Apollo Pro 133A - Socket 370)
- Celeron 733
- 288 Mo SDRAM PC100
- Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
- CD player, PS/2 mouse & keyboard, ...

I've installed Xubuntu 8.04 without any problem, everything works "perfectly" (except the following problem) for Internet, music and video. But...

I have some kind of strange and extremely annoying issue: the system keeps lagging/freezing every approximately 3 seconds, during maybe 2 tenth of a second.

This seems to affect nearly everything running on the system: mouse moves, video & sound playback, etc. and makes any operation quite difficult to accomplish.

Something weird is that after trying to remove or deactivate the different components to check if the problem was not hardware related, I finally tried to boot on the LiveCD of Ubuntu 7.04, and this time the system ran perfectly.

So my questions are:
- Does someone know where the problem could come from?
- Is there a significant difference between Ubuntu/Xubuntu 7.04 and 8.04 that could cause this kind of behavior?

Thanks in advance.
(Forgive my English )
 
Old 09-29-2008, 12:55 AM   #2
htnakirs
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2007
Posts: 239

Rep: Reputation: 34
Use top command to find which app is sucking up resources.
Graphically there is a systemguard utility that shows the same data.
This will help pinpoint offending app.
 
Old 09-29-2008, 04:51 AM   #3
nanawel
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2008
Posts: 3

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by htnakirs View Post
Use top command to find which app is sucking up resources.
Graphically there is a systemguard utility that shows the same data.
This will help pinpoint offending app.
This is what I tried, as well as looking at the logs and dmesg, but it doesn't seem to be caused by an application. I really don't know where it comes from.

Thanks for helping! Another idea?
 
Old 09-29-2008, 02:14 PM   #4
htnakirs
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2007
Posts: 239

Rep: Reputation: 34
I would next suspect insufficient RAM causing a lot of swapping. Check if the lags are accompanied by flashes of hard disk activity LED. Not sure if increasing swap partition size will help, but it is worth a try.
 
Old 09-29-2008, 03:25 PM   #5
nanawel
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2008
Posts: 3

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by htnakirs View Post
I would next suspect insufficient RAM causing a lot of swapping. Check if the lags are accompanied by flashes of hard disk activity LED. Not sure if increasing swap partition size will help, but it is worth a try.
Hmmm it shouldn't be that either. Only 170MB are used in the RAM in normal activity.

But something related to the hard disk could explain why the LiveCD works without any problem and the installed OS doesn't. Maybe it is not as "fresh" as it should

Anyway, I also have Win98 on it and it works nice, even during games (Midtown Madness, Outlaws, Age of Empires, ...)

Thanks! I check this as soon as I can.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Warcraft 3 freezes/lags in wine doralsoral Linux - Games 3 04-11-2008 06:58 AM
beryl freezes for a few seconds davidleroux1 Ubuntu 0 06-29-2007 02:47 PM
cpu freezes for 10 seconds incognito_kanchi Linux - Software 4 10-20-2006 06:28 PM
connection freezes/lags periodically gravybt Linux - Wireless Networking 0 01-30-2004 10:19 PM
Gaim freezes every 10 seconds amphibious Linux - Software 16 10-07-2003 10:50 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - General

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:12 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration